Tennessee to visit Grammy and Grandaddy

Beth, Becca, and I are headed off to TN to visit my Grammy and Grandaddy tomorrow. I am so excited! We have been wanting to make it out there ever since my Grammy moved into her new home. She was widowed over a year ago, and now has a new home...ready to host us girls (her home before was too small). So, for those of you who know Grammy, you know we are in for the time of our lives...

What is really cool about this trip too, is that Becca and I are going to share about BMH at Grammy's church and at Grandaddy's Sunday School class. I'm really kind of nervous, because this will be the first time that I am the leader...in all the other BMH trips I've been on, David or Nate have lead the sharing times, and I just add my story when appropriate. This will be my first time giving the intro into what BMH is in front of a large congregation. Becca will do most of the sharing at the Sunday school, but I just found out from Grandaddy that the Sunday school has 60 single and married young people in it. Yikes! Please pray for Becca, Beth and I as we present BMH.

More Pics from our NJ Tour

Chatting at our Benefit Show.

Jenny, Emmy and Me

The Best News Ever

Dong Li and Dong Ya's orphanage said, Yes! There are so many steps in the adoption process. And a huge one is that the orphanage must be willing to do the girls paperwork. The orphanage didn't file their paperwork before because they thought that no one would want 9-year-old twins. Now, we have to pray that the CCAA (the Chinese Adoption Affairs) will put the girls paperwork in A Helping Hands pile. If they do not put the girls paperwork in A Helping Hands pile, than the family that wants to adopt them, probably won't get them. The good news is, that becuase the orphanage is going to do their paperwork, for sure they will get adopted!!!

We're Back

David, Adam, and I made it back to sunny San Diego. We were pretty cold in NJ...but look at the colors in the trees. It was beautiful there. I never get to see the changing of the colors, unless I travel. While in NJ, we were able to share with so many people about Bring Me Hope. People warmly received us and were really interested in what BMH is doing. We even had one family say they feel called to adopt!!!

Kristen and I stayed at the Padden's house (you can see there daughter in the picture). We felt so loved and taken care of by their family. It was just like being at home. They have 5 girls and 2 boys too! They just adopted Eli, one of the kids that was in the preschool that David and I taught at PHF 4 years ago. I love to see children who were once orphans in a family. They are forever changed. Eli came home 8 weeks ago.

We had a benefit concert as the final event of our tour. The band, Unspoken came and did the music. I was able to speak with some of the band members while we were eating dinner. I was so blessed by how friendly they were and interested in what is going on with Bring Me Hope. The band was able to draw new people to the benefit that otherwise would not have heard about BMH. As a result, 10 people filled out "Go Cards" expressing interest in volunteering Summer 2008.

Now that I'm back home, I'm working on planning future tours, our winter retreat, and starting to think about Summer Camp 2008.

BMH Team goes to NJ

Tomorrow, David and I are headed to NJ to join Nate and Kristen (our beloved BMH staff) in a speaking tour around NJ and PA. Kristen is from PA. Her parents are hosting a house party for BMH so that we can share about China with their neighborhood and friends. Nate is from NJ and is organizing a giant benefit dessert and entertainment night on Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes...