The Crew

The Crew
Christina, Matthew, Joshua and Katie Grace XiHua

Sunday, January 30, 2011

EVER HAVE ONE OF THOSE WEEKS? THEN A GREAT MORNING OF INSPIRATION!


I am usually a super positive and energetic person, but we have had a pretty hard week. Our beautiful dog, Ginger, dying was the biggest blow to us. To add to it, I had a couple other things slow me down:

I pulled my hamstring muscle in a show I dance in, at Disney. I pulled it to the point that I can't even lift up my leg to put it into my pants today. (and I have to perform in that show tomorrow, only God knows how).

Then I woke up this morning to get everyone ready for church, and I felt a virus down deep in my chest and cough beginning. (and I have to also sing in that show I do, so I need my throat to be healthy.) Ok, so anyway I thought, no problem, take cough med, go to church.

THEN I get in the car with my daughter to go and pick up her boyfriend to attend church with our family, and the "check engine" light comes on, ugh! Are you kidding me??

Now, I am not one of those "the devil is under every chair" kind of people. I do know there is a devil, and we need to be on our guard. But I don't think everything that goes wrong is the devil. Things just sometimes go wrong or they are meant to go wrong for a better good. But, I had this feeling that I was being overwhelmed so as not to attend church today. So I decided, we are going no matter what!

We arrive at church and guess what, a special guest, A MISSIONARY, is speaking at our church today! It was just the encouragement I needed after I finally shared my "I Have A Secret Dream" post a couple of weeks ago here, and suddenly a missionary comes to speak! Our church is growing, but has not had a Global Missions or Orphan Care ministry as yet. They have a community feeding center and outreach, but I have been praying for a global outlook! This was such an encouraging and heart wrenching presentation today, and I feel that it opened up the hearts of our people to begin considering the SUPER importance of a Mission/Orphan Care program. I was meant to be there today as another step for what God has in store!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

WE HAVE I-800A APPROVAL!!


Ok, so things are moving along, a little more slowly than I had hoped, but honestly what else is new, LOL! This whole journey is long and slow. But will be soooo worth it!

We have had our home study and dossier authenticated and ready for about a month. We had our fingerprints done on January 4th and from there have been waiting for this approval. Now that we have it, we need to authenticate it, and then our dossier will be off to China.

Chinese New Year begins in a few days I believe, so that will slow things down for a few weeks. I imagine we will have "Log In" about 2 weeks after dossier arrives in China and then we begin our wait for LOA (Letter Of Approval) which takes up to 60 days. Then following will be a couple other important immigration docs.....

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

GOODBYE DEAR OLD FRIEND

We lost our beloved family dog, Ginger, last night. We've had her for nearly 15 years, since Christina our oldest was 1 year old. She was so sweet, loving to the kids, and a friend to me through thick and thin. Always right there by my side. She died as we sat around her and pet her. We cried and cried. I will miss her beautiful fluffy golden coat and her gentle brown eyes always looking up at me with kindness.

I don't have any puppy pics of her scanned, but here are some from the past several years.






Friday, January 14, 2011

A-MAZ-ING. THIS VIDEO "SHOUTS" WHAT MY HEART FEELS AND IT REALLY MOVED ME TO THE POINT THAT I MUST SHARE!

Through our conversations, I would venture to say that most of my "blogging friends" that I chat with here are Christian. But I also know that I do have some very dear friends here who are not Christian, and I am so joyful for all of my friends as we live in love and acceptance of each other.

This video has a strong Christian message. If you are Christian, as I am, you will see the biblical responsibility this video charges us with. If you are not, I still feel that the message of this video is raw human kindness and responsibility, and should tug at the heart of anyone, of any faith, to act and bring relief to the hurting people in this world!

I love the passion with which this man, Eric Ludy, speaks.

Just imagine YOUR child.

(you will have to first scroll down to the bottom of this page and pause my blog music! Please watch this!)


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I HAVE A SECRET DREAM.


I have a secret dream.

I am an actress. I perform on stage doing theatre, singing, dancing, comedy. I do commercials and hosting. That probably sounds a lot more glamorous than it actually is! LOL! My husband does the same. We have been blessed to work for many years, but we are still basically the old title of "staving artists" when I gets right down to it!

So you might think that my secret dream is to "make it big" in a movie or on Broadway. Be a Star! Earn the big bucks! At times in my life, that has been the dream, but deep inside my heart, my true dream keeps creeping up as something completely different.

I dream of being..... A Missionary. There I said it. I never really say that.

I continually read missionary books, watch missionary videos, and dream of travel to far off lands, starting an orphanage, or a feeding center, getting medical help to the needy and just being there with the people.

When the thought of traveling to Africa or China and working in a orphanage or with a feeding mission is more exciting than an exotic trip to Europe, that's unusual! Does anyone else feel that way?? Please share!!

I know you will say, "How could you be a missionary, Annie?" Impossible! You are married. You have (soon) 4 kids. You have family, a job, a house payment, cars, people, futures to think of. I Know! I TOTALLY agree! I know it is a ridiculous idea for us to be missionaries. It's not even close to what we do!! So WHY do I keep dreaming I could do that??

I have made steps to fulfill (quell?) this desire. Things I can do HERE. I am a Guardian Ad Litem, working with children in the foster care system. My daughter and I spent many Saturdays volunteering at the homeless shelter. We are adopting our precious daughter. I blog. We "give". I love all of these and these are all steps that God has given us to take.

But instead of quelling my desire to travel to far off lands, those things just INCREASE my desire! UGH! So, there must be something more in the future. Something. I really don't know what it is. It may be something I'm not even thinking of. It may be totally different. But I just know there is something.

Jeremiah 20 :9
But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!! 12 YEARS OLD!!!


Matthew. What a boy. He is such a sensitive, considerate and helpful young man! Matthew is always willing to lend a hand, when my other kids sigh. :-) Matthew is always the one to give hugs and to ask me if he can do anything when I'm not feeling well. Don't get me wrong, ALL of my kids are SO special to me and have their own special traits. They are helpful, and of course all do caring things. I'm just saying that today, I would like to honor Matthew's especially thoughtful, considerate nature. That trait is his gift from God. Happy Birthday Matthew!

Many hungry children near the boarder of Myanmar and Thailand-click on photo