This Post Ended Up Being About Three Paragraphs Longer Than I Thought It Would Be! HA HA! SORRY!!

SO....we have pictures up on our website of our "Paint-A-Stone" Event! WOO HOO! (I was very excited about this because it has taken me since the day of the event to figure out how to put pictures on! LOL!) I am working even as we speak to figure out how to put the slide-show on the website so EVERYONE can watch! I made the slide-show last winter and I never knew how to put it on youtube or anything for others to watch. I hope I can figure it all out and get it up where people can see it. It is a touching slide-show and I hope it moves people's hearts in the same way mine has been moved.

I just kind of want to say one other thing: I am so thankful for all of the people in the world that love and care about and reach out to orphans. I am learning that "those" kinds of people are few and far between, and when you find one, it is a rare treat. For those of you out there who "have a heart" for orphans (so to speak), I LOVE YOU!!!!! Thank you for your kindness. There are not words to describe how I feel towards you. All I can manage to say is THANK YOU!

I am having a really hard time right now "staying put"!! I want so badly to run to China and start on this great work I feel called to do. However, I have learned over the years that God's time is the BEST time (even better than mine...I know, surprising!). I have really been humbled as I have waited for so many years to do this great work...but I have seen the importance in the waiting.

It was well over 15 years ago that I first had the notion to open an orphan home in China. When I was in China, I tried SO hard to make the right connections, to ask the right questions, etc. to be able to open an orphanage. I felt that it was what God wanted me to do. I was disappointed when all of my efforts were to no avail. However, I never gave up! Over the years I have dreamed of my orphanage. Whenever something would seem IMPOSSIBLE, God would put an answer in my path that made that challenge POSSIBLE! As the years have passed, my dream has become more and more real to me. I really do understand that this is a great task God has asked me to do. I have also learned, through HIS wisdom, that I need to start a food program. Now, I don't know if it is God's will for me to later open an orphanage or not, but I DO know this: starting a food program still feels like the "right" thing to do, but answers SO MANY of the uncertainties about opening an official "orphanage". I know that if I had not waited as God wanted me to, and I had rushed things and just gone over to China and tried to start an orphanage, it would not have been very easy and maybe not at all successful. As it is, I waited. While I waited, I felt prompted to look in to adopting. After some time of thinking it was God's will to adopt, I realized it was not at all His will that I adopt! Rather, it was His will to get me looking in to adopting and Africa, and through that research I found out about Katie (kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com). I learned about the program she has in Africa, and I felt inspired to do the same thing she is doing, only in China! God is good...ALWAYS GOOD! His plan, His timing, EVERYTHING is PERFECT! Orphanage, adopting, Katie, FOOD PROGRAM! :D I can't wait to see what God has in store for me, and how, in His greatness, His perfection and His wisdom He leads me to the place He wants me to be!