Bill - The Princess Journals Dad

We have Photos!!!

2012-02-01T11:59:00.004-05:00

So, yes, it has been a couple months since I have posted. I have no excuses. Just too busy...

Anyway, forget about that. WE HAVE PHOTOS!!!! We sent the girls a Chinese New Year package with some goodies. There was to be a cake too but the orphanage director asked if we could maybe send a bigger one and have a party for all of the kids to celebrate Chinese New Year and the girls getting a Forever Family. What are we going to say "no?" Of course, we would be glad to. So later this week the girls will be having a party with all of their friends. This is awesome!!!!! This whole process from the beginning has gone so smoothly and now being able to have this contact is the "icing on the cake" (literally too with the party).

So, a little surprised at Maggie's height. Yes, Maggie is 11 and Hope is 12 and by the photos she looks to be about 5-6 inches taller than Hope. We definitely were not expecting that big a difference. As you can see by the photos it looks like they "almost" got a smile out of Maggie too. We always get big smiles from Hope. I think she in just naturally happy. (I hope so anyway). They both look good and this is all starting to become very real now. Our papers are in China and now waiting for the government to approve them. There are a couple extra pieces of paper and we will be on our way. I know, it doesn't sound like much but it will probably take 5-6 months before we are going to bring them home.

Thank you to everyone along the way for your prayers and support. We are truly grateful to all of you.
Mr. Bill

Speaking at Church 11-27-11 about Adoption

2011-11-30T12:13:00.004-05:00

Below is a link to the audio file from the first service last Sunday where I was able to talk a little about our adoption process.

Mp3 Player Widgetgreat free widgetsWidgetboxMore info

AWESOME Sunday!!!

2011-11-28T06:20:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was AWESOME!!!! Our church dedicated the entire service (all three of them) to adoption and Bring Me Hope. Anyone reading this that does not know who Bring Me Hope is can go to their website at: www.bringmehope.org to find out more.

It was truly incredible. Some of the Mahoney family came to talk, give testimonies and perform. They are a truly amazingly talented family that Love the Lord with all their hearts!!! They came down all the way from Minnesota just to speak at our Sunday services. I ask that you pray for their family as they hope to travel soon to bring home their 5th, yes you heard me right, 5th child (through adoption). They also have 4 biological children. You can find out more about their band and listen to their music at: www.silentsubstitute.com.

I had the opportunity to give a brief (12 minute) testimony as well. I think it was supposed to be under five minutes (sorry). Apparently I am not as afraid of public speaking as I thought, just cannot tell time very well. A couple of friends thought that I should be a preacher - not sure if that was good or bad. Anyone can speak if given the right topic, especially if it is something that God has put on your heart. I probably could have talked for a couple hours if my voice would last, maybe next time. (hahaha).

As far as the adoption is going, we have our fingerprint appointments. They are scheduled to noon on December 5th. We are hoping that we can do a "walkin" this week. We were able to do this once before. It would be amazing if this was able to happen. Once we do these fingerprints we will be waiting for our government to send us another numbered form (sorry, cannot remember all these numbers) and then we can send everything to the consulates and over to China. I would be a miracle if this could happen before the end of the year.

The little girls are getting excited too. They have been bugging me to get their bunk beds so they can be together again. These girls are really amazing. How many children "want" to share a room. Tiffani has been a big help lately too watching the kids for us. We Love all our children more than Life. We are truly blessed.

Pics of the kids Nov 2011

2011-11-24T09:52:00.002-05:00

Here are a few pics that we took yesterday of the kids (possibly for the Christmas card).

Packages are okay now

2011-11-10T06:54:00.002-05:00

So, it's Thursday and nothing really new to add. We are starting to get a little "antsy" and wanting to figure out the room situations but I have been too busy with work these last couple weeks.

A big bulk of the paperwork is in Tally getting certified. That should probably take about a week. It isn't really that important right now as we are just waiting for our fingerprint appointments so that we can get this I800 application approved. We are hoping this will be fast but some families have waited 100+ days for this approval. No real rhyme of reason to it.

We did find out that we can send the girls a package now. That may be confusing since they have not and probably will not tell them that they have a family coming. We are going to write them some letters and send them a package (maybe a Christmas one?). This is really going to start making all of this seem real. I hope I don't freak out.

Ok, well I have A LOT of work to figure out today so that's all for now. I will try to be better about posting here daily, even if there is not too much to tell.

We officially are Approved!!!

2011-11-08T21:50:00.004-05:00

Like there was any doubt - we are officially approved to adopt Hope and Maggie, or I guess I should say pre-approved. The Chinese government has said YES (as long as all the paperwork is in order). We still have a long road ahead of us but we are definitely making progress.

So, we started a Blog for their journey. Make sure to bookmark it as Debbie will most likely post there daily and then before you know we will be on ANOTHER airplane to China. I still cannot believe that I have been to BeiJing China 5 times!!! Wow. I looked up on the map and the girls are a lot closer to Shanghai... Maybe we can try someplace new (as if going to China were not enough).

Here is the link: http://hopeandmaggie.blogspot.com/

All for today.... Peace, Bill

PS - For those of you who have't seen, there are a couple of photos of the girls on the blog.

Monday Morning...

2011-10-31T07:24:00.003-04:00

So, it's Monday. Happy Halloween everyone. I woke up this morning thinking I will have 6 to take around next year (Yes, Tiffani's still trick-or-treating through high school). I think the girls are all excited. E-man doesn't really get it yet. We are going to try and see if we can get him to keep an Elmo costume on (haha, probably not). He was going to be Charlie Brown but it wasn't working out.

So, Homestudy had been done. We are waiting on GWCA to approve it and then we can send it in with our I-800 to Homeland and get our finger print appointments. Yup, things are moving along. Still have no idea on a travel date though. Feel free in joining us as we pray that it will happen over the summer. Great news too - our friend Nicole (whose name we may be using for Hope's middle name) has agreed to come and stay with the kids as long as her schedule allows. Travel is still a little out of reach.

Well, that's probably all for today. I need to get started on this busy day....

ETSY Store restocking...

2011-10-29T17:48:00.004-04:00

Hi All,

I wanted to let everyone know that I am slowly restocking the ETSY store with items that I have made in the past and never got around to posting. Now that we are starting to accrue some adoption expense I thought I would restock the store to help offset some of those costs. Please take a look around...

Doll Aprons - click here

or
studiofrog.etsy.com - click here

Thanks for stopping by - Bill

New Photos...

2011-10-19T21:50:00.002-04:00

So, we got some new photos of the girls. They are just beautiful. I am so glad that got them them but at the same time it's probably going to make this wait seem even longer. I wish we could share them but we are not allowed to post photos until we have an approval. Shouldn't be too long. You can visit this link though and probably find them on your own. LWB (Love without Boundaries) is doing work where they are staying. Scroll down to the post from Tuesday at 10:13 and 10:18 am (Maggie and Hope).

Can't post too much right now - have a call with Bring Me Hope. Just wanted to take a minute and share the update. Paperwork is going good and home study will be written by the middle of next week.

Please pray for our friends Kim and Stac. They are traveling to China now to bring home an older boy.

Thanks - Bill

I know - I never update this thing...

2011-10-14T14:04:00.004-04:00

So, we took the plunge. We have applied to Great Wall and started the paper pregnancy once again. We are so excited, and when I say we, I mean the whole family!!! We are going to adopt two girls, ages 11 and 12. We are not allowed to post any photos yet until we have approval from China. This will take a few more weeks while we wait for the social worker to evaluate us - a mere formality in my opinion.

So, yes the crazy post probably makes a lot more sense now. Yes, we are crazy - crazy in Love with God and His direction for our lives. I believe we have found our calling - to Love on these children. It might not seem like much to some but it feels like a lot to us. No, we do not do this as some sort of humanitarian effort but purely out of love for children (and a little selfishness too I suppose). We get so much from this. The return of Love from a child, there is no better feeling. The smiles, giggles, laughter and just plain silliness. I probably should be a little scared but honestly I'm not. I wake up excited everyday thinking one more day closer to bringing our daughters home.

I wish I could post the photos. Their smiles are so precious. We are hoping by this time next year they will be home with us and become part of our family. Thank you to all of you that have encouraged us along the way. We thank you for the prayers.

Stay tuned.....

Crazy or not?

2011-09-29T14:36:00.000-04:00

So, what is Love and what is Crazy? Is crazy just doing something that no one else would do? I've come to realize that my judgement of what I think is crazy for other people may not be crazy at all but in fact pure Love "Without Boundaries".

Anybody reading this... Direction unclear...

2011-08-31T14:32:00.003-04:00

So here's the question, I think. We (and when I say we I mean I) go from considering to adopt an 11 year old girl to a 3 year old girl to actually considering a 13 year old girl. I'm thinking I must be out of my mind. Great Wall keeps sending me email of children that are either special focus or aging out of the system. (Why do they have to do that). Anyway, I got an email today of a 13 year old girl that will be aging out of the system around Tiffani's birthday next year. I think I would actually consider it, however, Deb is not sure. I agree with her that it could be scary.... IDK...

Maybe I am just asking for trouble having 5 girls in the house???

Well, got some news...

2011-08-30T14:45:00.002-04:00

I got a call today - Mimi is not adoptable. I found out that she is being fostered by the Orphanage for some other reason than adoption. Exact details could not be given but it was made clear that her situation right now is that she will stay in foster care.

So, what does this mean from here? Who knows? We will pray a lot more and see where God is leading us. I have to say that I am starting to feel like my kids - not listening. He must be telling us something but we aren't listening good enough to it. I can say that he is closing the wrong doors fast enough so that we do not get too discouraged.

Very late at posting...

2011-08-22T21:48:00.001-04:00

Sorry all. I have gotten very busy with work and just things. A lot has been changing since I last blogged.

The Cliff note version is that we are trying to find out more information about Mimi (Min Min). She was the three year old that was paired with Tiff for the week. I did get to spend a lot of time with her too and did bond with her but had no intentions of bringing home another "baby". I know - three isn't a baby but there were still diapers involved (very bad ones I might add). Anyway, we have contacted an agency and gathering as much information as we can. I believe from the facts there is an 80% chance that we could adopt her if we wanted to. Of course there is a 100% chance if I would just trust the signs that God has been showing us. (Thanks Melissa for the photo on Sunday - I think that sealed it for me).

Anyway, I know this is a very small update compared to my other posts but I didn't want to leave this site blank for too much longer. I will get better over the next few days to get some more things up here.

Bill out.

Coming soon....

2011-08-03T07:36:00.003-04:00

Sorry, photos are coming soon. Still trying to adjust from China time. I keep wanting to go to sleep at 1 or 2 in the afternoon....

Thank you to everyone for your prayers. I still do not understand what God is trying to do in our lives right now but I am going to keep praying and wait on Him.

Thanks. B.

Sad and Happy News

2011-08-02T08:22:00.004-04:00

Well, after a long day I was able to hear back from a friend of mine in China last night and she told me that Jenny has in fact been matched with a family, which is great for her. It does make me sad though and confuses me A LOT. I was so sure that God was telling me that she was to be a part of our family. The director there did tell my friend that Jenny does likes us a lot! That did feel good.

She said that she was matched back in March which should mean that she would go home sometime this year still. Usually you have to have your paperwork in within 6 months of locking a file. We do so love this child so much. It is hard to think that she is now someone else's daughter.

I do not know God's plans but I do know that there is one. I am going to just continue to pray that God reveals to me why this all happened. I would ask for continued prayers for the direction that He is directing me.

I guess I have been consumed with all of this lately that I have been neglecting other areas of my life. I guess I don't know how to just throw the happy switch after going through all of this but I will give it a try. I am truly happy to be home. I missed the little ones so much and yet at the same time they are already driving me crazy. I am going to make a goal to try and spend more time with them this week. It is hard though coming back from 10 days, load of emails and all of the "distractions" that I was talking about when in China. Our house has 6+ computers, 4+ TV's, gameboys, etc..... the list goes on....

I will try and post more photos and videos from the trip during this week. Thank you again for all of your prayers!
Bill

Breaking Heart

2011-08-01T06:06:00.002-04:00

My Heart is breaking this morning and although I should be happy I am not. I have heard back from a friend that Jenny may have already been placed with a family. I know that this is a really good thing and I should be jumping for joy for her. I am so glad that she will not grow up in an institution but I have to say that I am very sad. I did so believe that God had a plan for this child to become a part of this family. A small part of me wants the information to be wrong but at the same time if there is someone ready to bring her home than that should be a really really good thing.

I do not know why this is happening at this time. I believe God must have some plan for all of this but I cannot see it.

The original email that I received said that she was available and that they had even asked her if she would want to be adopted by our family (which they should not have done) but then I got another email at 4:00 am saying that the information was incorrect and that I should contact a certain agency to find out more information.

I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 13 this morning which most of you I am sure know "Love is patient, Love is kind,..." and it finishes with "And now these three remain,: Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love.". I am not exactly sure why this scripture came to my mind. I was wearing a shirt with this on it on Friday when the children left.

As I did read through the entire scripture I had to stop where it said self-seeking. I had to wonder if this is what I was doing. Was I trying to make this happen to fill some guilt that I had? I started to believe that it may be true. How wrong is it that I pray I had been given the wrong information? Or that I pray the family that has her file would change their mind? I am being as honest as I can this morning. I feel in love with this child. Why did God allow that? What is the purpose?

So, I ask this morning for your prayers, no I plead for them. I am really hurting. I feel that a part of me has been striped away. Does that sound strange that I could become so attached to a child in only a couple of days? Does it make any sense at all? No, but that is what the Love of God is. It cannot be rationalized or explained by man.

From a dark office, with many tears.....

Sunday Video

2011-07-31T16:04:00.002-04:00

Saturday night....

2011-07-30T20:53:00.003-04:00

So, I apologize for taking so long to post again. Friday was one of the hardest days I have had in years. I am so Glad Tiff was there with me. It really helped a lot.

We are in Chicago right now on a plane, delayed just a bit. They are working on the problem. Everything went really smooth today and flights just seem to get shorter each time. This pilot really pushed it though. He was "flying".

Friday was too quick. Everyone was late for breakfast. No one wanted this day to get here. breakfast was not too good but no one wanted to eat. Could be from all the junk food at the night before party. We had family time which is when we passed out photos of the groups. Jenny really wanted us to be with her today. She kept saying how she wished she could stay here with us all forever. No, this is not me being even more ruthless. She really did say it. She did really good when it was time to leave though. I did here that most if them were crying on the way back. I already miss her like crazy.

After they all left we had a time to debrief. We broke out into groups and discussed the week. It really helped to talk things out. Very emotional time but good discussion.

Before dinner we had time with the translators to give them certificates and share information on the children. All but one are adoptable at the time. I believe my youngest was not because he hadn't been in the system long enough. So next we went off to dinner. Not to great but it was funny. We all got to breathe out and relax and eat our own food. Having the younger kids had its' challenges. We were all cracking jokes at our table.

From dinner we had worship time and then a movie. They watched Fireproof. We packed during the first half. It was funny to see the reactions during the movie. We said our goodbyes after that. I told Ker what a great job he did. Really good guy. Then Tina and Vanka came to say goodbye. They cane back to the room to see the movie we made. It is funny. At the start of the week we didn't think they liked us. By the end we couldn't get rid of them. They are both super sweet girls.

So, I'll skip down to now. We are sitting on a plane in Chicago delayed because if a door. I think they are going to cancel the flight or get us another plane. Just a hunch. We will keep you posted.

Thanks again for all the prayers. Please continue to remember Jenny and all the kids from this week.

From the Tarmac at Chicago o'hare airport, row 28, China team out...

Video - I hope

2011-07-28T19:44:00.002-04:00

Video of Jenny (Fang Lin Xia).

The rest of Thursday...

2011-07-28T19:18:00.004-04:00

Before I paste in the post for today I thought I would apologize to any of you that thought you were logging on the read a typical mission trip type blog. You didn't probably know what you were getting yourselves into...

Thursday night...

Wow, so I didn’t update at all today. It was a very full and busy day. The boys both greeted me this morning, one with a hug and wanted me to carry him to breakfast. It was progress even if it was short lived. I cannot imagine what it is like for these children to come here. During family time this morning I was left with just the boys for a few minutes and they were both good, doing crafts and talking to me and singing a song. I think the good times lasted until just before lunch. I think some of it may have to do with their schedules and diets..... So much change has got to be hard.

