i'll be home for christmas....

well the new subtitle of my blog isn't exactly accurate seeing as i can't update my blog from pensacola...my college doesn't allow facebook, myspace, blogger, any social networking sites...
so....here's the update...
all summer i worked my rear off at A Beka Academy, 40 hours a week, successfully paid for MOST of my first semester of college :)
then, school began...i had 17 credit hour of classes, 22 actual hours of classes, and i worked 12 hours of week...plus about 12+ hours of required activities weekly including church, daily chapel services, student body meetings, collegian meetings, hall meetings, prayer group, fine arts events, etc.
my classes included biology, chemistry, english grammar and composition, history of civilization, and new testament survey. biology and chemistry both included labs that took up a large part of my week. i honestly loved my classes and my professors! a couple of professors got on my nerves but for the most part, they were awesome! my favorite professor has to be mr. knowles...he's like the stereotypical absentminded professor...he knows more about organic chemistry and quantum physics or whatever you want to know about but half the time he can't remember where his put his watch or to put the cap back on his pen before he puts his white dress shirts in the wash...one of the best stories he told was how on his first date with his now wife he explained Brownian motion to her when she poured creamer in her coffee...one of my favorite quotes by him has gotta be "ask questions, i won't take your head off, if it feels like i'm taking your head off it's only a milder form of what i could be saying"...i miss mr. knowles!!! dr. reese, my history professor, was also, AMAZINGGGGG, that man knows so much about history it's ridiculous...his stories about Martin Luther were amazing, and his commentary on all current events, SOOOO perfectly politically incorrect! he taught us that viewing history, Scripture has to be the final authority, like the mindset of Luther, "sola scriptura"!
life in dorms was...interesting. our room had to be one of the CRAZIEST arrangements on campus. me (from china) jenni (from scotland) deora (from the bahamas) and anna (from tennessee) it was cuh-ra-zyyyyyyy... we had 4 to a room, 8 to a bathroom = scaryyyyy
right now, i'm just enjoying a break from the madness, head back to school Jan 22
will write more later :)

at the beach, relaxin with the fam, hallelujah!!!!

this is going to be a reeeeally quick update of what i've been up to!
college hasn't officially started for me yet, it will start after labor day weekend, right now i'm just working my butt off to pay for it!!!!!! i'm working at A Beka Academy, the homeschool curriculum supplier that is based out of my college in Pensacola, FL. i work in a call center for 40 hours a week...dealing with craaaaazyyyy customers on the phone for FORTY hours is pretty exhausting...well not everyone i deal with is crazy, obviously, but the stories i could tell.....but...ya know...customer confidentiality, blah blah blah... :)
dorm life is....interesting. lol. my roommates are great, i'm really really lucky for the roommates i have! even though it is only for the summer...i'm kinda nervous about the new roommates in the fall, at least i'll know one of them! Jenniiiiii! :)
i'm really really excited for classes to start! it will be the very beginning to being on my way to a medical career! and then, a life in medical missions! :) the other night in campus church they introduced their missionary candidates...men who were missions majors with their wives, several of who were nurses, graduates of PCC, and i smiled and thanked my Heavenly Father for the crazy huge dream he has put in my heart as i whispered to my friend, "that's gonna be me...right there...one day, that's gonna be me..." me and my man, shakin up the world for Christ!
God is teaching me so much right now, changing me, i'm growing, and i'm SO excited for wherever He's taking me! my relationship with him is growing so much, and i'm so thankful for the joy, encouragement, and strength i find in Him day by day...
right now i'm with my family at the beach, and it is...uh...ma....zingggggg...I was walking around the beach and looking at God's beautiful creation and thanking Him for all the beauty He made just for us...i read this book that a friend of mine from college, a very very dear best friend, Dorothy, lent to me, and it talks about God being your Prince...i had an amazing walk on the beach with my Prince tonight! :)
it's been so good to be with my family!!!!!! i've missed my dad and mom and little brother and baby sister...and even the two knucklehead teenage brothers... :p
i'll be heading back on campus tomorrow night...
if anyone wants to reach me at college my student e-mail and phone are the best way.
e-mail: kmonge3798@pcci.edu (at least i think that's it lol)
cell phone: 334-207-6030

a whole new life starts...tomorrow.

it's been so long since i posted anything and it really feels pointless because i don't think anyone reads this thing...
i've been thinking a lot lately about the importance of making my own decisions, it's between ME and GOD, not anyone else...just as an example, the decision to go to Pensacola Christian College...my parents did not make that decision for me, nobody did...I made that decision after carefully praying about it and considering my options, weighing the pros and cons...i've always had to take crap for decisions before and it's not my first experience in taking crap for a good decision from brothers and sisters in Christ...doesn't make it any less of a bubble-bursting experience...let's look at this people, i'm an 18 year old straight A student who's never gotten into trouble, head screwed on straight, wants to go into medical missions, going to a Christian school with a reputable testimony not far from family...so people...shut your pie-holes...i'm actually grateful for the little discomfort people's ridiculous comments have caused me, i've never been one to really care what people think, but this is making me even stronger and teaching me to defend my decisions if i choose or to just say, to heck with that, it's my decision and i don't have to defend it...you'll always be taking crap from someone for your decisions...just like my dad has preached over and over again, there are benefits and consequences to every decision, good or bad...my heart is seeking God, He will keep me in perfect peace, and He'll have me where i need to be...
i had a wonderful time with friends and family at my graduation party at my grandmother's house! thanks to everyone who came for coming and thank you for your gifts! it meant a lot to me that everyone showed up and i appreciate all the words of encouragement and the prayers on my behalf!
i'm very thankful for the handful of close friends i have backing me up and really supporting me right now...Sarah, Kristina, Aubrey, Sami, Taylor, Kristen, and Ann - soooo thankful for you awesome ladies!!! Dan, baby, i would be crazy without you, thank you for everything you are to me...Andrew, Jennifergrace, Matthew, Anna, so glad to have you all to talk to!!
i have a summer job at the offices of A Beka curriculum at Pensacola Christian College in Florida, where i will be starting school in the fall, majoring in Nursing...tomorrow morning i leave for the campus of PCC...got my long denim skirt handy and i'm ready to rock 'n roll! oh wait........

sweet home Alabama, lord i'm comin home to you!

our flight from Chengdu to Beijing leaves in less than 12 hours!!!!!
from there, San Francisco...
then Atlanta.
then sweet home Alabama!!!!
i can't believe this is actually, finally happening!
we're going back to the states as a family after THREE years!
with Cassie's adoption finalized, when her feet touch American soil, she is a citizen!!!
saying my goodbyes at the graduation and then at fellowship and then tonight with our close friends, was very very very difficult...i will miss China so much <3

GRADUATION!!!!

I'm graduating in less than 24 hours!!!! I'm sooooo excited!
Pray for me as I give a speech in front of about 200 people! SO nervous!
I hope we have a good day of celebration with friends and family! :)
Should be awesome!!! Pics coming soon!

Time is flying...

one week until my best friend visits from beijing!!!
and i have a ton of school i need to do...
less than one month until i graduate!!!
and i have no idea what i'm going to say in a speech...
little more than one month until we leave for the states!
i'm already dreading the packing...
two months until i start work at PCC!
i'm going to have to resist the urge to answer the phone "wei? ni hao"...
four months until i start college!!!
and idk what i want to major in...
sooooo much going on!!!
i covet your prayers!!!

Happy Easter!

It’s getting closer and closer to time for graduation and I have mixed emotions about leaving China and starting a new phase in my life at college…the weekend of March the 20th (my 18th birthday!!!!!) was an AMAZING time with the Chengdu Homeschool graduating class of 2010!!! The four of us- Hilary, Eva, Nate, and myself- took a trip to Mian Yang and stayed in the house of some friends of Hilary’s and visited with Aric, the photographer who took our senior pictures. We had a BLAST!!! Not a fancy senior trip by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s all about perspective and the people you go with! It was amazing to spend time with what Aric described as the up and coming generation of world changers, raised in a foreign country and excited about serving the Lord anywhere he leads! Though we have our differences and disagreements (such as our two hour long heated argument on Calvinism and then later on eternal security), I know we all consider ourselves blessed to be graduating with a class who is on fire for the Lord and seeking His will for our lives!

Our senior trip and senior picture shoot was a HUGE success and SO much fun! I will be posting those to facebook soon and maybe a couple here as well. After the shoot in Mian Yang, Aric came to Chengdu and took TONS of pictures of our extraordinarily attractive graduating class at our favorite hangouts downtown.

