the prologue

I leave this Friday, June 3 from Chicago O' Hare to Beijing, China. I'm going with the organization ShowHope, founded by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth. In China we will be visiting Maria's Big House of Hope (MBHOH) in the Henan Province in China. MBHOH is a 6 story facility that specializes in caring for special needs orphans under the age of 5 years old. Here they will recieve life-saving operations and the love and care they so desperately need. ShowHope also helps families financially to adopt by way of donations and grants.

We will spend some time in Beijing and visit the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City. But we will be spending the majority of our time at Maria's Big House of Hope, which I am the most excited about!

You see, I was adopted from China when I was about 2 years old as a special needs orphan myself. I was born in China in the Hunan Province in 1989 and was abandoned as an infant. While living in China, my right hand was burned. Yet God used these events in my life to allow me to be adopted by a loving Christian family and to grow up in America with all the privileges and opportunities America affords. Although at times it's been a struggle and questions of "why" seemed to continually haunt me, I know God has put me where I am for a reason and a purpose. Everything that happens in our lives happens for a specific purpose.


Here is a picture from the first time that my mom held me on September 12, 1991 at the orphanage in China.

I hope and pray that through my personal testimony and story I will be able to encourage and love on these little children that I meet in China and that through this trip, God would give me a vision for how He would want me to serve in the mission field, whether it be at home or overseas.

Thank you for your prayers!