I apologize in advance that my posts may become shorter. I am overwhelmed with emotions and just not sure what I want to say. The goal of this blog was to update everyone on the days activities but instead has turned into a little preaching and then, what I hope to be, and “adoption story”. Both Tiffani and I have reached out more to Jenny today and I believe made a lot of progress there. I do think that she really likes us. We have had several talks (Tiffani and I) about what it would be like to bring this girl into our home. Tiffani has been great. She has shown so much maturity this week and I am very proud of her.

Family time was funny. All four of the kids were trying to do these foam puppets hat we had brought from home but they use glue and apparently it does not dry fast enough for them. It was funny to watch. I would hold the items for them and count to 10 in Chinese and then they would copy me. Of course, Jenny wanted to do the puzzle again. We have to time her to see if she does better each time, which she does. She really loves doing them. I wish we had brought more. We are going to let here take this one and find a way to send her more. She is a very smart girl. Hua Cha (Alex) is really just happy if you give him a pack of tissues. They only last about an hour but he seems to like just carry them around. He also has serious OCD like someone I know that is typing right now. He will make sure that the tissues are perfectly aligned and if they give him a problem he will just throw them away. The other boy, Tom, doesn’t really do much or want to. He just watches and smiles most of the time.

Craft time came next. The kids all made crowns for the performance tonight. Oh wait, I think I missed assembly time. Yes, during assembly the kids sing and dance. Jenny actually got up and danced. We couldn’t believe it. She also volunteered to have a part in the little story time. Amazing the changes you see in a week. The boys don’t care for the singing and dancing. They both just watch.

I’m not sure if I put this already but last night we were to write letters to the kids and translators. They are just short notes telling the kids how much fun you had with them and that type of stuff.

So, lunch next. We have been all sitting together now, me and Tiffani’s families. The older girls are waiting for us and making sure we are all together. Jenny has been making sure as well. She has wanted to sit next to Tiff a lot. Lunch was okay today. Oh, I forgot, it was good, they brought out the S&S chicken. YES!!!!
Game time came next. We did a game where you snort next to the person next to you in a circle and if they laugh they are out. I got Jenny to come stand next to me and actually hold my hand. I didn’t think she would come over but she has really come out of her shell. It is so nice to see the smiles but at the same time it is sad knowing that they will have to go back to the orphanage tomorrow when they are finally starting to open up. Okay, yes, I am already crying. It is really, really breaking my heart right now to think about this for all of these kids but especially Jenny. I think about how I so much want to bring her home into our family and even if that were to happen I think about the time she will have to wait for us. It’s not fair.

I bet there are many of you out there reading this now who had asked me if we were finished with adoptions and I do remember my answers. What can I say? You cannot stop God from completing the tasks that he has at hand and I truly, truly believe in my heart that at some level He has put this little girls life on my heart. It may not be that she joins our family but that our being here would get her a home. I will be honest though - this morning I pleaded, you know, the crying out the the Lord type of pleading, with streams of tears, that whatever it takes this child would become ours.

Nap time came next today. Me and Tiff walked to the store and got some warm sodas and what we thought were chocolate chip cookies. They were okay but not what the package showed. Me and Tiff had some good conversation during this time and then started to make a video (see below I hope). It was a good time.

Pool time started at 3:00 today. MiMi was still sleeping so Tiff went up there and my boys were also sleeping so I went with Tina and Jenny down to the pool. Tina is one of Tiffani’s translators. We haven’t been able to talk that much but she has told me little things about Jenny. She has a good heart. So, I decided that I needed some more photos and gave the camera to them to use in the pool. I figured it would be interesting to see what I got back. These older kids that the camps love playing with cameras. If you have a cheap, waterproof, shockproof camera it is great. Something really cool happened “somewhere in the world a young lady was baptized”. I have no idea where I heard that rumor, nor where it took place, PTL!!! He is good.

So, here is what can be one of the toughest time at camp, Life Chart time. A life chart is a graph where you draw a line up and down (happy or sad) at different ages of your life. I went ahead and started to show them what it meant. We talked to the boys but they really didn’t get it and didn’t have anything to say and at this time MiMi was still sleeping. Jenny did talk though after a little bit and said that she had no memories from before 9. She did say that her father had died probably when she was 6 or 7 but she could not remember. That was her sad time in life. She then moved in with the grandparents but they were old and could not take care of her so she was placed into the system where after a short time she did go with a foster family. This only lasted for maybe 6 to 18 months. She didn’t really know how long. That became a sad point in her life but then she came to camp at that was a happy time. I have to wonder. Is the timing of this coincidence that she was able to come to camp this week? That for whatever reason her foster family could no longer take care of her? I don’t think so, just wish I had the cheat sheet with the answers. I did already say this, more than once, but if there is anything that you would ever want to do for our family I would ask that you join me in praying for her and this situation.

So this was great, after doing the life charts I got the idea to get the computer out and open up photo booth. WOW!!!! what a hit with Jenny and the translators. The boys did come over to take a look but weren’t too interested. Alex just like stacking his napkins and Tom was eating all the cookies. I know it may seem by the posts that I haven’t been spending much time with them but I really have. They just prefer it if I am not too close. They can only take a few minutes of me at a time (no comments on this!). The girls were all laughing so hard. they were rolling on the floor. It was hilarious. Good times...

Dinner came next. It was okay tonight but they seem to be running out of my favorite chicken. They did have bacon or ham really and a few other things and of course rice. We have been the last group to leave the dining hall for the last three meals now. It is kind of funny. There are enough people to fill about 8 or 9 tables (with 12+ chairs at each table).

Next came the assembly time. The kids were able to do a parade with the crowns that they made. Jenny was right up there towards the front. I still cannot believe the overnight change. There was a little story time too and then they all sat down to get gifts from a family group that just came in for the day and then we put on a movie for them, “Wall-E”. Not my all-time favorite but much better than big big wolf. The translator could not get MiMi to stay in the room so I went over to help and she jumped right to me. I think she trusts me (or really wanted my watch again, which I have now lost). She sat in my lap for the movie until about the time that I realized I was not dry anymore. Yes, you guessed it, no diaper, ugh! Oh, well, the things you do for love. It will still be one of the highlights to my trip. She is such a doll. If I thought I could bring home two children she would be it. She had been giving me kisses now too, kind of leaning her cheek against mine. The boys moved over next to me too, not too close, but close enough for them. I don’t think it is that they do not like me, just that it is hard for them to trust me. Completely understood...they have no reason to trust anyone.

After the movie the boys and girls split up and had a party which consisted of watching the kids tear apart a room. They had fun. I was able to talk with Willy, Mike’s son, quite a bit about camp and the other ministries that they are involved in. They had/have a C rock band that they are trying to transform into more of a family band. This will be great to see what happens for them.

Me and Tiff and David and Morgan all went to the office to call home now. I had not been telling David about the posts. Melissa filled him in and we had a good laugh, but I am going to watch my back now...hahaha...

So this leads me to this morning (really this started last night and I took a break from 1 to 5 to clear my head) and know I am back typing the rest of this post. Today the kids will go “home” after lunch. This will be one of the hardest days of my life. Actually, I think until My children all leave home to go out on there own this will be the hardest day of my life. I have already cried more tears this morning that I can remember in days past. Yes, most of them have been for Jenny but many for Jane who we met at the beginning of this trip and all of the children here. Many of them will not have the life that I think they deserve. They will not get the opportunities that we have. They have no families and no one to love them. They will have to learn to fight for their own survival. From what I was told, all of these children, save one, is adoptable. I pray that even in writing these words someone may make a decision to change a child's life. Not as a rescue mission or some valiant effort to make a difference or even out of guilt but simply to follow His word and take care of the orphans. I Promise you this, your reward will be greater than and sacrifice that you have to make. Remember, “Nothing is impossible with ___” who? Say it out loud!!!!

----

Sorry Melissa, David and Morgan did good today. David was feeling a little under the weather but pushed through. I know that Morgan was having a great time, singing and dancing. I cannot believe how much she talks though, j/k. I had never had the chance to really listen to her before. She is such a sweet, sweet girl with a huge heart. You should be very proud of her this week. There are many girls her age who would not have done nearly as well as she has done. I know she enjoyed both the craft times and swimming. I think the swimming was the best. She ran the “simon says” game this afternoon too. Great job, got me out in the first round. She has lots of energy, more than the rest of us. Thanks for selling me out on the video. I am going to have to sleep with one eye open now. hahaha... I see an addition in your future, no? Watch out when Morgan gets home. She’s already practicing the puppy dog eyes I think...

I will try and upload more pictures today. There were others from the other day but I’m not sure why nobody can see them. I’ll have to check on that.

---

Love you all.... Please pray for Friday. It will be a very hard and emotional day. Also, please pray for our family and Jenny. I would pray that God’s will would be revealed quickly and definitively. That he would open the doors that cannot be opened...This will only happen if it is His will....

(Insert Heart tugging video here...) (sorry, having a problem getting this posted. I will try again later).

Jeremiah 29:11...Phil 2:12-22....
Bill out.

One more thing...

2011-07-27T19:35:00.001-04:00

Please if any of you would like to share any comments or encouragement I will pass them along to the rest of the team. Some of you have already done so. Some of the comments show up on the site on their own and others I have to moderate. Either way, we would love to hear from you. The email thing is not really working out right now...

Thank you again!

Video clips

2011-07-27T19:21:00.003-04:00

Here are a couple video clips combined... Not a lot but something to watch until tomorrow morning...

Thursday morning...

2011-07-27T18:57:00.003-04:00

So, nothing new has happened since last night. I am in the office now to see if I can upload a few short video clips for you at home following this journey. Your homework assignment for today will be 1 Timothy chapters 1 and 2 which talk about faith and our command to not be ashamed of the Gospel. To be a strong witness, not matter the cost. Kind off fitting with the rest of my sermons, yes? Okay, no preaching today.

I do covet your prayers for me today and the rest of the team that he will give us the opportunities to share our "story" and why it is that we are truly here. Of course you all know my reason now, yes? Seriously though, there is a huge desire I would say for these translators to know the love that we have in us and why that is and where it comes from. I wish you could all be here to see the sacrifices that this college students are making, some are even still in high school and have devoted 1, 2 or even 4 weeks to come here and take care of these children 24/7 without any compensation. They even had to pay their own way to get here, some as far as a 30 hour train ride. Can you imagine that, and they do not even have the love that is living inside of us (if you know what I mean). That is not to say that they do not have love inside of them because of course they do or they would not be here. This camp opens their eyes to the needs of the orphans in their country and I truly believe that even if we do not end up seeing the results during this short time we are here they are happening. Okay, so maybe I am going to preach a little this morning. Maybe someone is rubbing off on me?

So, yes, this is our last full day with the translators and children. It feels like we just got here yet it also feels like forever. The days are so long but we are always moving. I think someone may need an extra sabbatical after this trip.... hahaha.... Today will be much like Tuesday for our schedule with family time and games, etc. and then in the afternoon we will go to the pool again and then do life charts. I do not remember exactly what these are again so I will fill you in on them tonight (or morning for you).

I would ask that today, for me personally, you would pray specifically for Jenny. She is the young girl in Tiffani's family. I feel that He has put her on my heart this week. I cannot explain the reason why but my heart has ached over this for the past two days. I do not know what His will is for her life but I know without any certainty that he has put her on my heart. Yes, I am not ashamed to say that I have cried many tears, opening and inwardly for this child and as I pleaded out to Him this morning that he would give me and my family direction, I also know that no matter His will I will still Love Him. In the good times, "He is good!" and in the bad times, "He is still good!".

Wow, so I did end up writing a lot more than I thought I would. This was just supposed to be a post to let you know that I was uploading video clips. How awesome is it that without all those distractions in our lives I can just sit and type, openly, my feelings without the desire to worry about being somewhere next?

Thank you!!!! everyone for the prayers.

From the office (No, definitely not "The Office", at a camp, somewhere across the globe, in His presence, and striving to do his will....
China Team out.

Photos from Wednesday

2011-07-27T10:49:00.001-04:00

Photos from Wednesday...

Wednesday Afternoon....

2011-07-27T10:41:00.000-04:00

I am sitting in the room right now, nap time, and thought I would try and jot down a few words. I do not have much time since we will be headed to the pool in about 20 minutes. Whatever I do not get to I will type up later tonight.

Day started with breakfast as usual. I don’t think I ate much of anything this morning. Breakfast is very different here, more like lunch food. There were some potatoes that were pretty good. After breakfast we did dress up pictures. The kids really have fun with this. There are all types of costumes that they can wear, with glasses and swords, etc.. We get dressed in family groups and take a family photo. My boys didn’t really want to do this for some reason but we somehow convinced them to put a couple things on. This took about an hour and then we have a few minutes of free time and then back for craft time. The kids colored in their books some more. The books are for them to take back to the orphanage as a memory of this trip. Today was a road to the future. The volunteers are supposed to do these as well. Kind of fitting for me today as I feel the road for my life is changing this week. (Deb, the answer to your question would be Jenny).

After this we took a family photo with the camp shirts. One of my boys did not want to wear his because he does not like black. He put it on when we promised he could take it right back off. We also took a group photo. Hopefully we will get a copy of this. From here it was off to lunch. Lunch has been great. They have the best sweet and sour chicken in the World, go figure, huh? That and a plate of rice will get you to dinner without a problem.

So after dinner we went for game time, which started with doing what else but the hoe down show down (or something like that). Anyone with kids that watch Hannah Montana will know what I am talking about. This is funny and you will have to catch the video if I can get it to upload. There is a small segment from this. I have no rhythm so you will not see me dancing. We played the hot potato game only it was called cold potato and we used an ice pack. That was really funny and I almost won. I think the kids were cheating, hahaha, j/k. The kids also get to listen to a story by Mike each day around this time and then it is off for naps.

Pooltime. At 3:00 everyone met downstairs to go to the pool. There is a very nice indoor pool here that they let us use for about 1-1/2 hours each day. The water was a little cold but warmer than the shower that I got. They shut off the hot water at certain times of the day so you need to pay attention to the time if you want a hot one. All of the kids love the water even though none of them can swim. That even goes for most of the translators. It is strange but most of the Chinese people that I have met cannot swim. I guess it is not a big desire but he kids certainly love it. I tried to help Jenny learn to swim. She really wants to know how to do this but they all have to wear life vests which made it a little difficult. There is another girl here at camp that is Albino. I do not know her name but Mike was able to teach her to swim. I think she is probably one of the oldest ones here. I said before 10 or 11 was the oldest but I think she is probably in her teens. It is hard to tell. She was actually playing with the beach balls with David for quite a while. If only we could do this all day....

From pool time we went back to clean up and then they had a scavenger hunt. Matthews team won, go figure. If he can take two grown men and their daughters 1000 miles to an unknown city then of course he would win this game. Next came dinner. We have been trying to get me and Tiff’s families to sit together during meals. I think her two translators have figure this out by now. Jenny is also wanting to spend more time with Tiff but she doesn’t know how to communicate with her so I think it might be frustrating. I can tell that she likes to do things herself. She is definitely a very bright young girl.

After dinner, more singing and dancing.... I think I finally have lost it, this according to Tiff. My mind is Jello. We came in to the room with hannah Montana music going and I tried my best to embarrass Tiffani. I pulled her out in the middle of the room and started dancing with her. I think I succeeded. So we did sing a couple of songs and I almost had Jenny out there on the dance floor. Every time we get to singing and dancing she miraculously has a headache. I think she doesn’t want to look silly if she doesn’t know how to do something. She gave Tiff a cookie treat just before dinner, I think to try and break the ice.

So, next comes the movies. Let me just say that Chinese cartoons are something else. Anyone who thinks Sponge Bob is violent needs to watch one of these shows. Oh my gosh, the opening scene had a cat (police officer) shoot a mouse. The whole movie if kind of like watch the Itchy and Scratchy scenes from the Simpsons. I got to spend some time with MiMi during the movie. She doesn’t open up very easily and has been reserved to me but tonight she let me hold her. Well, I was rewarded with a nice diaper. Oh, and when I say nice I do NOT mean nice. I mean one of the worst diapers you have ever smelt in your life.... No joke. I did have her laughing before the night was out. She is the cutest little thing that you have ever scene. She reminds me of a Chinese Dora. Jenny also wanted to say good night to me and Tiff tonight. It is progress. I really think tomorrow will be good.