The next week Aric came back to Chengdu again and made our family pictures! It was the first time getting to make family pictures with Cassie officially OURS and also our last chance to make family pictures with me before I leave home! Monger family photo shoot day 2010 will always be an amazingly fun bittersweet memory… <3

I’m going to do a little bit of an advertisement here, you can see a selection of our family pictures and my senior pictures on Aric’s website: www.aricberger.com

It is 48 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes and 42 seconds until Saturday, May 22, 2010 (Beijing time).

A countdown website has become my new favorite toy. lol If you’re wondering, May 22^nd is the day I *officially* graduate from highschool. I have to give a speech and I still have no idea what I’m going to say.

A few days ago I received in the mail a Circle Journal, a project that’s been a couple of months in the making by the 2010 freshmen of PCC. The journal started out in Arkansas and has been to Malaysia and now China, and next is heading to Scotland to my own dear future roommate, Jenni. Each person decorates a page, pasting pictures, drawing doodles, sticking stickers, whatever it takes to show their personality. I finished my page the night before last, SO much fun and such a good idea!

Yesterday we got Cassie’s travel papers, which is funny because it’s basically just permission for us to come to China (lol) to GET her. Joke’s on them? Typical Chinese governmental way of doing things, done under the table but with a paper trail a mile long to make everything appear official. Who cares? We have our girl and we would do anything to have her. <3

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we have a fun day planned with our International Fellowship. A picnic, an easter egg hunt (without the eggs, just candy), and little girls wearing their best dresses so that moms can take lots and lots of pictures for the grandparents back home. You always hear this around Christmas time but I think even at Easter it’s important to remember “the reason for the season.” I often remark on how thankful I am to have grown up here and one reason that I say this is that I have been protected, in a sense, from many things that grow up like weeds and choke the Christian walk of believers in wealthy nations like America. When I think of Easter, I don’t automatically have the images of commercialism that an American would have. I don’t see pastel colored marshamellow poultry, chocolate rabbits or dyed hard-boiled eggs. Yes, all of those things are wonderful memories I have with my parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins, but when I think of Easter, what I really think of is the fact that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead so that souls of people who’ve never even heard of the Easter bunny can be saved from an eternity of separation from God in hell, raised to life everlasting, and given the gift of this life to live more abundantly. Oh, Death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, thy victory? One thing that makes Christianity unique is that we serve a living Savior. Without the resurrection our faith is vain. The apostle Paul expresses it much more eloquently than I ever could.

1 Corinthians 15:1-22

¹Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; ²By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. ³For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; ⁴And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: ⁵And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: ⁶After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. ⁷After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. ⁸And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ¹¹Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. ¹²Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: ¹⁴And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. ¹⁵Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. ¹⁶For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: ¹⁷And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. ¹⁸Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. ¹⁹If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. ²⁰But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. ²¹For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. ²²For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

PS: I do miss all of my family in America very much at Easter time, even our silly traditions like making half-grown people still hunt for easter eggs with candy and quarters inside…thank heaven for Linds and Cassie, maybe Johnny, Dana, and I will finally be allowed to nap with the dads instead of tromping through the grass looking for our plastic eggs now. Granny Dianne, Granny Barb, Uncle Bobby, Aunt T, Johnny, Dynasty, Lindsey, Uncle Robert, Aunt Michele, Dana, Dawn, Uncle Bubba, Aunt Joyce, and others…miss you all, love you, and make mention of you always in my prayers. <3

SHE'S OURS!!! thank You, Jesus, she's ours!

this is probably the most joy-filled post i will ever have the blessing of writing!!!
today we got our referral letter, Cassandra Joy is officially OUR baby girl!!!
she's my little sister...for real...forever...
i half sobbed, half laughed and screamed like a maniac in the middle of the street when i heard my mother say the words "she's ours!" over the phone!
right now i'm rejoicing and spreading the news with just as much energy and enthusiasm with which i prayed for this day to come!
of course Cassie has NO idea what is going on, she's wondering what all the fuss is over, it's like she's having a birthday!
when we got the news, Mom asked her, "Cassie, do you want to be our little girl and only ours, forever and ever?"
she thought about it a while...
"uhmm...no...i wan' pizza!"
spoken like a true Monger! :)
so we celebrated with family dinner!
thank You, Father...
thank You, Jesus...
thank You, Spirit...
she's ours...
she's really really finally ours!

formspring.me

post questions for me anonymously!!! :)

www.formspring.me/chengduchica

Life in limbo...

