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!

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