----

So David and Morgan are doing good. Steven, the older boy, is a riot. He walks around like a little General barking orders and most of the kids, and adults, listen to him. It is really something. I still do not know the younger boys name but he was a little more difficult today. I think there was some crying and crankiness. It is really to be expected. There whole schedules are thrown out the window for a week and they are definitely not accustomed to this much attention. One thing that is really amazing is that the kids in a Chinese orphanage will take care of their own. You would think there is a survival of the fittest mentally but that really isn’t the case. Many of the kids will come help with the smaller ones. I think this has been a help to D and M for today. Morgan really enjoyed herself in the pool too but I can say that she does not enjoy the movie time and I would agree with her. The good part is that this is a time that you can have alone with the kids, without the translators.

----

Okay, so it is 10:30 pm and I am getting tired and still have to go downstairs to upload this so I am going to stop typing now. Please continue to pray for us. I have not been able to talk to Lilly any more today but I will try tomorrow. Also for Sunny who is the caseworker here and is trying to help me with information. What we would be trying to do would be considered impossible, and when I say we, I mean I would like to do. I am also remember that with God ALL things are possible. So if it is his will nothing can stop it.

Thank you again,
China Team out.

Wednesday morning update (part 2)....

2011-07-26T19:42:00.000-04:00

(scroll down two posts for video/photos).

Wednesday morning (follow-up. Do not read before the previous post or this will make no sense).

So I came down to the office to post the blog with the spoiler alert (the serious one, not really about camp) when I found the office closed and a young girl named Lilly, I believe (or Lynn) sitting outside the office. I have briefly talked to her before but not about anything serious. Well as I was trying to upload the post she asked is she could ask me a question. ‘“Sure, I guess”... Well her question was about why we are loving others and if we really think it will make a difference knowing that in the end of the bible it talks about bad times. I will have to write more about this later but in short we had a great discussion about why we are to love others and the main goal for our belief. I think I will save this for tonight but I have to say that this was definitely a G thing. I never feel that I am prepared for these questions but somehow He always gives me the words. Yes, this girl is a young C, not sure how long. Please remember her in your pr-yers, and mine as well as I will probably have more conversations with her during the rest of camp.

How CRAZY is it that my last post had to do with loving others and that the sermon on Sunday at the church was on loving others, and that the discussion with Jane was on the same thing???? Can that be anything else but a G thing. I cam here to have fun with these children and love on them, which is great and is showing that love towards others but how He has bigger plans for this trip. I can tell 110% that you are all out there remembering us every morning, noon and night. Please continue....

From China, Bill out.

Day 6... (Wednesday morning)...

2011-07-26T19:21:00.002-04:00

(scroll to next post for video/photos).

(Spoiler Alert - If you do not want to be preached to then please, please do not read this post. I came back up to write this after writing the post because it is very serious and has little to do with camp. It was something that I just wrote after having my quite time and it is quite serious for lack of a better word. I struggled with actually posting it but I thought there may be just one out there reading this that may feel the same way. And, No, I am not going through a mid-life crisis or anything like that. I am very happy this morning and cannot wait to be with the children and just love on them for the rest of this trip. I do so miss my family at home right now too though and cannot wait to get back to you, I Love you!!!!)

This post this morning is really for me to just type and see what comes out. I am in tears right now as I types these words and think about these children and the lives that they will have in the future. It breaks my heart. I always tell myself that I will be able to come here and have fun, love on the children, play games but that it will not effect me on Friday when they leave. What I mean by that is that I will not be one of the volunteers that is just crying their eyes out and yet here it is Wednesday morning and I am already doing just that.

There is one child in particular that I am doing this for and I have struggled all night feeling guilty that it is not for all of them with the same emotion. Is that wrong? I can’t really say. All I know is that I believe 100% that He directs our paths and He has us where he wants to be.

I was reading James 1 this morning and before I came down to 1:27 which most of you probably know, it was a few verses higher, verse 22 to 24 or so, stood out more to me. It was about doing what the Word says. Just reading the words and believing them is simply not enough but we must step out in faith and act. Yes, there may be a sacrifice, more often than not, but what faith do we have if we sit back and do nothing. This life is but a vapor and the only thing that matters is the will of G. I know that I am far from a perfect being but I also know that I can strive to be a better one every day and just start each day new with the goal of “Loving G and loving others as yourself”. Do we ever really do this? Do we ever sit and contemplate what that means? Loving your neighbor as yourself. I challenge you who may be reading this, not to do this, but to sit and think about how much we do love ourselves and the things that we will not do for either fear or simply just selfishness. Think about the things that we will spend money on and the things that we will not. I tell myself all the time that money does not matter but how easy is that to say when you have it. Is it not out of abundance but out of little that we truly show our faith.

Yes, like I said, I am far from a perfect being but I try my hardest to look like one. But as I am here thousands of miles from home I think about the things that I call sacrifices in my life and I have to wonder how much of a sacrifice they REALLY are. If you do not know James 1:27, the verse is about taking care of the orphans and widows. I have been told several times that if just 10 to 20% of Christians would consider adoption there would not be a child in the world without a home. I don’t know how accurate that is but just think about it for a minute. What that really says is this: “If just 10 to 20% of Christians would do as the L commands, there would be no orphans”. Yes, I quote them because it is something that I am saying, not only to any reading this but to myself. I will admit that, yes, at times it is hard having four children and that we do go through days that are tough, but I ask you this: “What more did He do for us?”.... Is losing our 4 hours of television or hours of facebook time each night REALLY a sacrifice? Or giving up fast food and movies but rather investing or lives in the lives of the children. We are not put on this earth so that we may live comfortably in our recliners but we are put here for I believe a much higher purpose. Just think about it this morning or evening during your quite time. I challenge you to log your time for just one day and see where it is that your love truly lies. PLEASE, PLEASE do not think that each words I am saying is directed to you that read this any more than it is too me. There are a hundred fingers pointing back at me saying, “What about you?”. I have been away from home for almost a week with no email and guess what amazing thing happened, the world did not end. Crazy to think of, huh?

I do not apologize for getting on my soapbox this morning only because like I said at the beginning, this post is really for me. I had need to get these words down and even though I could have done this in my own personal journal, I would sit and wonder if any of you out there think the same things. This is not easy for me to put myself out there like this but how else do we grow then to share and encourage each other, to be open and transparent, to be willing to sacrifice and step out in faith as G intended us to do. No, I agree that I am far from a good preacher too, as you may notice from my writing but I do know that this day I am going to recommit my life to making Him L of my life. In everything, EVERYTHING that I do I will remember this verse, “No matter what conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel....” Phil 1:27, I believe. Not worthy of my parents, or my boss or my possessions, but the Gospel.

Hopefully this post makes it to the blog and I am not placed in prison but I just wanted to type and see what happened. I really felt that I was led to do this today. They are not my words that were planned out. I only asked G that he would help me to understand what it is he has for my life.

From somewhere half way around the world, Bill out.

Misc photos and Video from Sunday to Tuesday.

2011-07-26T12:34:00.003-04:00

Hopefully this works for all of you. I tried to make a video of the photos from the past few days and some video clips too from the water park.

China Team out.

Day 5... (part 2)...

2011-07-26T12:33:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone. I hope my posts have not been too long. I am working on a video/slideshow to update you on the photos. I have to upload each one separately for the blog. Hopefully the video will work better and I will put that in a separate post.

I left off at leaving for lunch, etc.... Lunch was good. There was plenty of white rice, a very sweet chicken and green beans and a few other things. Very filling. The meals are served on a lazy susan, sort of buffet style without leaving your seat. My boys were not happy at lunch time - still mad about the coloring books. We had to get Paul to come over and help us to get them to eat. There was a lot of crying, which is completely understandable. Most of these kids have never seen anything other than chinese people so it is scary for them to see us. It takes a little time but trust is slowly being earned. After lunch the kids go down for a nap. I used this time to get our flights squared away for our trip Saturday back to Beijing. I am crossing my fingers they are fixed. One of the chinese staff members here got on the phone with them to make sure.

We met the translators after the naps downstairs and headed off to KFC. Boy were they (KFC) in for a shock. Even with such a small week it was a large invasion of the establishment. They were very accommodating. the kids actually had some sort of egg pie? I couldn’t really tell you what this is. The Ice cream was a no-go from the orphanage. They said they were not allowed to have cold food... Actually many of these kids have never had anything cold such as ice in a drink. They were happy with the pies and didn’t seem to mind either way. The volunteers all got ice cream cones - pretty good for soft serve. The kids spent a lot of time in the play area. MiMi must have gone down the slide about 100 times which is why she didn’t make it to the waterslide time. She passed out on the way back to the campus. The kids all had a blast and loved just getting out. Oh, and did I mention the arm wrestling matches in the restaurant - that was a riot (and extremely loud, but fun).

So returning to the campus we all changed into swimsuits and headed down to the water park. Tiffani and MiMi and one of here translators (I’m still not good with the names) went up to their room to let MiMi (actual spelling is Min Min) sleep. She passed out. Tiff was able to have a nice long talk with her translator which she really enjoyed.

The water park was cool (literally). We filled it from a fire hydrant. Yes, I did make it down the slide twice and there should be some photos of David and Morgan and even Jenny went down a few times. I think the kids would play in this all day long if they could. The had a blast. For the kids that didn’t want to go down the slide there were water guns, buckets, etc.... Oh, and someone snuck up behind me and dumped a bucket of this ice water down my back while I was taking photos to which they were blindsided a minute later, hahaha, to which I was blindsided back by his offspring... (I wont mention any names). It was really a fun time! There are plenty of photos and videos coming soon int he misc photo post, next.

We all headed back to the rooms to dry off and then down for dinner. Surprise, two good meals in a row. A very very good peanut chicken (I think) and more rice, fried ice cream, etc.... Can you guess which dish was gone first? The kids made up for not getting ice cream at lunch. MiMi had been sleeping until just about the end of dinner. I think she got about 2-1/2 hours? And this was after a nap time so I think the KFC slides really wore her out. She is just a doll. Hopefully she will start to trust us a little more and open up.

On a side note - Most of the kids that you see in these photos are adoptable, except the ones that I want to take home (sorry Deb, they are just too cute). In all seriousness we will be getting information on many of them at the end of the week.

From dinner we went to an assembly time and then movie time with the kids. The translators would go to a meeting to help them better understand the workings of camp and go over any problems that they may be having with the kids. The assembly time is more silly singing and dancing and then a story. The one that they are doing has to do with Esther. The kids really like it and get to participate. For being so small they pay attention very well. The movie time was some strange Chinese cartoon that the kids seem to like. It kind of freaks me out a little but they like it so it’s a good time to rest and talk with other volunteers. I got to spend a lot of time talking to Mike here. They have adopted from China and Russia and they are in the process of adopting again from China. Awesome family!!!!

After the movie the translators came back to take the kids to bed and we were able to have a w-rship time. Just a handful of us were in there. It was a good time.

----

So, more about David and Morgan. They are having fun from what I can tell. Once you get here at camp and paired up it is a little like chaos. I can say that they had a blast at the water park, even if some of it was at my expense (payback is coming). I found out they they are paired with two boys, one is 9 and the other is 3. I may have already said this but the 9 year old has a dwarfism genetic disorder. He is an amazing smart kids that knows quite a bit. He was asking David questions about our country and what our countries moto is and why there are stripes on our flag, I think. All sorts of things. He is also a very helpful boy and looks after the smaller child. This is actually the same for Jenny (Tiffs girl). She looks after MiMi a lot. I still do not know much about the other boy other than he is three and that he has not smiled or laughed until they got him at to the slides at KFC. He was laughing a lot there and even at the water park some. All the kids seem to warm up by day two or three.

Well, it’s 12:19 am right now so I should probably get to sleep. I think everyone else passed out about two hours ago. I may try and go downstairs and upload this if I want to brave the mosquitoes. Not sure, we will see.

Oh, I was able to get Jenny to smile once or twice just before the end of the evening. I think she will come around soon too. She is a very nice, sweet girl who is very observant. I think she wants to communicate with us but doesn’t know how. I’m just trying to get her to trust us. I think some lollipop bribes are going to happen tomorrow. (Hey Deb, can you read my mind yet? Yes, I have lost mine if I am thinking what I am thinking.)

I love you all and thank you for the pr-yers. We can’t wait to be home and share all the stories but I also don’t want the week to end yet either.

From Yantai, China, 00:24 hours.
China Team out.

Day 5...

2011-07-26T09:52:00.003-04:00

Here we are, day 5 of the trip (I think) and camp has officially begun for us. Before I get into the day I wanted to make a correction. Matthew (our hero for getting us here) is not 16 but 15. Yeah, this is an amazing young man. Also, sorry for the typos. Hopefully my meaning comes across. You type wherever and whenever you can before the memory goes.

So, we did meet with Mike but everyone else was already there going over for breakfast. It was raining and this was is funny. They brought a van over to basically bring the kids across an alley to keep them from getting wet and then unloading them on the other side, uncovered area, to the restaurant. I walked with Tiff and Matthew. When we got all the way across the street we met the boys that I was teamed up with. David was actually carrying one of them and thought they were his buddies. One boy is around 6 or 7 and the other maybe 5 or 6. I’m not really sure. One of them may have cerebral palsy, not really sure, but he has trouble with his legs and cannot do stairs. I do not think there is anything physically wrong with the other boy. The translators name is Ker. He is a 22 year old college student. This is his first year here at camp. He made a statement that he thought he was coming to “babysit” but instead more to be a “dad”. It is really a lot of work for the translators. More than we have to do. They keep them over night, take them to the bathrooms and many others things, most importantly being the communication.

Breakfast - nope - just like the last time at camp. I had the wonderful tasteless steamed dough bread. It literally has no taste at all but it’s food. The rest of the stuff I could not recognize with the exception of some boiled eggs. One plate was supposed to be scrambled eggs but I didn’t see it. Oh well, I gave thanks for the “bread” - all you really need. Both of my boys need some help eating so switched back and forth. They were both a little afraid of me but they were hungry enough to put that aside and let me help.

At this point Tiffani still did not know who she was teamed with but we did know that she had two kids and two translators. David and Morgan did not have their assignments either. The four of us broke off with Mike and did a little tour of the grounds and then headed to this “coffee room” which is being used for an assembly room. It is a good size room with a projector setup and PA system. We went over the rules with a few more of the staff and then everyone came into the room to be paired up and off to “family time”.

Tiffani was paired here with two girls. One is 10 or 11 and the other is 3. They are total opposites. The little one, MiMi, is cute as a button but doesn’t say much and is taking a little bit to warm up. The older girl, Jenny, is cute too. She has a personality just like someone back home (J). She will give you these looks that I cannot really explain but they are very funny. She can be very serious and get frustrated easily. I do not think there is anything physically wrong with MiMi but Jenny does have some finger deformities. I am not sure if they are from birth or not.

David and Morgan were teamed with two boys. One of them is named steven and I do not know the other boys names yet. They are both small. Steven does has some physical problems but I do not know exactly what they are or what it is called. I believe the other boy is okay physically, just very young too, maybe 3 years old? I will try and get more about their story in the next post. Who knows, maybe I can get David to blog a little???

So I came back to my room with the Ker and the boys and then Tiffani brought her “family” up as well. We pulled out the table and chairs and let them color for a while. It was pretty good. We were able to talk to the translators and share some stories and photos of our family back home. One of the girls just started being a guide for adoptive families within the last year so that was neat to talk to her a little. The boys liked the coloring but MiMi was not happy with it and started crying. Jenny was getting bored with the coloring so we broke out a puzzle for her. She had never seen one of these before and it was “interesting” giving her personality. We had to move the puzzle to the floor to spread it out and let her see what it was all about. Once she figured it out we were not allowed to leave the room until it was finished so we did show up to assembly a few minutes late. I think she really enjoyed it once she knew what it was all about. The boys pretty much stayed at the table and I helped them color. The older boy, who we are calling Tom wanted to get approval of how he was doing. The younger boy, who we are calling Alex, didn’t really care. I think he is definitely reserved and does not trust strangers. I’m not sure it this point how much time it will take for him to come around.

Assembly time is fun. We sing silly songs and dance, etc... The we played duck-duck-goose for about 20 minutes... They really love playing this game, especially being young kids this week. The age range is 3 to 10 or 11 but mostly I would say 3 to 8. Yes, even David was playing. I’m sorry but I didn’t get any photos of this. Maybe tomorrow. I did manage somehow to bust my big toe nail during the game. I don’t remember doing it but just a little bit ago I looked down and saw a little dried blood and Tiffani said, “Oh yeah, I saw that a while ago”. Guess I was having too much fun to notice.