a lot has been going on since i actually WROTE a post...
Qiao Qiao left our family...i am so thankful for the blessing of having him to hold and love and pray over, even though he was only with us for a short while...he's now living in Chong Qing with some amazing girls and is awaiting his cleft lip/cleft palate surgery...please continue to keep him and the girls caring for him in your prayers!
chinese new year was...amazing! so many good memories made with friends and family! the fireworks were breathtaking as always but i was actually ready for them to STOP this year after the 15th day...we sent off lanterns off of our rooftop this year, something we'd never done before, that was beautiful...and oh my, the food! so much delicious Sichuan food! it was bittersweet for me because it's probably the last time i'll be in China for Chinese new year in at least four years, so i was very thankful for the special time i had with my family! it was a very relaxing vacation and we were all very sad when school started back...
it's been a roller-coaster of a month as far as Cassie's adoption...first we got news that we don't have enough money to adopt...yeah, we're not exactly in this country for the money...then my parents found a way to be able to clear things up there, so that was a relief...but for the last few days all the feedback has been very positive and we're all becoming hopeful that we're nearing the end of this painful process! please keep us in your prayers, we greatly appreciate all the prayers and words of encouragement!
some good news i received just a couple days ago was that i have been hired to work as a secretary at Pensacola Christian College over the summer in the A Beka Academy Offices! this is a huge blessing and answer to prayer since i really need the funds and work experience! my mother and i will be heading back to America sometime soon after May the 22nd (my graduation) and i will begin work at PCC on June the 21st.
i've been wondering about so many things lately, stressing out about leaving my beloved China (which is home to me), having my first job, learning how to drive, starting college, figuring out my major, what exactly i want to do with the rest of my life...i just keep reminding myself that no matter what happens, God will see me through it, if i keep my focus on trying (to the best of my ability, though sometimes unsuccessfully) to live HIS will for my life...i know there's going to be trials and tribulations and i'll make mistakes (lots of them) but i'm so thankful for the peace of mind that i can have because of my relationship with Jesus Christ, knowing that that is the ONE thing that will never change...i'm also thankful for the amazing family He has given me who will support me no matter what and the friends and church family who all believe in me and want to see me reach my full potential, even when i don't have faith in myself...my parents, who have always been my best friends, counselors, teachers, and confidants...the girls in my bible study, sarah, sami, kristina, aubrey, and taylor...you girls have such a sweet godly spirit, and i appreciate your heart for serving others and the encouragement and accountability you are in my life! adam & candice, who are always there if i need people older and wiser to talk to, even if they don't like to be reminded of that fact! haha! i am thankful for my dearest friends that i know will be there for me if i need anything!
so this is it...my last three months living at home...my last three months (at least for a while) living in China...i'm sure i'll have much more to write about after graduation and all the transitions and adventures of starting life on my own begin, for now, life is in limbo.
on a much lighter note, my 18th birthday is this month! i don't have any plans but i'm super excited to turn 18! :)

"A Peculiar Proposal"

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/02/16/a-peculiar-proposal/

ladies, would your man count you worthy for such a cause? and would you be willing to follow and lay down your life?
dads and moms...would you let them go?

"My Family" according to Samuel Cole Monger

Well where do I start? Well when I was 7 we got a letter from an orphanage saying that there is this girl she is dying and will you take care of her so my mom being a soft hearted mom we decided to say yes so now I have the cutest little girl ever she is one of my 2 sisters and I have 2 brothers. don't get me started on my family I got the best mom and dad ever my two brothers Kyle, and craig they're brothers all rite but don't tell them I said this but I love them and they love me all tho they may not say it but they do. My older sister Kristen she is da bomb she and me have always been best friends I love her so much. My younger sister Cassie aww she is so cute I love her so much. And that’s my family.
So hope you injoy it.
-Cole