We took a 20 minute break after that. Ker got the boys some milk boxes and Tiffani’s translators took her girls back up to the room for a few minutes. Then we all got back together for craft time. Today we made name badges. The kids really really like stickers and markers. They got to decorate the tags and then we glue them to a clothes pin. You will have to see the photo of MiMi. It is funny. We also colored in their memory books. This is something that the campers and volunteers both do together for a scrapbook from the trip. Alex ended up getting mad at us because we would not let him color on all of the pages. They are supposed to be set apart for each day of the week. He didn’t really want to have much to do with us after that.

From here it was off to lunch... I will leave it at that since we are getting ready to head off to KFC now - ICE CREAM, YEAH!!!!! and then the water slide back here at camp.

China Team out.

The Real Day 4....

2011-07-25T19:07:00.001-04:00

(Please read the next three posts as I did not have internet so I was blogging on the computer and saving them posts for later, photos to follow so check back.)

So, I left of at the airport. From 8 to 9 am I tried to get our flight changed, kind of cheated and went to the first class line since the others were still long. After waiting in this line, same news, no flights until Tuesday night. Well, I actually could have gotten 3 first class seats for the next morning but no one would volunteer for the wing. So we made some calls and a decision was made to take a train and get there sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. At least this way we would still have 4 days at camp and that was the main goal. David, Morgan and Tiff had a prayer time for me while at the counter - it worked - I did not lose my cool to which Tiffani said “Your cool???” hahaha...

So, like I had said on the previous post about Burger, yup, this was where we got breakfast, which was actually lunch since they do not sell breakfast. About 62 yuan for two medium sized meals ($10 US) so that same as home more or less. I don’t think we have any photos of this. I have to admit the picture taking has taken a back seat (sorry Debbie and Melissa) although I think David was taking some that I haven’t seen yet.

A driver sent by BMH did show up around noon and took us to the train station. We got there around 12:40 and by 2 pm we found out that we had tickets for an overnight bus or was it a 5 hour speed train or wait no was it an overnight train with beds. Honestly, I tell you the truth, we had no idea what we had tickets for and where we were going but to our “Nice” surprise it was a speed train and only 2 hours, which ended up being an hour and a half at 200+ miles per hour. I have to say and the others would agree that this was cool! We arrived at the station and were met by Jenny who works with BMH. She came with a van and told us it would be a 6 hour ride to camp. Yes, I wasn’t stuttering, 6 hours. We thought it was supposed to be three. David will tell you that the only real problem we have had over here, more so than not speaking Chinese, is that they cannot tell time very well. 5 minutes could mean anything from 2 minutes to 1 hour. Kind of like when the preacher says “and in conclusion”... (sorry D.).

Jenny was nice enough to take us to a Pizza Hut before the ride and this was good. A pizza hut in china is a restaurant. You can get anything from lasagna to soup to salads and yes, even pizza. The pizza here is great, no greasy bottom. Me and Tiff got a Hawaiian with stuffed crust and David “tried” to get a pepperoni and sausage and cheese, not sure if that is what came out and Morgan got an appetizer plate with calamari, and wings and a few other things. Overall, very good experience. But the best part of the meal was the discussion, that I did tell them would make it to the blog, was the debate over whether the way the chinese go number 2 or the american way, which was healthier. Maybe now I am sharing too much info? Like I said, there were some laughs along the way. Sorry, I did not have the camera for this part so no photos of dinner but it was good.

So, back on the bus and an uneventful 5 to 6 hour ride where we arrived at camp safe and sound. We were greeted by a bunch of people. Hopefully we will remember a few names. The rooms here are very nice and they have a/c and screens on the windows to keep the mosquitoes out. I would say the room is 18x24 with two beds, desk, tables, chairs, TV (which we will not use) and yes a bathroom. That is just for two of us. Me and Tiff and then David and Morgan got separate rooms. Mike is the director here and seems very nice. We also met David Lee (chinese student who I believe may be staff or translator, not sure yet) but very nice guy.

That just about raps up our Monday at 11 pm. Not a bad day in the end. Here is where I have to give Matthew a special “THANK YOU” for getting us here. We were doubtful along the way but he really came through for us. Oh, the best part, he’s only 16. Didn’t see that coming did you. Two grown men following a 16 year with blind faith that we would arrive where we were supposed to be. Awesome!!!

So, here I am, it is now 6 am on Tuesday and my nerves have been at me all night. ow many buddies will I get, how old will they be, will they be girls or boys, will they like me, will I scare them.... I guess we will just have to wait and see. We are going downstairs to meet with Mike at 8 am and go over the schedules and then we should meet our buddies and translators at 9.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers!!!! Even though the path He took us on for the last 36 hours was not the one we had planned, He took care of it all and got us here safely. All the ups and downs, laughing and crying, I wouldn’t change a thing.... If you could continue to remember us throughout the rest of the trip. Thank you, G.B.!!!!

Finally, from Yantai, China, China Team out.

Day 4...(kind of)...

2011-07-25T19:06:00.002-04:00

I wish I could start this post and say that it was actually Day 4. It really needs to start with the continuation of Day 3.

So, at the end of our story we were waiting to find out if our flights had been cancelled. Yes, they were and what fun that brought. If any of you have seen cattle herded this is exactly what it looked like when the flights were all cancelled. About 1 million (okay, maybe only 10,000) people started their treks back to the ticket counters where you were supposed to go and get rebooked. This was fun....Not. I’ll leave out a lot of the details but lets just say we saw a lot of different things happen when you have that many angry people in one “HOT” room the size of 3 football stadiums.

I did get in one of the lines and let the others go and find some Burger King for dinner, which we didn’t know at the time would be breakfast too. I think I was in this line from 7:30 pm until 10:30 pm. I had no idea I had been waiting that long only to be told that we could be rebooked on a flight two days later. I tried everything like “but what about the kids I’m traveling with” and “I don’t know this town”, trying to put on some fake tears but they were coming. Ok, maybe the last part was an exaggeration. The good news in all of this was that we met Matthew, a young man from Mississippi, who at the end of this story becomes the Hero.

Oh, I forgot to mention that our friend Jane said that I was now a Hero for going on the Great Wall so many times but of course this is the same girl that looked at my family photos and said “Wow, you look much older and wider there”. Yes, I said “wider”. hahahaha....

Back to our adventure, which we are now calling “The Amazing Race: China Edition”. Matthew was able to find David in a sea of all of these people and took a guess and said “Bring Me Hope” to which David replied “Yes”. Matthew had already been here a couple weeks at another camp and was switching locations to our camp. He had a chinese cell phone “PTL!!!!”. He had also found a man int he airport that would take us to a hotel. You’ll notice that I didn’t highlight hotel - yeah, it ended up being a 1/2 star hotel. The 1/2 star was because it had a/c, that was about it. So we all did get a few hours sleep and met just before 8 am to take a shuttle back to the airport and see what our options were.

I want to take a pause here to let you know that even at this point in the story it may sound like I am being negative on this trip and that we were all ready to throw in the towel when in all actually that was not the case. Spirits were still good and all we wanted to do was get to camp and meet our buddies. Some of the story may sound bad but we did have a lot of laughs along the way.

So, you want to hear how it continues... stayed tuned next week, same time, same bat channel... hahaha, just kidding. I think I will split the post for size and leave room photos which I will try and add today or tonight.

From the same Beijing International Airport, Terminal 3, Beijing, China, China Team out.

Day 3

2011-07-25T19:05:00.003-04:00

We started the day as usual with the breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was okay, not as good as past visits. Not too much western food.

After checking out of the hotel today we proceeded to the church service at BICF. The guide walked us to the doorway and wanted to take a look inside. This is where it gets serious for me. The attendants at the doors would not allow her to come in and take a look. You must have an international passport. I made a statement that I later regretted saying “No, you’re not allowed in, sorry”. I didn’t immediately realize what I had just said to this young 24 year old girl. The service started with worship and as I was singing it had come back to my mind that I had told this girl she could not come into the church. I had this vision of being in heaven and going through the gates and then turning back at this lost soul with a heavy heart. This is the fourth time I have broken down in tears in this church. This time it was very different. The other times it was for Abby, Jadyn and Ethan that now have the freedom to chose their religion, but this time it was for a young lady who really does not have that freedom in the same sense.

This story does get a lot better so keep reading. When we left the church service and got back into the van this young lady was eager to know what we had just done. I told her that we sang and worshiped and listened to the pastor teach us. I don’t think she understood that part. She asked what our religion was about, why do we do it, those types of questions. I am so glad that David was there for this part. He told her how our religion is about knowing God and Jesus who died for our sins and that we are taught to do right and follow Gods word. She said so it teaches you to be “good people” and that good people will go to heaven. He told her how it was more than that and then pulled out his bible to show her what we had learned today. The passage was the Great Commandment “Love God and Love others as yourself....”. She wanted to see the bible - If you can believe this she had never seen a bible in her life and had no idea who Jesus was. This was shocking to us although I am not sure why. Beijing has a population of over 22 million people.

I asked her if she had “religion” which she answered “No.” “How about your family”, “No. Not parents or their parents or their parents”. I couldn’t believe that this may generations had no religion at all. They know about Buddhism but only respect it, they do not practice it. A few minutes later she was talking about the changes here and a women's rights movement. This movement was about “believe it or not, not physically abusing your wife”. They honestly thought it was “legal” to do this up until recently. She told us how abusive her father was to her mother and herself. She laughed it off that she was bad and deserved it. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I think at this point we decided to change the topic, especially with the girls in the van.

So, from this point we went to lunch (you’ll have to wait to the end of this post for the rest of the story). The lunch was is the basement of this Chinese restaurant, which probably sounds worst than it was. The food was okay. Oh, someone decided to eat a chicken foot and it wasn’t me or the girls.

After lunch Jane took us to what she would call a friendship store although I would call it a Chinese Flea market maybe. It was a mix of Chinese souvenirs and electronics, watches, shoes and hand bags. Kind of crazy here. they try their hardest to get you to buy their goods. Jane called it adversing, I called it annoying. It was fine just hard to really look at anything. Once you stopped they had you and did not want to take no for an answer.

From the flea market we went to a silk factory that was right next door to the Bird’s nest. We got a few long distance photos. The silk factory was cool. They showed us how one cocoon from a silk worm would stretch to 1 mile in length and it would take 80 cocoons to make one layer of a silk comforter and 100 layers to make the whole comforter. It was really cool. We got to stretch one layer out to see how hard it actually was. The girls in the shop made it look so easy. Of course, just like Disney, they drop you in a shop to purchase the stuff that they made. There was actually some pretty cool things in there and the prices were not that bad. No bargaining in these types of stores.

So this pretty much rounded out our Beijing portion of the trip (well until I tell what is happening right now). We went to the airport from the silk factory, about a half hour drive. Oh, I forgot about the jokes - Jane was trying to lighten our mood this morning, not knowing that we were just not morning people today. So she told us these jokes that you would probably read on a McDonalds bag. It was funny.

Okay, here’s one so you catch the meaning: “A hunter sees a bird flying and gets out his shotgun and fires. You here a very loud BANG! The bird falls but the hunter missed. Why did the bird fall?”..........When he heard the loud noise he covered his ears with his wings”.... Get it, hahaha.

So we made it to the airport and Jane helped us find our checkin location. Before she left David had reminder her of the conversation earlier in the day and handed her a track “Steps to peace with God”. He told her that this was the whole story about our religion and basically how to become a part of it. She looked very excited to get this. We said our goodbyes as the driver was waiting for her back at the van. As she left we could see her walking away reading the track with a very serious look on her face. It was really amazing. The seed has been planted... Let’s see what God can do with it.... Please remember Jane in your prayers!!!

Okay so back to now, we are sitting at the gate waiting out a storm that has delayed our flight. We are already one hour behind schedule and someone walked by saying they think the rest of the flights have been canceled for the day. I really hope this is not true. Maybe God still has more work for us in Beijing? We will have yet to see.....

From Beijing International Airport, Terminal 3, Beijing, China, China Team out.

Day Two over...

2011-07-23T09:28:00.004-04:00

We made it through another day. The Forbidden City was the most crowded I have ever seen it - like Times Square in New York at New Years Eve - only 100 degrees...

Tour was good though. Got to learn some things that I didn't hear on my previous 3 tours there. The history there is just amazing...

Lunch was at a Dumpling restaurant. They were good. We got two plates for the four of us with pork and chinese cabbage stuffing. We also got a plate of fruit salad. Could you believe they were out of rice ??? A chinese restaurant with no rice.

We took an hour or so van ride after that to the Great Wall. We went to a section that I had never been to where you can either walk 20 minutes up hill at a 40 degree slope just to get to the wall or take a "cable car". I highlight that because it was not a cable car - it was a very old ski lift. Me and Tiff (probably more me) were freaking out... We obviously made it to the top though. It did end up being cool.

We spent a little while on the wall walking in the crazy heat, sweating. It was really cool and I know David enjoyed it. He couldn't believe he was on the Great Wall. Mark one off the bucket list.

So, the way down, either walk the whole wall (6km), take the ski lift (no way) or take a sled (like those old metal snow sleds only it had wheels and a hand brake). We chose the sled. I can say it was one of the highlights of the day. This was really really cool.. David took off first and we never caught up to him. I think he liked it. Tiffani took video of the entire ride (maybe we will have a little clip for the Sunday video).

The way back to the hotel we voted on McDonalds. 1-1/2 days in China and Tiff is already done with Chinese food. Tastes just like McD's back home.

Well, that was basically our day today. We will be going to church in the morning and then maybe a friendship store and then fly to Yantai for the camp. Can't wait for camp to start. We may try to blog in the morning one last time and fill in any details from today. The next post will be Sunday night (China time) from the camp location if we have internet there.

China Team out.

Day Two begins...

2011-07-22T17:55:00.003-04:00

Here we are, day two, which is weird because it is already Saturday morning and we left on Thursday morning. Weird to think you wake up one morning in the states and the next afternoon you are half-way around the world.

Nothing eventful to post since last night. Got a good night sleep from 10:30 to 5:00 am. Beds are hard but the bedding is great. I love the comforters over here. The showers are great too. Nothing beats a good strong hot shower after traveling for almost 24 hours.

Today as I said we will be visiting the Forbidden City. It is supposed to be very hot which is weird because you cannot see the sun. I actually pointed out what I thought was the moon to Tiffani yesterday and she corrected me. Being able to stare at the sun without sunglasses is just strange. We hope to get some good pictures to share with you all at home. I will be the one in the bright blue shirt for those of you who have never seen me with a shaved face before. The had a shaving kit here in the hotel so I thought I would see what it was like to shave with a razor from a Chinese hotel. Let's just say it's not as good as the nice fusion razors Debbie has been getting me (for almost free) with her couponing.

China Team out

(PS - This is for Dan so no one else try it, Coke code from a Chinese bottle - BPM4LRXRHLPB5 and then 4 @ symbols, you gotta let me know if that works.)

Day one (continued)...

2011-07-22T08:28:00.008-04:00

Well, we officially made it and survived the 14 hour flight and 1 hour van ride to hotel. You haven't lived until you have driven in China. Special thank you to Emalee for hooking us up with "gotrusted.com" so we could get to our blog.

Flights were all good, no real delays. Me and Tiff got about 6+ hours of sleep on the flights and Morgan got a few hours as well. I don't think David slept at all so they are calling it an early evening.

Me and Tiff ventured out on the streets and found a KFC. Tiffs words "well it's food". It wasn't that bad and the guy at the counter did speak english. The popcorn chicken is very spicy, at least for me. Total cost for both of us was $6.04 US.

After this I let Tiff experience a chinese grocery store. It was a smaller one so no real crazy things like chickens hanging in the meat section or anything like that. We picked up (2) 20oz. Cokes and some Chocolate Oreos (these are my all-time favorite Chinese food). Total cost: $10 yuan (about $1.55 US) compared to $38 yuan for a 12 oz. can of Coke in the hotel.

That is about it for today. Tomorrow we meet our guide at 8:00 am in the lobby to visit the Forbidden City, Lunch (probably at Friendship store), and the Great Wall.

Thank you again to all of you for your prayers!

China Team out.

Day one. Travel to EWR and PEK.

2011-07-21T09:41:00.003-04:00

We are on our way!!! I think we each got about 3 to 4 hours sleep last night. Flight one down.
14 hour flight to PEK (China) next. Pray for sleep.

China Team Out.

Complete Madness!!!

2011-07-20T08:40:00.006-04:00

So, it's been almost two years since I have posted to this site and many who know me know that things have change a bit. Since that post we went back to China and brought home a son, Ethan. How can I explain this change? hmmmm... Let's just says raising boys is different than girls and any of you who have both will know what I am talking about.

So the reason for getting back on the site - Tomorrow I leave for China again (not to bring home any more children, not that my mind will not be changed while I am over there). Tiffani (my oldest) and I are going to a Bring Me Hope camp in Yantai, China. This will be Tiffani's third trip to China and first trip to camp. We are going with our pastor and his daughter as part of a Church mission trip.

I am sure it is going to be an amazing time but right now all I can think about is packing and making sure everything is taken care of for Deb and the little ones staying behind. One year I hope to bring the whole family - Ethan is just not ready for this yet.

The goal is to post to this blog while we are at camp but I am not sure again if blogger will work while we are over there. If not I will try and email Debbie daily and ask her to post on here for us. We ask for your prayers while we are traveling and for a good week at camp. Thank you!!!

Funny Song

2009-04-20T19:24:00.001-04:00

SCC Song...

2008-11-21T10:02:00.004-05:00

One more quick post this morning. I just found this song this morning. It is from Steven Curtis Chapman. It was written about a school shooting in Steven's home town but it reminds me of his daughter "Maria" who passed way to be with the Lord a few months back now. It is playing in the background.

Let's all remember to continue to pray for this family, especially with the Holiday season coming. I cannot even imagine the emotions that they must deal with every day of their lives.

-Bill.

Decision Update!

2008-11-21T09:35:00.003-05:00

Hi all, I'm back again. I now have some direction. In my last post I hinted to the fact that I feel I have been called into some sort of ministry work. Well, long story short I have come full circle back to China, Orphans and Bring Me Hope. I feel that God is calling me to play a larger role in this organization and after several "LONG" phone calls with David it has all been confirmed.

I will admit that I didn't see this opportunity as a "Mission" but then I remembered the verse that says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27 (NIV). I have read this verse for years now but I never thought of it as a calling but then I realized that all of God's work is a calling. From the secretary at a church to the man in the mission field in India. In God's eyes there are no small tasks that bring glory to his kingdom.

Isn't it nice to know that God's ideas and definitions are so much greater than our own?

I will ask for prayer during this time as the Deceiver has tried to make me feel unworthy of service. We all have sin in our lives and we all struggle with it. I have been so focused on thinking that I must be perfect to do God's work but I was reminded by a friend last week that if I was truly perfect I would most likely not be on this earth anymore but be sitting next to our Saviour in Heaven. I don't think God is done with me quite yet - I hope!

So here's the sales pitch - sign up to go to camp. It WILL change your life forever. BMH Camp - click here

More to come... Bill

PS - Martin, if you are reading this, thank you for being such a good friend. I appreciate your comments and encouragement more than you know.

Hi Everyone, I'm back.. for now?

2008-11-07T21:55:00.003-05:00

First off, Hello to everyone out there who had followed my blog. I have to apologize for not writing in such a long time. A lot has been going on with me and decisions that I am trying to make. In short I believe that God is calling me into the ministry. I am not exactly sure what that means. It could be church work or possibly mission work. As you all know I have a very strong heart for those in China, along with my family. Ever since the trip to the camp a change took place in my life. A verse that has stuck with me since is Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Never before has this verse meant so much to me.

I use the analogy of wearing a mask to describe how this verse effected me while I was in China. The short of it is that when I was there, surrounded by strangers, I felt as though I was wearing a mask and I could do things that I wouldn't normally do. There was no fear of rejection or judgement simply because I didn't know these people and did not think that I would see most of them once the camp was over. The realization that I took from this was that, it wasn't that I couldn't do something but that I wouldn't do something out of fear, pride or whatever the excuse would be behind the circumstance. God spoke to me on that trip and has been speaking to me ever since. He has let me see that the life that I have been living was not furthering the Kingdom and in the end that is all this life is ever about.

I would ask for prayers during this time as God reveals to me the exact path that I am to follow. In the meantime I have decided to jump in and volunteer whenever and where ever I can. I would challenge all of you out there to do the same. There is so much more to life than money, work, television... and the list goes on. There is always someone out there in a worst situation than we are and we can help and make a difference.

I will apologize again for not writing for a while and will make it a goal to write more and let everyone know what is going on in my life and the life of my family.

Abby's 5th Birthday Party

2008-08-30T19:57:00.004-04:00

Hi all. I haven't written in a little while - sorry about that. Got a little busy with everything.

Today we celebrated Abby's 5th birthday with the family. It was a fun day - High School Musical Theme. Those of you who do not know, Abby is very into HSM right now. Corbin Bleu (spelling) is her new boyfriend or so she will tell you. We all had a lot of fun and ate too much. Two cakes - one to celebrate Deb's birthday also which was back on Thursday. Next weekend we celebrate Abby's actual birthday at Disney. She is getting to eat breakfast with Mickey at "Chef Mickey's". Here are some pictures below of the party. I am going to upload some video clips as well, maybe in a separate post.

Beijing Olympics with kids

2008-08-23T08:09:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

Here is a link below to an NBC coverage clip of David bringing 5 of the orphans from the Beijing camp to the Olympics. There is a short commercial before you play the clip.

http://video.nbcsandiego.com/player/?id=286883

Videos from Camp

2008-08-15T15:08:00.003-04:00

These are videos from the Zhengzhou Camp for all four weeks.

Video Week 1:

Video Week 2:

Video Week 3:

Video Week 4:

Things may be changing... ??

2008-08-15T12:27:00.005-04:00

Well, things may be changing around our household. Those of you who followed the trip to China know that I was paired with a boy named Billy for a week (Lu is his Chinese name). I was able to make a special bond with him and at the end of camp he made a statement to me that has not left my mind (or Debbie's) which was "Why has no one adopted me?" This has not left either one of our hearts and minds ever since he said it.

We thought we would dig into his situation a little more and found out that he is new to the system (not sure why) and that they are getting paperwork ready for him to be put onto a list. Thank you Rosa for helping with this. We found out that he is actually 12 years old contrary to what I was told in China. He just celebrated his 12th birthday in July. Debbie and I have been talking, debating, or whatever you want to call it about whether or not we could try to adopt this boy and if we should. We know for certain that God has put him on our hearts but we just are not 100% sure for what purpose. I told Debbie the other day that we should first find out his situation before racking our brains on what we should or shouldn't do. Then pray really hard and hope for a fast answer, that is if we do not already have it and are just not open to hearing it.

Now we are at that point. There are still some questions out there but we do know that it is at least "possible" that we could adopt him. I really miss being over in China without all of the distractions and "spoiledness" (not really a word) that I have here in the States. This question would not have been nearly as hard over there but for some reason I get home and things become difficult again. God clearly calls out that we are to take care of the "widows and orphans". Why is this so hard? I am so worried about what this would do to our family structure and the room/bathroom situations. It's funny, I shared a bathroom with 8 people in China and I am worried about Abby and Jadyn having to share a bathroom with just one. Plus there is the fact that Abby would have to move into Jadyn's room. Growing up there were times when we four boys would share a room but the room was never as small as they make bedrooms these days. Just another part of the "spoiledness".

I guess I am just writing this all now, because I have not posted in a while and wanted you to know why. This has consumed a lot of our conversations, along with watching the AWESOME Phelps win all those medals. I would ask for your prayers at this time while we go through the emotions and decisions that will have to be made. Also about how this will all play out physically, mentally, monetarily, etc... One thing that hasn't changed is the cost of going through an adoption - correction - it has changed, it's more now and takes quite a bit longer. At 12 years old he will not have much time left to either be adopted or finish his growing years in an orphanage. He is a very bright boy with dreams for the future. I do believe whatever happens God will watch over him.

Bill

Friday Morning

2008-08-08T14:33:00.003-04:00

Friday is here. I have been home for 5 days now. Sorry for not posting anything much since. I have been very tired and trying to adjust back to US time. I also got a cold that kicked in by Tuesday. I want to thank everyone again for following the journey at camp and for the prayers. The family and I really appreciate it.

I have to admit that it was a little hard coming home and going back to work. It is like coming down from such a high and back into the grind. It is so easy to lose sight of all you have learned. Debbie and I are talking and praying a lot about what God would have us to do for the future. We both feel such a strong connection to Billy, my buddy from last week and for China in general. I am not sure if any of you were able to see the latest Steven Curtis Chapman (and family) interviews over the past few days but they were amazing. That family is truly an inspiration. I just read an article this morning about a building that the Maria fund will be putting up. It happens to be in Louyang which by coincidence ( or God's plan) is where one of the large group of kids came from for the week two camp. It is so easy to see God's plan when you trace things backwards. I wish we had a better glimpse of them before they happened or at least looked and listened more to hear from him. In the last few days I have seen a lot of things that would lead me to believe that there is a plan that I am not fully aware of, or willing to accept yet. Pray for us that we will see a clear path for what God wants us to do.

Well, Olympics start tonight. It should be a very good show. One thing I can say from experience is China likes to go big with things so this should be BIG. 4-1/2 hours and counting...

Bill

Monday morning - I'm home!

2008-08-04T10:25:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to do a quick post and let everyone know that I got home. It was 4:00 am Sunday morning. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and for the calls to Debbie and being there for her and the rest of the family. I do have a small cold that was kind enough to wait until I got home to kick in. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and woke up at 9:45 this morning. I am still a little tired and may crash again.

Thank you again to everyone and please continue to pray for the following two weeks of camp.

Bill

Friday afternoon

2008-08-01T05:55:00.004-04:00

Hi all,

It is 6:00 pm Friday night. My last post left me at finding some of the others. I went down to the cafeteria and made the rounds talking to a few people like little Sarah, Tilly and Katie and Steve. I was also able to meet one of the new translators for next week. Here name is Yvonne. She was at the Beijing camp last year. She came over to me in the cafeteria and introduced herself and just started talking about camp and asking questions. I think the conversation lasted about 20 minutes and when I was ready to leave for lunch she asked if I could get a picture with her. It was really kind of cool that she would want that after only a 20 minute talk. She is studying technology. She said that the men say that the women would not be able to do this and the 3 out of 10 people in the class are girls. She spoke perfect english, probably better than me. She is going to be staying for the rest of the camp. I am a little envious. Part of me wishes that I could stay for the next two weeks also.

Me, Chris and Bob went to the Cafe to get some lunch. I got a Hawaiian pizza. It was okay. Also the Cherry Coke is a favorite here. Not sure why though. I couldn't really taste a difference. It is 10 qui in the cafe and 2.5 at the store. 10 qui is about $1.25. Qui is the same as Yuan (RMB), just slang, I think. As soon as I was finished it was time for the second group to leave. That was Kate's and Byron's. that group did pretty good or at least the kids did. I am not sure about the volunteers. Kate had asked how to say "I love you". Both of her kids said it back to her which was cool. I was even able to get a hug from the boy with her. They just love the affection. Byron was a basket case (sorry man if you are reading this. Go and take that bubble bath and maybe get a manicure, j/k).

Sorry I have to stop here in the middle but it is time to go to the ceremony for the translators.

Okay back to Byron... Really man, you are amazing. I am so moved the a young guy like you was so moved and touched by these children. It gave me so much joy to see you show your heart the way you did. Love you Bro.

Probably less than 30 minutes later the last bus came. This one had Alan's kids on it. This one was really rough. One thing you new for sure during craft time and lunch time was if Alan was in the room you could hear his boy calling for him "ALAN!!!" It was so funny. Well, we heard this sound one more time but there was no laughter. There were only tears. You could see this little boys hand reaching out the window towards him as the van was pulling away. Tears running down his face. Alan is such an amazing guy - Ladies out there he is single and would make the most amazing father. I am going to miss him quite a bit.

This van also had Joy on it. Joy is the little girl that I have already talked about with the burns on her face. I cannot remember if I had written about the experience that I have had with her at camp. It has not been much in quantity. The first interaction I had with her was just before one of the assemblies when she came and sat on my lap. Today when I went to find the rest of the kids still here I ended up finding Joy, literally and spiritually. While I was having the conversation with Yvonne Joy had come up to me and sat on my lap, face to face and then put her head on my shoulder for probably 10 or 15 minutes. I almost thought for a minute that she had gone to sleep. Then she popped up and asked in Chinese if I could come back with her to the orphanage. I wasn't sure what to say. I asked Yvonne to let her know that I would if I could. She made the AWE sound like she was upset about it an then gave me a big squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. I don't know how common it is for that to happen but I had not seen it in the time that I have been here. Well, it gets even better (no tears, just Joy). I made it a point to be there when she left. She made the rounds giving hugs to everyone there and then when she saw me she jumped up into my arms and gave me an enormous hug. There was a translator standing close by that she asked again if I would come with her. I simply said "I wish". She did the AWE sound again and the another big hug and kiss on the cheek. It made me feel so special that she would do that without even knowing me. I will be honest that when David told me she would be back at the camp this year I was scared. I didn't know how I would be able to handle looking into the face of this child. God knew though. When she jumped up into my arms and never even saw scars, just Love and Joy. I have to tell you that this camp with change your life. You can read all of these blog entries and maybe shed a few tears of sadness and joy but I don't think anyone can truly understand what this is like without being here. It is a life experience and one that has changed me into someone that I never thought I could be. Follow God's plans and do those scary things and I promise you that God will meet you there.

After the last batch of kids left and the MAN group consisting of Adam, Byron, Chris, Kyle, Jay and myself went out to get some cokes, ice cream, etc... This is the same group that was crying their eyes out 30 minutes ago. Oops did I type that out loud, sorry guys. We ended up walking down the street and came to a river. Across the bridge on the other side of the river was an old amusement park that had closed down long ago but they still had some paddle boats. We decided to give it a shot. It was pretty cool. We went up he river a little and watched some of the local fishermen and then back again. It was a nice diversion and a good chance to see more of REAL China.

We had a ceremony for the translators tonight. It was a time to say goodbye. Andrew was there with me. I got to see Sarah before she left. She had to take a group to Xian and wasn't going to be back until tomorrow night. She must have given me 10 hugs and thanked me over and over again for spending time with her and Billy. She was just incredibly sweet. She was taking Alan and Kate and the rest of the MN group. The ceremony was to just recognize the translators and the work that they did here. They would call out names and you would both go up together and get the award. When they called Andrews name I YELLED out ANDREW and then we both jumped up and ran to the stage like a scene out of Rocky. It was great and got a lot of laughs. After the awards a cake food fight broke out. It was crazy. I tried to get photos while running away. We all then headed back to the bunkers to have a meeting where we could just talk about the week and what we have learned or taken out of this experience. It was a good time of sharing with a few tears here and there. Then we said our final goodbyes. It was hard to see Andrew leave. I have spent so much time with him this week and he is such an inspiration. I let him know that he is going to be a great dad some day.

Well, that's about it. Camp is done but the work will never be over.

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world".

We have all been called. Who will step up and Answer?

I'm out from ZhengZhou China,

Bill

Friday is here.

2008-07-31T21:18:00.003-04:00

OH MY GOSH!!! It is 9:18 am and the first group which included my two have already left. What can I say... I'll back up again and start at the beginning.

I woke up early (6:15) and posted photos to last nights blog. Then went upstairs and gather up gifts for the boys and one for Sarah. When I was gathering the gifts several of the other boys were in my room watching me ad wanted something. I ended up giving 4 or 5 beach balls to them. They all said "Thank you" in english.

Just a word of advice. If any of you ever come to camp with me don't get too close in the morning. My last shower for the day has been at the pool around 4:00 pm. Then when I get back I get clean clothes and use them for the next day (including sleep just in case someone needs to come into the office in the middle of the night).

So, I went out the building and waited for Andrew. He came out about 5 minutes later. Billy came up to me and said "Good morning Bill", "Good morning Billy, how are you", "I'm fine, thank you very much" and then a big hug. Bob was walking with Andrew and then came over to me and grabbed my hand to help him walk to breakfast. Billy was very calm this morning. He new he was going to leave. Normally he rides on my back to breakfast but not this morning. On the way to breakfast he saw that I was carrying gifts. He told Andrew "All gifts are from God". WOW, this boy is just amazing. At breakfast he was sitting by himself until Sarah came in. He didn't really want me to sit with him which was fine. After Sarah came in though they called me over and wanted to get photos. If the camera makes it back from the trip you will see those later today. They wanted them of my group and Kates. Breakfast went fast and we were motioned to get ready to leave. We walked to the bus area and took a couple more photos. I gave Billy his gift there. He pulled it out of the bag and then QUICKER than you ca see put it in his backpack (protective instinct). I wanted to get a photo but that wasn't going to happen. Oh well. The bus showed up on time and was loaded rather quickly. We said our goodbyes.. wait for it... wait... Okay he is in the seat and looking out the window TEARS RUNNING down his face. OH MY GOSH! I COMPLETELY LOST IT!!! I ran up to the window and put my hand against his. He just looked at me with tears in his eyes. It just wouldn't stop... I think I grabbed whoever was next to me and just gave them a HUGE squeeze. TEARS everywhere. Sarah came over and gave me a hug with TEARS in her eyes. I will see her again soon. I think she just feels so many emotions for these children and especially Billy. I gave her my camera. I showed her ow to use it at breakfast but I am sure if she has a problem Billy will help. He figured the thing out in a couple of minutes.