Family of God

Tonight was AWESOME! Earlier yesterday a Chinese friend of ours called and said that she and two other ladies wanted to visit with us for a while this afternoon to wish us a happy chinese new year. Ok, three ladies, coming at 4 in the afternoon for a casual visit. WRONG! We should have known better, after all, this is China! At 4 o’clock the three ladies showed up PLUS three more people with LOADS of food! Then, people just started showing up! Every person bringing more food than the last until our entire dining room table was COVERED in everything from chicken feet to banana bread (OUR contribution)…mmm all that spicy deliciousness, I just love Sichuan food…after everyone had a chance to catch up and talk about new years vacation plans (girls laughing and chatting while preparing the meal in the kitchen while the guys drank tea in the living room and fussed at the girls to hurry up with the FOOD) our friend Dave led us all in a word of prayer thanking the Lord for this past year and asking for safety and health for the coming year for every family present…that was a special time and I am so thankful for our national brothers and sisters! THEN, it was time to chow down! There was SO much food, I can’t even begin to describe...chicken, duck, eel, rice cakes, sausage, noodles, tofu, and much much more…I ate WAY too much, but after all that’s what Chinese New Year is all about! The FOOD! And of course spending time with friends and family! I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God! Chinese New Year Day isn’t actually until this Sunday, but the celebrating has started all over the city! We have bright red paper cut-outs on our windows and door, and red lanterns hanging up in the den. We’re having a part with our lao wai (foreigner) friends this Saturday night. Happy Chinese New Year, ya’ll!

Peace Through Strength

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

"The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.

His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country's nuclear drive is peaceful.

(http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.e0b08e9e64fe15a987c1cf73dd8c5fe2.521&show_article=1)



* * * * *


The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States where 53 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution.
In Iran, the crisis strengthened the prestige of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the political power of those who supported theocracy and opposed any normalization of relations with the West.
On January 20, 1981, 20 minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President, the American hostages were released by Iran into U.S. custody, having spent 444 days in captivity.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis)


* * * * *


I think my point is pretty clear. Peace through STRENGTH.


si vis pacem, para bellum

Chengdu Breathalyzer

funny story…we were driving home from eating dinner out at peter’s Tex-mex, a fact that is irrelevant to the story, but, I love peter’s…anyways, as we were coming off of this overpass, we get pulled over to the side of the road by a cop along with a line of other cars…the cop walks over to our car and my dad rolls down his window, and the cop just sticks his hand (wearing a white glove) right in the window, in front of my dad’s face, and tells my dad to breathe…so, my dad, with a very funny look on his face, BREATHEs on the dude’s glove, the cop pulls his hand back and SNIFFS the glove…spread germs much??? heard of swine flu??? allllll the other drivers in chengdu have been breathing on that dude’s glove, and then he SNIFFS it!! (btw there was a crowd of like FIFTY drunk drivers lined up on the side of the road…I wonder if “that police officer’s nose isn’t reliable!” holds up in traffic court?) there you have it…chengdu breathalyzer!!! hilariously disgusting…

Our Hospital Ordeal and Praise to the Great Physician for a healthy baby boy...