David got on the bus and went and gave the kids hugs, Billy is also his favorite. He attached to both of us this week VERY STRONGLY. Then I saw them talking through the window. David came - Another BIG HUG and then he said to me, "Billy told me that Jesus Loves you" meaning me. WOW, just incredible. He looked out the window and me and David with our arms around each other and smiled and took our picture. I gave him the sign for Love and pointed to him - He did it back. I cried some more... and more... and more... This was terrible. There were still two kids missing and the bus was loaded and waiting for them. This was just torture for them. Other people were trying to put their hand up on the window with him and he would wave them off. Selfishly I LOVED seeing that. He only wanted me and David to do it. Andrew came back over to me and gave me a bunch of hugs. I think Mike got some good photos so I will see if I can get them. The bus finally pulled out the gate as we all followed and waved. This was so the opposite feeling of the kids leaving for church camp. To know that this may be the last time I will ever see this boy. Did I do enough, say enough, show enough... All I could do is let him know that God loves him and so do I. I had to go and take a minute by myself.....

I came back and found Chris. Tears were still in his eyes. I gave him a HUGE hug. If you haven't noticed there is a pattern here at camp - can you see it yet? That leads me to the office where I am typing this now. I could go to sleep or maybe explore like some of the others but I don't feel like I am done yet. I think I am going to go off and find the rest of the kids that are still here and try and have some fun with them. Hopefully that wont make things worst for me but if it does and also makes the kids happy then it is 110% worth it. I love these kids so much and I want to see some of the other off that I have been talking about and be there for Kate, Alan and Byron and some of the other volunteers. Again, selfishly, I was glad that our group left first so that I didn't have to think about this all day.

Off to find my silly hat and go play with the kids....

Love you all. Thank you for the prayers. Pray hard for Billy and Bob.

PS - I know some of you are probably thinking "What about Bob?" He actually wanted to go back. He was not sad at all. He did have a smile on his face when he saw me but he just doesn't have the capacity to understand. He is a SPECIAL boy created by God. He will be a prince one day in Heaven. I truly believe this.

XOXOXO

Thursday - Day 4

2008-07-31T12:03:00.005-04:00

Post coming shortly... It has been a long day... Stay tuned.

Okay, here it goes. Day 4. I slept in the office last night. I have the whole place to myself with the exception of the mosquitoes. Me and Sam and his sister and Chris were up until 1:30 watching the making of the video for the kids and picking on Chris. He is a good kid. I called it quits at 1:30, Chris left at 2:00 and Sam stayed up until 4:30 - 5:00 am. He is a great guy and worked himself hard to get this video done and perfect for the kids. We were able to watch it with them tonight in the cafeteria. They loved it.

I woke up at 6:00 am this morning. Steve came in around 6:30 - 6:45 and we got to talk for about an hour. It was great. He is an amazing guy that has a big heart and a love for God. He and Tilly have a daughter, Sarah - 9, that has been here the whole time. I have been able to buddy around with her during the down times (lunch). She is a sweet little girl. Steve and I have been able to have devotional type conversations at several times.

We went to breakfast first - no pig blood - too bad. I think maybe RICE again. Me and Byron and Adam have been joking about that a lot lately. Oh, great - more rice... I've been spreading around my peanut butter and cheese crackers with a few people. I was able to get another PBJ this morning. We had another fun assembly time this morning. the kids love to sing and dance. We went to craft time next while group a went to the pool. Craft time I had Andrew translate some words for me 'compassion for people'. This is part of a motto at our church. Passion for God, Compassion for People. I had him do this because he personifies that statement. Every time I think about him I will think about the compassion and serving heart that he has. I have already said this before but I will say it again, He is the most amazing person I think I have ever met in my life. I have never seen someone as self sacrificing as he is.

During the craft time I started to day dream and just look around the room and SEE all of the volunteers that are here. It was one of those revealing moments when I truly saw the hearts that these people have and the sacrifices that they made to be here and serve these children. I, again, teared up. I struck up a conversation with Kate and had asked her how many times she has cried since she has been here (of course telling her that I as a guy I haven't cried at all - NOT.) It ended up being a great conversation. We both ended up talking about how neither of us expected to find God here. I just felt like he was walking down the streets by my side the whole time. It is the most AMAZING and AWESOME feeling I have ever had. I don't think I could ever explain it with words. I have to say that Kate has been a great inspiration to me. I have never seen her without a smile on her face as she watches these children. Her, along with half of the volunteers here, are half my age and yet I can be inspired and humbled by their actions. They really are a great group of "kids". I know Debbie, they are not all kids, I'm just older now. She was able to open up to me during the conversation and I felt bad because she hadn't really cried and I felt like I made her start. Pray for direction in her life and guidance. She really is a wonderful girl. I have a photo that I will post at the bottom. During craft time I was able to get Andrew to translate some letters for me to the kids. We all wrote letters to tell the kids about the week or what we learned from them.

Next stop - Water park. I went back and changed but wasn't planning on getting wet. Well, that didn't work out too well. I think Joy got me from behind, again. She is the little girl with the burns on her face. You might have seen her in the photos or videos. Since I got wet I decided to go all out, found a bucket and was playing with her for a little bit. She came at me one time and as I was running backwards I stepped on a pair of broken glasses. The frame went about 1/4" into my heal. That felt good. I called the paramedic, Pete, to fix me up. I am now calling this my literal battle scar on top of my emotional scars. The boys went into the water park today but the girls, except for joy, decided to stay out and either play cards on the side line or make bracelets. Pete has a good photo of this that I will get from him.

Next stop - Lunch. I did eat this. I think it was Tofu and some rice of course. I got to talk to Byron a little during lunch. Another great guy. He is here for two weeks. He wants to be a test pilot. I have seen him interact with some of the kids and I think he will make a great dad some day.

Next - nap time - Whoo hoo. Don't get me wrong, I love these kids but nap time is a very important time for us. This is the only time that I can go get a Coke and snickers (or Oreos). I have to leave the campus and I am not allowed to have the kids with me. Me and Sarah (Steve's daughter) sat and talked and ate Oreos during nap time. She is really cute. She likes to catch me day dreaming and walk up to me and go "Are you thinking about Bring me hope again?" and laughs.

After nap - the pool. I wasn't going to go into the pool today but I needed to take a HOT shower and the pool is the best place for it. I am glad that I went in. It was fun and I got a few more underwater shots of Billy.? He loves to look at himself on the camera. The floor around the pool is made of granite - not the best choice, huh? After getting dried off from the pool we had to wait for Sarah (Billy's crush) to come out so we could walk together. I had the chance to talk to her a little. She is a commercial English major in her Junior year. She told me that Billy said he wants to become a scientist. I wouldn't doubt it.

Next stop - Family time. I went to the office to get the family time materials. This time we were to make a life map (or something like that). There wasn't much interest from my group so we decided to play cards. It ended up being great fun. Billy started cheating, then I did and then Andrew. We were laughing a lot. Next part is rough so get the tissues now:

Andrew and Billy started talking about christians and asked if Pete was one. I said yes and Billy did not believe me because Pete has tattoos down his arm. I told him that the tattoos had meaning about his family. Pete heard us from the other room and came in and gave Billy a photo album to look through. He saw that Hannah, Pete's daughter, is Chinese. Andrew told him that she was adopted. In the meantime I ran down to get my photos that Debbie sent with me. I came back and showed him the pictures of my four girls (Debbie included). He stopped an looked and then looked at Andrew and said "two Chinese"? Andrew told him how We adopted both of them to give them love. He then said that I was a good person /big heart to adopt two girls. Then he stopped again and then said with a serious but sad face "Why has nobody adopted me?" There was no way I was going to be able to hold these tears back. I put my head down to try and hide them from him. Then I heard them both talking and I heard Andrew say that I was praying. I lifted my head and said "No, I am just sad". Billy could see the tears on my face. He paused and then said, "Don't worry, God has adopted me". This is a 10 year old boy that said this. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, later tonight I got to share this story with the group. David is trying to turn me into a public speaker and coming back next year as staff to work the mic.??? We'll see...

Next Dinner - More rice? - No thanks. I wasn't very hungry at dinner time. The Oreos could have something to do with that, maybe. I went off into a corner and wrote a letter for Andrew. I told him how special he was and that God has big plans for his life. He is the most amazing person I have met. The things that I do for others are nothing compared to him. Seeing him here at camp has humbled me. We did the assembly after dinner, which I was a part of. Oops, /i skipped a part. There is another girl here about 9 with her family that have been living in Beijing. She came over and was talking to me while I was writing the letter. We were playing around with going on the stage and singing. She actually did sing the night before. I was trying to get her up there but she was being shy. We did end up standing in the front and doing the song motions. Good fun. The orphans from ZhengZhou performed again tonight. It was hilarious. They were singing the equivalent of Hannah Montana popularity songs for Chinese artists. First were two girls and not even a few minutes into in one of the girls that won a prize walked up to the the stage and gave one of the girls singing her prize. AWESOME. Then others followed. It was great. Her arms were overflowing. Several others sang too. I have partial videos.

After this we sang and then put in the video that Sam made. The kids loved seeing themselves on the big screen (wall with a sheet). Then the translators left and we stayed with the kids and watched old Tom and Jerry cartoons. Most of these kids have never seen a TV before. I am worried about Bob and how he will do after he leaves. I have a chance to talk to Alan more. He is a good guy, still single at 38. I should have known but didn't and felt bad asking about kids. He is staying for a couple more weeks. He is here with Kate and Caleb and a few others. We then said good night to the kids and then went to a volunteer meeting. This is where D opens us in prayer and then Says "Bill, do you mind sharing your story now" - "Thanks for the warning D". I went ahead and stood up and shared the story from family time (while standing behind D. as a shield). Other shared experiences that they had with they translators or children. Then we went into a worship time. I have to tell you that there is little better than singing Amazing Grace while in China. Again, word for the week, AWESOME!!!!!!

This all leads me to know which has been taking me a couple hours to write this. The room is now clear and it is 1:54 am. Time for bed. O, I forgot to mention that Pete opened his Day 7 card from Hannah. As soon as he opened it an pulled out the photo I literally feel on one of the mattresses and started crying in a room full of people (Oops, forgot they were there). The sing she was holding in the picture said "You are my Hero!" I have to stop here or I will never get to sleep. I am going to try and share more in the weeks following getting home.

I love you all and thank you for your prayers. God worked some amazing things this week.

from XinZheng, China - Bill.

Wednesday - Video clip

2008-07-30T13:04:00.003-04:00

Here is a merged video clip of Wednesday night. Hopefully more tomorrow.

Wednesday - Day 3 part 2

2008-07-30T11:50:00.003-04:00

It is just about midnight. This was a long day. I think I left off at going to the pool. We did go to the pool next. On the way there Andrew asked me "How do you know God's will for your life". I thought this was going to be a tough question but with the day that we had it really was not that hard. There were several things that happened today that lined up for this question. I told him that I pray and try and listen for the answer. I gave him and example of God's answer to prayer. This morning when Me and Katie and Pam were dealing with the boy that was crying we stopped and just put our hands on him and prayed for him. Instantly after praying Andrews name kind to my mind and I think I told the rest of this story. I then told him how I believed that he was my answer to that prayer. That God had put him in my mind to come and help with this problem.

The pool was calm today. It was a rainy day and the kids seemed a little tired. I was able to spend some time with Andrew trying to teach him how to swim. He was so excited and scared. It was so funny. He thanked me a bunch of times. It was really fun. I was also able to spend some time with Sarah. She is such a sweet girl. She asked me all about where I am from and my family. She actually goes to the SIAS Univ. She said that Billy has already asked her if she is coming back next year and that he wants to and would like for her to be here. She has helped me a lot looking after Billy while I stayed with Andrew and Bob. I hope to talk to her tomorrow about if she is a christian.

Oh, lunch was a bust today. Baked pig blood but into cubes? Really? We are trying to get them to understand the food that we are use to. Dinner was okay though. Rice, veggies and pork (and bread).

After the pool we went to family time. They gave us a deck of cards for this today. Andrew and Billy taught me some chinese card games. It was fun - Billy beat us both. We still had time left over when we were done. Billy asked Andrew if they could be the teachers and I be the student. They took the deck of cards and spent 30 minutes teaching me chinese. I am now able to count to 999. After that ? I also learned words like dance and they helped me with words that I knew but wasn't saying exactly right. This really made them both happy that they were able to teach me so quickly. This actually continued into dinner. They were teaching me the names of the food that I was eating.

Assembly time came next. This was amazing. The same kids that were so shy at the beginning of the week were now all volunteering to perform for us. The one girl that was hiding her drawings the other day was probably the most involved. They were all so great. They sang christian songs which the translator was confused (or surprised) about. I will try and post videos of these, maybe just portions. They all stayed behind when it was done to watch a movie while the teams had meetings about the day. The meeting was good. We were all able to share experiences of the day.

That was probably about it for this day. See photos and vids.

Bill

Wednesday - Day 3

2008-07-30T01:21:00.004-04:00

Well, I made it to day 3. I walked into the room last night to four guys snoring, grabbed my stuff and walked back to the office. I stayed there by myself for one night. I think I am going to have visitors tonight though - we'll see.

It is 1:00 right now - nap time for the kids. We did the same stuff this morning, breakfast, assembly time, crafts and water park. It started raining during the last part of the water park. I was going to stay dry today and just take video but this one girl came up from behind (very sneaky) and got me. You will her in some of the photos. She has burns on her face so she's hard to miss. What is funny though is even if she didn't she would be hard to miss. She always has a smile. I was sitting down last night (or this morning - lost track of assemblies) and she came over and just sat up against me and hugged me and stayed with me for a while. Her buddy is a "slightly" older lady than me. Very nice. It took everything that I had to hold back the tears. I just sat there with my arm around her rubbing her arm.

Oh, before I forget. The other night when the "trains" went through I reached into my bag and pulled out my ipod. I hit play and "Orphans of God" came on. God is definitely here in all of this.

I was able to have a devotional time with Steve, Chris, and Katie this morning before the kids came down. It was more or less about the expectations that we put on others and how we are all imperfect and that God is the only one that we can fully rely on.

Forgive me if my journals have changed from Awesome to Sad stories or about my breaking heart. I do not have time to journal by hand and on the computer and I want to make sure that I remember everything. You will probably hear a lot more about my breaking heart just because that it how I am feeling but do not mistake that for me not having and awesome time with these children. I am still having a blast and making a fool of myself. I feel like Scott when new people are introduced on Sunday. I am shouting and trying to help lead. When I come back next year I plan to do so as more of staff than buddy. I just love trying to meet everyone.

I could actually see doing something like this full time. I just feel like I am doing exactly what God wants me to do. I don't know if there has ever been a time in my life that I can say that 100%. Not a thing here is about me. You could take this as a sign if you want but one of the games that we played the first day with the translators was to run outside and find something that you can bring back that would describe you. We both had the hardest time and I almost said forget it and then just before I walked through the door I saw a piece of the clear plastic wrapper from a cigarette box. I know - you are all saying WHAT? I saw this and almost instantly thought about us as christians an how that is how we should be. Just like the clear plastic, that is how our lives should be. I want to be transparent - nothing fake.

I have left this next part for last. At craft time I went to ask D. or C. what the boundaries are for words that we can and cannot use. Just before I asked Katie came up and said that one of the girl buddies was having a problem with a boy and if someone could help. D. was going to do it and then stopped and asked if I would, that the boys sometimes do better with "men". That was his nice was of calling me old. (haha D.) Oh D. is David and C. is Christy. So anyway, I went out and found out that one of the boys was upset with someone else there and wanted to fight with him. He was crying though which was confusing. Well, instinctively as a dad I just picked him up and hugged him almost trying to rock him. He was not receptive at all, scratching and trying to bite. I found out that he is also developmentally challenged. This went on for about 10 or 15 minutes. It reminded me of a previous time in China which I will not go into detail. Anyway, Katie and I and the buddy, Pam, prayed for him right there. After praying I though about Andrew and asked if they could go get him. Andrew of course came out and within 30 seconds he had the boy out in the street kicking a small ball and playing. The guy is amazing. God has taught me so much by putting him across my path. He is the kindest person I think I have ever met. God has BIG plans for this guy. I went over to talk to Steve about it. He was talking to the number two guy from the univ. here and introduced me. Steve proceeded to tell him that Andrew would be worth any amount of money to have at his univ. Who knows what God will do. God gives special gifts to special people. This is truly a very special person. Sorry, more crying. I have to tell you that I never thought I would meet God so much in this place.

I will try and post some more photos now, captions and vids tonight. I'm off to the cold pool. Talk to you all later tonight.

Love, Bill

Tuesday Day 2

2008-07-29T11:29:00.004-04:00

Well, it is 11:30 pm. I just got to chat with Debbie online for an hour. I am not sure that I can stay up late enough to blog now. I think I will put more detail in tomorrow.

After the water park we had lunch, naps and then off to the pool. I think that is where I left off. I told Debbie already that I found out one of my buddies does have a Chinese name and it is Billy. Kind of funny. This girl Kate has a buddy named Katie also, which happens to be the one that has the translator, Sarah, that Bill has a little crush on. He is 11 and I think she is 22? She is very nice about it all. She has been looking out for him like an older sister.

So we went to the pool. I got a few more photos and videos. Then we had "family" time and then dinner. Dinner was good. they had brown noodles, white rice and a fried chicken. Andrew says I am good with the chopsticks - no forks here. After the dinner we did the assembly for singing an a skit which I was a part of. It was fun. The songs are semi-church related but the words are slightly altered since we are not allowed to tell the kids about God. What is funny is that the volunteers testified tonight that several of their kids say they are Christians. Billy was singing a song during craft time and then next thing I new Andrew was singing it with him (in chinese). It was a "faith" song. I tried to sing in Chinese God is so good but I could not remember the words correctly. Hopefully typing all of this wont get my blog blocked.

I learned that the pool shower is the best on campus and to bring shampoo with you and do the shower there. We are sweating all day so there is no reason to really worry about being clean and showering a lot. Bug spray or sun block on all day. We are so spoiled as Americans. These kids literally think of this place as Disney World - I think of it more like a Super 8. Kids have asked, what can I do to come here to school. Someone is actually investigating that.

Samples of songs at assembly time are Deep and wide, if your happy and you know it, head an shoulders knees and toes, etc... they are silly songs but the kids love them. Some of the craft times are coloring which many of the kids are very creative with. there are older girls (13-16) that are just amazing. There is one in-particular that the "world" would not consider pretty but if you ask me she is one of the most beautiful girls here. I am actually tearing up as I type this just thinking about her and some of the other girls. She is 15? I would take her home today if I could along with a couple others. They all have such sweet spirits and it is breaking my heart to type this about them knowing that they are going to finish their growing years in an orphanage and then just send out into the streets. she will draw pictures during craft time and sometimes cover over it in a protective manner. I do not think that they open up and "latch" on as easily as the smaller kids and boys. My goal is to find out more information about her and several other children before I leave. Oh yeah, I think I am going to need to do a fundraiser for all of the kids that I want to bring home.

Billy is an amazing boy. He has started to speak to me in English (partially). He is so eager to learn so that he can get a job and a house (leaving the orphanage before 18). The said part is that the translator did not believe it was possible - how sad... I am going to make sure that he NEVER relays that message to this boy. What a terrible thing to say. The exact opposite of the Hope that we are trying to bring at this "Bring Me Hope" camp. I probably would bring him home too even though it would be difficult but I truly believe that he will do just fine. I would venture to say that he is the smartest boy here at camp. I nominated him this week for a Kindness award, which he won. I saw him doing so many kind things for the other kids from his place. Giving his last piece of chicken or helping kids find their translators, that kind of stuff.

Forgive me if I start to repeat things. I am forgetting what I typed (or what day it is). I am truly having a blast. I wish we could all be put into a situation like this just once in our lives. The best part for me is that I have been able to act like a complete fool around people that I don't know. I really shouldn't say that I don't know them though. I think every one of them knows who I am because of being on the board (which they had announced). I am still waiting for my sign that I can hang on my chest so that everyone treats me special and shares their rations.... This is tied to a joke from sunday night that I will post later. I have met several people that I was able to instantly befriend. Just amazing when you join a group of people from around the world for one purpose.

Okay, it is midnight now. I think I will stop. Just continue the prayers for me and Pete and especially these children. Actually even more than that, the plan that God has for these children's lives. As I have already said, I would take several of them home in a seconds notice. This is something that I am not sure could really happen, even over time, but it is possible that God is sill working my family and what he wants it to be. How do you explain to someone, or at least someone who has never had children, how you can fall in love with a child in a day without hardly any interaction. I can honestly say there are at least two already that this has happened to with me. Please pray hard for me about this.

Thank you and I love you all.

Bill

Tuesday Day 2 - videos

2008-07-29T10:57:00.003-04:00

Sorry, having a problem getting the uploads of the videos to finish. I will try again later.

Tuesday - Day 2 of camp - I think?

2008-07-29T01:51:00.004-04:00

Hi Everyone. Before I forget, thank you all for the comments and encouragement. It is greatly appreciated.

Well, day two has been much better for me that day 1. I was able to sleep for several hours last night so that was nice, although the train is back. (sorry Pete). We got up (out of bed) around 6:30 am. Came down and blogged this morning and then off to breakfast. I think I drank two bottles of water before breakfast was done. I had peanut butter and cheese crackers and nutter butters. We had an assembly right after breakfast and then changed for the water park. See videos below. It was a blast. The pictures and videos tell he whole story.

After the water park was lunch. Mom and Debbie you don't have to worry, I ate today. The kids are down for their naps right now and then we are off to the pool. I went to the corner store for a coke and some snickers. Feeling a lot better.

That's it for now. See photos and videos.

Talk to you all later.

Bill

Monday - First day of camp

2008-07-28T09:10:00.005-04:00

Warning: there are 50 photos in the following slide, not exactly in order. I will post movies at the bottom of this post.

It is Monday night around 9:10 pm. I made it through the day but it did not start off all that well. Actually it started off well but once the kids arrived I got a REALLY bad dizzy spell. It lasted about 1 minute or more. It was bad enough that I had to sit down. Okay, Let me back the day up a little.

We got up VERY early. I think it was 5:15 am? Not really sure. Debbie can tell you, I gave her a call on Skype from here. Pete and I both tried to go to bed at 12:30 am. Pete woke up around 3:15. We were staying in the office because our room had 11 people in it. We gave up our beds for some of the translators. Excuse me if I already posted some of this. It has been a long day. By 6:30 am the guys unlocked our room so that we could get back in and brush our teeth, etc...

We met for breakfast and orientation at 7:30 am. I passed on breakfast. Well, I got a couple of slices of bread and some jelly. We did the typical going over the schedule and teams and then we did some team building exercises. It was great! You have to watch some of the videos. Unfortunately I do not have a video of the best game. I was in a group of ten guys that stood in a circle and then one guy in the middle would cross his arms and close his eyes and fall. It was called weeping willow but our group played it a little different. It should have been called the spinning top. It was incredible. We even pulled David over to do it once. The middle guy would fall back and then we were throwing him around in a circle while he was still lying back.

After that we hung out with the translators for a little bit and then came up stairs to do our blogs. Then Christy came in before I had the computer booted up and said the kids were here. PANIC. I ran down to the room and dropped of my stuff with Pete and then as I was leaving the room the hall started spinning VERY fast. I almost got sick (sorry). I had to sit down for a little bit. It did stop like it usually does for me so I got up and headed down the stairs to see the kids when it started again as I was going down the stairs. Pete and Steve made me go back to the office and lay down. They got me an ice pack and water and some protein bars. I am not sure what happened but it was the worst one I had ever gotten and never twice in a row. I think the excitement, lack of sleep, poor eating and lack of water got to me. I stayed in the office for about an hour with Tilly (Steve's wife). She was a great help.

The kids were at lunch with my translator, Andrew. He is a great guy. He told me that he is a christian and that his mother has taken him to church since he was a boy. He told me that he wants to learn from me. HELP!!! Lord give me the words. So I headed down to the cafeteria and Andrew and the boys were coming out. One of them (they do not have english names but I am calling him Jack) came running saying Bill and gave me a hug. WOW! that is all I can say. The other boy (who we are calling Bob) has some mental disabilities. He has a bright smile on his face most of the time. Jack is a little (hmmmm) wild. He is 12 years old and also told Andrew that he is a christian and that the church brought him to the school that he is at. (sorry, I had to pause, Nancy is singing and a few of us were joining in, lightly)....

Andrew took the kids to his room for a short nap so that I could lie down. He has been a great help all day. After we woke up we took the kids to the pool. It is AMAZING. It is a brand new facility - indoor pool. It is not heated but after the walk across the campus it was welcomed. We had to lice shampoo all of them and then wear swim caps (see photos). I took some photos and videos in the pool.

After the pool we went straight to crafts in the cafeteria. None of us brought a towel. I will remember tomorrow. The craft time has an Olympic theme. Jack colored very good and drew a cross on his. After crafts the kids stayed for lunch with Andrew and I ran down to the Cafe to have a chicken burger (it had a fired egg on it??). I was okay. Then I ran back down to the cafeteria where they were having an assembly. Singing and Conga, etc... It was a blast. Debbie you would be proud of me. I don't know a lot of these people enough to worry about making a fool of myself yet. Jack was running all around the place. He found a squirt gun and which I got back from him. He is not really a trouble maker, just full of energy. He is a very smart kid. Sarah, one of the other translators told me that he is 12 but is very mature for his age. After the assembly I carried him on my back, running down the street as he was yelling in Chinese, faster, faster. He is 12 but weights about the same as Jadyn. I told him good night in the hall as he left with Andrew and I said "see you in the morning" and he repeated it perfectly and gave me a hug. Again, all I can say is WOW!

I wish I could put into words all of the emotions that ran through me today but they just wouldn't do them justice. There are so many special needs children here. You may see some of them in the pictures. It would break the hardest of hearts to see the faces of these children. They are all so sweet. As I was teaching one how to swim and they would go off another would be on my side with just huge smiles. Several are down syndrome children that have never been able to go in a pool before. Actually I left out that one of the female translators came running up to me as I came out to the pool and pointed to one of the kids swimming out past the rope with his life vest untied. He was starting to go under water by the time I got to him and no life guards jumping in. Funny part was that I never let go of the camera when jumping in. It is a waterproof one but still - what was I thinking. Oh well, it all worked out fine. Another funny part was I had to do this more than once today. There are slightly over 80 kids here but only about 40 in our group - Team B - Green.

Well, that's about it for today. It was a long one. Tonight I think we have a lot less people in the room. I plan on getting a good night sleep an making sure to drink lots of water and eat tomorrow. Please pray for these witnessing opportunities.

Debbie, Tiff, Abby and Jade - I love you an miss you.

Mom - I read your post. I love you too.

We Made it to ZhengZhou

2008-07-27T09:21:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone. We made it to Zhengzhou. The flight was "okay". The a/c was not working until we got up in the air. I think there was a small riot on the plane about the a/c but nobody could speak english so we are not really sure. Everything went smooth at the airport, security and all - at least for me. I think Pete got strip searched.

David was at the airport to pick us up. He was towering over the locals waiting for people so he was easy to spot. It was about a 30 minute drive to the campus. I have to tell you without being negative at all that the campus does not look exactly like the website. The actual university is 10 years old but there are several parts that are brand new. We are staying in a part that is being refurbished. There is a restaurant down stairs that we can eat at during the week or we can have the cafeteria food. It has been suggested to go to the restaurant. The cafeteria is very Chinese. I actually had a club sandwich when we got here for dinner.

There is already a big group here - about 40 volunteers for the week. Christy, Patti and Steve K are here. I was able to talk to all of them about how the week has been so far. I was also able to meet Bethany who I have talked to for a year now but never met face to face.

The room is a dorm room. Tonight we have 11 people in one room but tomorrow will be better. I think we have the kids stay in the room with us. We have a meeting tomorrow morning at 7:30 downstairs and then the children will get here at noon. There are 80 kids coming this week. Several will have special needs such as down syndrome and learning disorders. I was told that the first week was a smaller group but an awesome one. I met one of the translators who accepted the Lord last year at a camp. Amazing things are happening here - Praise the Lord.

I will try and add some photos to the site and then fill you all in more tomorrow afternoon or night which will be Monday morning for everyone. Thank you, thank you, thank you again or all of your prayers. Everything has still gone smooth.

Love you all,

Bill

PS - Debbie, I love you and tell the girls that I love them. I might actually be able to get the iChat to work. Christy was able to get hers to work once.

One more post

2008-07-27T00:32:00.003-04:00

One more quick post with a few more photos from the first day. I wasn't sure if I posted them or not.... Be sure to check Pete's blog for the "cross" photo. http://hannahsdaddy-petey.blogspot.com

Take care, Bill

Sunday morning

2008-07-26T23:28:00.006-04:00

Hi all. It is Sunday morning around 11:30 am. The train did not come through as loud last night so I was able to sleep until 9:00 am. We probably would have slept longer if I didn't set the alarm. We got up, showered and good for us the breakfast at the hotel was open until 10:30 am.

Today is our easy day. We have a flight out of Beijing to Zhengzhou at 4:50 pm. The hotel concierge told us we should leave around 2:00 pm just to make sure we had enough time and because of all the Olympic security and traffic. I think we are both ready to leave here and get to the camp. We are anxious to see what has been going on over there. If you get a chance you can see a little of what has been going on at the Nanchang camp at Kristen's blog: http://kristensjourney07.blogspot.com/

Be careful though and have a tissue. I pray that all of you would keep Kristen in your prayers. She has such a sweet heart for these children.

The next step for us is to get to the campus tonight and then I believe the children will start arriving Monday afternoon. I pray for strength and a open heart. I am sure that I will see things that will break my heart but I pray that I can be strong for these children and do what we are here for which is to "show them hope".

On a slightly different track, I have to say that I did see quite a few dads with little girls on the wall yesterday and it was so nice to see them happy. We often generalize things that we hear and think that all Chinese men only want sons but that is not true. These dads were having fun playing with their girls and running on the wall. It just made me really happy to see and at the same time a little homesick for all of my girls. Our tour guide Jackie has a 9 month old daughter and his face just gleamed when he was showing me her picture. She is beautiful but then again aren't all children. They are so precious and we all, especially dads, need to remember that EVERY DAY! The time goes by so quickly but as I am being reminded a lot lately, it is never over. Our children will always need us to be there for them even when they are grown and on their own. I can personally attest to that as I do not have that type of relationship with my Dad and sometimes envy other men who do. We all go through life differently and hopefully we all learn life lessons from the paths that we take. I am not bitter about the path that my life went down because I only feel that it made me a better Dad. I am not perfect and never will be but if I try my best and trust God then I have done all that I can do. Sorry if I got a little preachy there. I decided to just type my thoughts this morning rather than write them down so I am just letting this flow out as things come to me.

It has been a great experience so far, just to get away from the cell phone and distractions that I have in my life. I have not watched a television show in over 72 hours and I have had no desire to. Well, I think I will stop here for now or I am going to start preaching again. I would ask that you still keep Pete and I in your prayers for the flights today and the rest of the trip. I can absolutely see the results from them so far. I would also ask that you pray for our families as I am sure it has been hard on them with us being so far away. I think Jadyn is having a hard time so if everyone could give her some extra hugs for me I would appreciate it more than you know. It is literally bringing me to tears as I write this. I miss them all so much. My connection with all of the girls is different and I know that she misses me being there and reading her nighttime stories. I still believe that she remembers a lot of what has happened in her life. I am not sure if she understands why I am really over here. I just hope that she does not think I have abandoned her. I Love her so much!!!

Debbie, I know this is hard on you. Know that I am thinking about you all of the time. I love you so much...