I’ve been meaning to write this blog for quite some time now, I just keep putting it off because there’s just SO much to say I know I’ll just end up rambling and get frustrated…last Saturday when we were at a friend’s house for dinner, baby Qiao Qiao’s breathing got really really strained…he had been coughing for a few days before that but nothing too serious, but this, was serious…we got very nervous and the two families gathered in the living room laying hands on Qiao Qiao and beseeching our Heavenly Father to touch the precious baby and heal him...after a powerful time of prayer, we decided to take him to the emergency room…we left our friend’s house at about 8:30 in the evening and went straight to the closest pediatric hospital where we saw a physician who gave us a 2 minute examination and a diagnosis of “pneumonia/bronchitis” and we were told that he needed IV antibiotics but there were no empty beds in that hospital, so we (now my mother, our good friend Eva, myself and baby QQ) got back in the car and drove to another hospital…at this hospital we were told the same thing, no beds, and were sent away again…at the third hospital they wanted to take the baby away from us and put him in a room where we would only be allowed to even LOOK at him once for 5 minutes every THREE days…and, as you can imagine, we said HECK no! so, we piled back into the car, frantic, carrying a baby who was barely breathing and got back into awful Saturday night Chengdu traffic…at this point I remember thinking to myself that this must be very much like what Mary the mother of Jesus was feeling like when she was about to give birth to the King of Kings and NO one would offer her a bed…at that point it would have been like “oh come on!! My water just broke and you don’t have a SOFA or SOMETHING??” for us it was “come on, this baby is about to suffocate out in the winter air and you people call yourselves a hospital when you’re totally unprepared to handle FLU season??” anyways…finally, at the fourth hospital, a doctor was kind enough to call another hospital and ask if they had any empty beds BEFORE sending us back out into the cold…he found us an empty bed so we went to this tiny little pediatric hospital in a busy, central part of town…when we got there the hospital was SO quiet, there was very little staff on duty (it was, after all, MIDNIGHT at that point) and the doctor who examined Qiao Qiao almost bit my head off because I woke her up accidentally knocking on the door of her office…FINALLY, at half past midnight, we were given a bed, in a private room (insert: PRAISE JESUS!!!) with a private western toilet (and again I say HALLELUJAH!) and the poor baby boy began his far-too-long-for-21^st-century-medical-practices treatment… at that point mom left to go get necessities for the baby like FOOD , diapers, blankets, etc etc, and Eva and I settled in for a LONG night…we passed the time in praying, praising Jesus for every little blessing of the evening that we could name, and encouraging each other, staying awake and alert as nurses came in and out of the room for hours…I want to thank Eva for staying that night with me in the hospital, without her sunshiny outlook and encouragement and prayers I wouldn’t have been in as good a state of mind as I was! Qiao Qiao’s treatment went on for one whole week, 7 days, from 9 in the morning till 8 at night they pumped antibiotics into his tiny body…one main frustration was trying to get an IV into a baby on whom it’s nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find a vein through his thick, scaly skin…The doctors and nurses were unbelievably helpful and kind throughout our entire stay and mom and I both agreed that any future medical problems we have with children will be taken directly there! One funny thing, to pass the LONG hours spent in the tiny, cold hospital room, I devised a game…my mother and I named the doctors and nurses of “our” little hospital after Grey’s Anatomy characters…don’t judge…it was quite comical, especially when the short bald older man with nose hairs was dubbed “McSteamy” and the charming, chubby, young doctor with HUGE glasses took on the role of “McDreamy”…and then there was ”George”…oh “George”…the sweetest man, he was a doctor’s aide (I’m guessing that’s a legitimate title, that’s what he’s known as in China anyways)…he was SO kind and compassionate towards Qiao Qiao, making numerous inquiries about how he came to be with our family and how we care for his skin…on our third or fourth day there he brought Qiao Qiao a tiny stuffed panda, SO cute! I was actually able to share just a tiny bit of “why we do what we do” with “George”, I told him “wo men you zhe zhong xing, gei zhe xie hai zi wo men de ai, shi yin wei wo men xiang xing shang di, shang di xian ai wo men, suo yi wo men xiang ba zhe ge ai chuan gei bie en” Translation: We have this heart, to love these children, the reason is that we believe in God. God first loved us so we want to show that love to other people.” His response was very positive and I remarked to my mother that MAYBE, just maybe, God put us through the terrible ordeal of Saturday night because at this tiny remote hospital there was a young doctor whose heart was ready for seeds to be planted…and if so, it would be SO worth it…

Anyways, after all that, Qiao Qiao is now doing just fine! He did have pneumonia and maybe a touch of bronchitis (that got a bit lost in translation), but he’s completely back to normal now! Praise our Heavenly Father, the Great Physician, and thank you to all of you who were lifting up the little guy in prayer!

it's been a busy busy week...

so it's been our first WHOLE week with little baby Qiao Qiao...
he is really just the SWEETEST little baby, we're all completely taken with him, he's adorable, but caring for his skin requires a LOT of time and attention...me and mom are pretty worn out from that...
craig turned 15 this week!!!! :) happy birthday, craigy!
also this week i've been spending a lot of time planning my highschool graduation with two other homeschooled seniors, we met on Monday and made plans and then went shopping on Friday and got invitations and tried (in vain) to find caps and gowns...yeah, NOT so easy to find around here...
last night we had a HUGE dinner with our good friends, my dad made BBQ ribs, soooo good!!! :P
then today at fellowship i had the little kids sunday school, those little kids wore me OUT! haha i'm SO tired, it's been babies babies babies all week! and it's sunday night! sunday night gets poisoned because it comes before monday morning! haha ugh i have school in the morning...
and i'm just rambling...

Introducing...foster baby #4, Qiao Qiao!!!

we got our new foster baby today!!!
the sweet, precious, little angel has been a brave boy with all the changes he's faced today!!
saying goodbyes to his last foster family was tough, they will always be a part of his life and i hope and pray one day when he's grown he will hear all about the family who saved his life and loved him... <3
we're going to be keeping sweet little Qiao Qiao for about one month, and i can already tell he's going to be a joy to have around! his cleft lip and skin condition are extremely challenging to care for but his bright eyes and sweet smiles are worth it! :)
please continue to pray for our family and this special baby boy!! thank you!!