Okay, I am really signing off now. I might post one more time from the airport. If not I will chat with you all tonight. Thank you everyone.... :)

Bill

Saturday - Ming Tombs, Great wall

2008-07-26T09:23:00.004-04:00

Today we are touring the Ming Tombs, the Great Wall and a little shopping at the friendship store. Jackie (guy) is our tour guide who picked us up at 7:30 am. There was a couple at the hotel with us that was also going and then two other couples from different hotels (one from Tokyo and the other from England). Just before we got to the second hotel Pete was able to see a Fire Station. For those of you who do not know Pete is a Fire Fighter/Paramedic.

The first stop - Ming Tombs. It only took about 45 minutes to get there. This place was pretty cool. We got a lot of information from Jackie about the tombs and the emperors of China. I wont get into all of the details but there were some funny stories about how one of he emperors lost his title after only two years because of a woman and a fight with another royal family member.

Next stop - Jade factory. Not really too much excitement for me here. I have been to one of these in the past and it is a short tour followed by a store to purchase what you saw. Kind of like Disney dropping you off a ride into a store. This one was very expensive compared to others.

Next stop - Lunch at the friendship store. This is basically the same as the jade factory. hey give you a sort tour of how they make vases and such and then drop you into a store followed by lunch. There are a lot of neat items that you can purchase. This store is not for the locals, only tourists. The prices have gone up quite a bit since the last time we were here. I would say they have tripled. The lunch is a tradition Chinese meal with some American style items such as french fries.

Next stop - The Great Wall. This was only about 30 minutes from the lunch place. Pete and I went as high as we could go in the time that Jackie alloted for us which was about 30 minutes up and 30 minutes back. There is a lot of pollution so the visibility was not that great. he wall was crazy. It would go from 4" high steps to just a sloped walkway at probably a 50+ degree angle. Pete got a lot of looks and stopped a lot for the tattoos. They all wanted to read his arm. He got a lot of laughs too because he has ma ma (mommy) in Chinese on the front of his arm. We think they were laughing because he didn't know what it says but they didn't see the back side where he has ba ba (daddy). It was a really cool trip and a good opportunity to share with other people why we are over here and also talk about our adoptions.

The plans for tonight are small - eat, blog and sleep. I have been very lucky with the computer to be able to videoconference with the family at home over the Mac. The internet at this hotel is great. I am not counting on the same when we get to Zhengzhou (Jung - Joe). hopefully we will have a connection but if not thank you everyone for your prayers. They are definitely working as we have not hit a snag yet (knock on wood).

Bill

Update - We went down to dinner. We had the buffet in the hotel. It was good. I had duck, fish and chocolate cake for desert. Think I am going to crash now. More to follow tomorrow....

Saturday Morning - Beijing

2008-07-26T08:22:00.002-04:00

It's Saturday morning. I got about 5 hours of sleep last night. I think a train went through the room (or maybe it was just Pete snoring??). We decided to take a cab down to the Bird's Nest Stadium last night. We were not able to get in or even all that close because of all of the security but we did manage to get a couple of photos from outside the fence. There were literally thousands of people leaving the stadium as we were dropped off. We think they were there rehearsing for the ceremonies. It is amazing to see just how many people live just in this city of China. They have implemented an odd/even license plate rule for driving. If you have an even plate you can drive certain days and the same thing for odd. Even with this rule in place there is still a lot of traffic. There are 1300 new cars on the road in China every day - just amazing.

I'll back track a little and tell you that we went out to have an authentic Chinese dinner (Pete's choice). We had some interesting food. There was a shrimp dish that came out with the head, tail, shell and all. I tried ONE. Next was a mutton dish which was actually very good but very spicy for my taste. Last was a brown rice type dish with pork and duck (my choice). This was a very tasty dish. We spent about $15 for both of us including 2 cans of soda a piece. (Mark R, if you are reading this, Yes, Bill had two cans of Pepsi in China and I can tell you that they taste no better over here. I cannot wait to find a real can of Coke). What is really amazing is the service that you get at restaurants over here. They are constantly trying to please you and make sure you are 100% happy.

Breakfast was good. They always have American style breakfast foods at the hotels. Scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc... Pete was a little more daring with the Chinese breakfast foods then I was.

Bill

We made it!!!

2008-07-25T04:19:00.002-04:00

We are now in Beijing, China. The flight went great, the bags all made it and the Hotel shuttle driver was waiting for us. We are at the hotel and the internet connection is great (really fast). I believe we are on the 12th floor. The plan is to get some food and take a look around the area and then try and crash so that we can get on China time. It is 4:00 pm Friday afternoon.

Debbie, Tiffani, Abby, Jadyn - Hi, I love you and miss you.

123 miles to go...

2008-07-25T04:14:00.002-04:00

We are almost there. I was able to sleep for 4 - 5 hours since my last journal. We should be landing in about 15 - 20 minutes. Last thing I remember was watching Batman Begins and the time left to China was 6 hours. The flight attendant must have come by and put my TV away and took my head phones off because I know I didn't do it. No complaints so far. The trip has been great.

Bill

1813 Miles down and a lot to go...

2008-07-25T03:55:00.000-04:00

1/4 of the way there now and I am starting to remember being in Beijing - the sights, sounds and even the smells. It is a feeling that I have missed at times but now is starting to cause me to be anxious. The culture is so different there but nothing like I had first imagined. One of the goals for this trip is to try and take in more of that culture so that I can come home and share it with Abby and Jadyn. We sometimes feel that we robbed them of their heritage but at the same time know that it was not God's will for them to grow up in an orphanage. Debbie is probably getting a little scared reading this thinking that I am already thinking about adopting again and the plane has not even landed yet. I cannot say that will never happen because I have learned to never say never but I am not leaning in that direction, yet. I am praying that this trip will reveal more of what my goals are for my life and for that of my family. 1953 miles down and STILL a lot to go...

Bill

To Tiffani

2008-07-25T03:53:00.002-04:00

I am 351 miles into the trip and you came to my mind Tiff. I want you to know how much I love you and how proud of you I am. I know that Mom and I may get on your case about the little things but when it comes to the big choices and decisions I am really impressed by the choices you make. You never cease to amaze me at how much you have grown over the years. No more "little Tiffani" but you are still my little girl. I know at times it may seem that I am too busy for you or that I have to spend so much time taking care of Abby and Jade but I want you to know that I am always here for you. You have grown so fast and I constantly tell mommy how unfair it is. I wish you could stay little Tiffani forever but that isn't that way life is. God has big plans for your life but I do not mind waiting a little longer to see what they will be. You are truly an amazing young woman and I am very proud of you.

Daddy.

Still Day 1

2008-07-25T03:52:00.003-04:00

We are on the flight to Beijing. Pete started up a conversation with a couple behind us who ended up being one of the families with one of my websites. (www.weloveyougracie.com). I am constantly reminded of how small this world really is sometimes.

We made a stop at the Continental Presidents Club to grab a couple of snacks and post to the blogs before the flight. I think we must have snuck in somehow. They let me in and then stopped Pete. They told him that you must be flying first class or be a member to go in - which I am neither of but then she asked Pete if he was with me and said okay - go in. We think it might have had something to do with the Tattoos.

Anyway, we are on the flight and have the bulkhead row and an empty seat between us (way to go Pete). Distance for this flight is +7000 miles, 12 hours and 40 minutes.

Bill

PS - Pete saw Ann Currie (probably not spelled correct) in the waiting area. He couldn't get up the nerve to ask if it was her though.

PS #2 - Okay, I have to add another Ps right now. Pete is over there writing a book and making me feel that I didn't write enough so let's see - we stopped at the Pres. Club and got some bagels, I got a photo of the aircraft (777-200), oh and I got Pete to get out of his comfort zone and have him ask someone to take a picture of us. I am going to work on getting out of my comfort zone on this trip. I am sure the kids will have no problem helping out in that area. The plan is to let lose and have fun.

Bill.

Day 1 - July 24th

2008-07-24T10:52:00.000-04:00

It's about 8:00 am and we are on the flight to EWR. We were able (Pete) to get exit row seating for this flight. I have the whole row (3 seats) to myself so I can stetch out. It was an early morning - Pete called at 2:30 am to let me know that the flight from TPA to EWR was cancelled and we could either fly to EWR from MCO (Orlando) or wait until tomorrow. I opted for MCO. Daniel (Debbie's brother) was a good sport. Debbie called him to see if he would be willing to drive me over to Orlando. I can always count on him to help out with the hard tasks.

All the girls slept through everything, the phone calls, the noise, the dogs... as I tried to get ready to leave for the airport by 4:30 am. My Mom came over to wish me a safe trip (or try and talk me out of going one more time). She is just being a Mom.

Pete was able to get us on the same flight to PEK (Beijing) with the same bulk head seats that we had already setup. We should have plenty of leg room for the long 13 our flight. It will be really weird for me to go on this trip without the rest of the family. I will miss them a lot.

Jadyn brought me to tears last night. We were talking (or she was talking to me) while I was packing for the third time about the kids at the camp and all of the stuff that I am going to do with them like swimming, etc... Then all of a sudden she took off - she came back a minute later with a favorite book of hers (it has lions which she is really into right now) and said that I could bring the book with me to read to the kids. It just showed me the sweet heart that she has along with showing me how much she values the night time stories that I will have to admit are hard to do some nights. (Dads take a lesson from this). I just love her so much and will miss her a lot.

All of the girls gave me 9 hugs last night for the 9 days that I will be away. Abby needed a few extra - that's Abby. I read the Cat in the hat to Abby and Jadyn last night and then they read The foot book to me. They take turns reading each page.

Then there's Tiff. She is at those teenage years now. I know she will miss me and I will miss her terribly. I cannot believe how much she has grown over the years. We didn't read any books but she helped me so much by picking up last minute things for the trip and the orphans over there. Hopefully she will be able to go next year.

Well, Debbie was a trooper this morning for getting up with me and getting everything ready and calling Daniel. This will probably be the hardest on her. I will be praying for her every day that God would help her with the kids and the house (and let's not forget about the dogs). I love her so much and thank God for her every day.

I brought two bags with me totaling about 75 lbs. They are stuffed with items for the kids and the camp. We are only allowed 44 lbs. total when traveling in China so please pray that we will not have any problems with that.

I also wanted to thank Tim, Jack and Pastor D for calling and emailing. I appreciate the support and prayers. I am so glad to be a part of a church that has strong Godly men that are committed and have a love for the Lord.

I guess I will sign off for now. Debbie, Tiffani, Abby and Jadyn - I Love You... (you too Mom)

4:32 am Thursday

2008-07-24T04:23:00.003-04:00

Well, it's 4:23 am. I have been up for a couple hours now. I got a call that the flight from TPA to EWR was cancelled and we could wait until tomorrow or drive to Orlando. We opted for Orlando. Debbie's brother was kind enough to get up and come up get me and take me there. He is in route as I type this. I was talking to Tiff about some of the stress, etc that I was going through getting ready for the trip and it's Funny, but she told me that "someone" might be trying to keep me from going. She might be right. It should all work out. Pray that our flight from EWR to PEK (Beijing) is still good. They couldn't give us seat assignments over the phone....

Later from MCO (or EWR)...

Bill

24 Hours and counting...

2008-07-23T07:40:00.003-04:00

24 Hours and Pete and I will be on the flight to Newark and then off to China. Pete was ambitious enough to call early this morning and get us some bulk head seats over to Beijing so we will have plenty of leg room for the extremely long flight. (You're the man Pete!).

The nerves are kicking in now. I am excited, scared, anxious, nervous, and everything else that we are told not to be about anything. I am almost all packed for the second or third time. I think one more time ought to do it. We have a limit of (2) bags/50 lbs each over to China but our in country flight only allows 20 kg (44 lbs total for two bags). I have a medium and small bag that weight about 50 lbs together. I think we are allowed to pay a small fee for the extra weight when in China but I do not remember from our last trips exactly how that worked.

I am constantly reminded of the verse that the Pastor brought to us a couple months ago: Phillipians 1:27 "Whatever happens conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel..." Pete and I are being brought into a place where we can have a huge witnessing opportunity. I just pray that these children and translators will see the light in us.

I appreciate the prayers and ask that you continue to pray for me and my family throughout this trip. I will try and update this blog as much as I can.

Bill

Tiff is Home

2008-07-22T15:37:00.002-04:00

Tiffani came home from camp on Saturday. We thought she would be all tired out but she was too excited to tell us about everything that she had done. Funny but all I heard was that she made more friends and some were boys ?? Not sure I am too keen on that yet. No, she did have an awesome time and told us all about it. She apparently went sleep walking one night without disturbing anyone - might need to tie a bell on her foot next year. We did miss her a lot and we are glad she is home. We surprised her by decorating her loft for her while she was gone. This room was started a year ago and never finished so we decided to just start over and give it a fresh new look. Thank you everyone for the prayers of safety while she was away.

Bill

Gone for 4 days now...

2008-07-16T20:34:00.003-04:00

Well, Tiff has been gone for three days now. She did call us on Sunday and Monday but has since slacked off a little. I am hoping it is because she is having so much fun. We are all missing her and cannot wait for her to get home and hear all of the stories. We are in the middle of redoing Tiffani's loft while she is gone. We hope to get it painted and all furnished, time allowing. The projects never seem to get started on time. I will post some photos tomorrow or Friday of the progress that we make. Keep Tiff in your prayers as she is at camp and for the trip home safely.

Thanks, Bill

8 Days and Counting...

2008-07-16T20:23:00.004-04:00

Well, plans have changed since I last wrote. The camp has been moved from Beijing to a city just outside of ZhengZhou. There were some issues with the Olympics and such. The camp is now being held at SAIS, which is an International University that from what I can tell is the first US owned University in China. Here is a virtual link to the campus (warning: it is in Chinese): Click Here. The campus looks amazing and I hear they have a brand new pool which will be great for the children coming. This is going to be an amazing witnessing opportunity to the students of this campus.

The change in plans mean that Pete and I are going to have to take a plane from Beijing on Sunday over to ZhengZhou and then back to Beijing on Saturday morning for our flight home. We opted out for the 5 - 8 hour train ride. I am sure the trip will be amazing now I just need to get packed. Keep praying for both of us as we travel along with our families while we are gone and the team that is already over there. We have already seen how much God is in control of this and want to give him all of the thanks for making this possible.

Bill.

UPDATED! Leaving for China in 11 days, Disney trip and Youth Camp

2008-07-13T17:35:00.006-04:00

Well, 11 days and counting until me and Pete leave for China. It's getting more real every day and I don't think I am ready at all. I heard from David this week and the Nanchang camp is getting ready to start on Monday. He has warned me that is it really HOT over there right now. I am praying for a cold front to go through for us, hahaha. I am sure it will be a blast. We will be too busy to even notice the weather.

We just had a nice trip with the family over to Disney for a couple days. We decided to go ahead and get annual passes again. The little ones are at that age where it is really fun. We went on the new Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios (MGM). It is a really good ride. We actually went on it three times, although it broke one of the times. Jadyn was brave and went on Dinosaur. She "kind of" liked it but said the dinosaurs were big and scary. Abby wouldn't have anything to do with it. She is definitely Mommy's daughter. No thrill rides for them. I still couldn't get Tiff back onto Tower of Terror but she is getting a little closer to saying yes. Maybe in a couple more months. We couldn't believe that she was their age when she first went on it.

Tiff is leaving for camp tonight. Three hours and counting.... Not sure what we think about this. We still cannot believe that we have a teenager. I look in the mirror every morning and tell myself that I cannot be old enough for this. I am sure that she will have fun but we will probably worry about it the whole time (you know those over protective parents). Keep her and the rest of the group in your prayers for travel, safety and that they will hear the Word.

Bill.

Summer Camp Count down

2008-07-02T17:03:00.005-04:00

Well, 22 days until me and Pete leave for China. We are both very excited about this trip and maybe a little nervous at the same time. Hopefully going with Pete I wont come back with a tattoo. ?? I am looking forward to visiting the country again although I am curious as to what I will feel like when we are there. Both of the previous trips we came home with beautiful little girls. I wonder if I will feel guilty being over in there without them?

It should be a really good trip. We both would appreciate your prayers for a safe trip and for our families while we are gone. This will be really tough on the little ones being gone for 10 days (and the moms).

I will put in a little plug here for BMH. There is still time to donate to the summer camp. They are planning on being able to bring 400 - 500 children to the camp this summer. Obviously the cost for that is a lot. If anyone would like to sponsor a child for 1/2 day to 1 week you can do so via the following link: Click Here

Thank you again for all of your prayers and support - Bill.

2008 Family Photos

2008-06-22T11:38:00.008-04:00

Here are a few family photos from the last couple of months of 2008. Enjoy!