Monday, August 24, 2009

Missing those little ones!

It's been a little over a week now since we returned from China. Boy, do I miss those little nuggets over there! My life seems so empty now without little orphans to love on and with no projects to do around the buildings. I also miss my whole team so much! We came so far together and we all bonded so quickly. It's just not the same without them around. Since I never finished the day-by-day updates, I'll fill you in on the last couple of days.

Day 12: In the morning, we played with the babies. For lunch, we went to Subway...YUM. Once we all got our food, we headed to the Silk Market. Very cool place! I got most of my souvenirs and gifts there. I also got some Puma's for myself there...only $10! We probably stopped for some dinner on the way back to Hope, but I don't remember.

Day 13: August 14th. Last full day in
China. We left in the morning to go see Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. There wasn't much time to stay there and look around, so we just walked through them. After that, we went to the Pearl Market. Very similar to the Silk Market, only a little smaller. Dinner followed where we had Peking duck. I surprisingly liked it! The last thing we did that night was go to an acrobat show. This was very cool! Since that was our last night, a few of us decided to try to stay up as last as possible...we made it to 2am. Not too bad.

Day 14: Departure day. This was a very sad day. We all said goodbye to the kids in the morning. I got especially attached to one little boy, so it was hard for me to say bye to him. At about 11, we headed to the airport. We had lunch at a restaurant in the airport, then got onto our plane. 13 hours later (but still the same day...figure that one out!), I saw my family!

I am so very thankful that God gave me this opportunity to serve Him and love in His place. He brought some great people into my life that I'm sure will remain my friends for a long time.


Showing hope -
~Katie~

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

China update!

I haven't been able to do this as much as I had hoped, so I'll try to give you a shortened summary of what we've been doing here in China. Day 3: we cleaned out a huge garage all day. We had to take everything out, organize it, then put some of the stuff back in. The rest of the time was spent with the kids here.

Day 4: We played with the kids in the morning, then we walked to the village right down the road from the Hope Foster Home. Hannah, Katie and I went off down some little side streets. It was really neat to see that no matter how poor all of these people are, they're all making an effort to make everything look nicer. Later that day, Wes, Julie, Stephanie, Rianne and I all went out for a bike ride through the same village. It was so much fun! For dinner, we headed to a restaurant for some traditional Chinese food. Very good! When we got back, there was a nice surprise for Abby and me. They had a birthday cake and everyone sang happy birthday. That made it a lot easier for me being away from my family.

Day 5: My 18th birthday. This will definitely be one that I'll remember forever! Not only did I get to spend it in China, but we went around to home that are taking care of a foster kid. At one of the houses, the family gave our group ice cream...vegetable ice cream. I got lucky and had chocolate ice cream. The other flavors were corn, sweet potatoe, and peas. Very interesting. That night, we went out for Mexican food in the city. It was really good, but the restaurant didn't even feel like China any more. One of the best things about that day, was the bonding of the team. For some reason, everyone seemed to come together that day. After we had Mexican food, we headed to the train station for the overnight train to Louyang, which is where Maria's Big House of Hope is. That was a very interesting train ride, but fun!

Day 6: We got to Maria's on the 7th. We had lunch there, then sorted a bunch of medical supplies for the nurses and doctor. The rest of the day was spent settling in and resting up. Everyone was super tired from the train ride!

Day 7: This was a busy day. We brought down some big cabinets from the roof down to the third floor. In the process, Wes and I kind of broke the tile frame around the elevator. We didn't have much clearance taking the cabinet out of the elevator, so we hit the top coming out and it fell off, hit me on the shoulder, then hit the floor and broke. Oops... After that, we did some more sorting. After lunch, we painted the wall surrounding MBHOH. That was an interesting time. That night, we went into the city for dinner and some shopping.

Day 8: We were gone for most of the day. In the morning, we drove about 2 hours to this hiking trail in the mountains. It was really fun and pretty, but also very tiring! We ate a late lunch there, then headed back to MBHOH for devo and dinner. That night, we all hung out in our room. Great bonding time! :D

Day 9: In the morning, we went to a state-run orphanage...I can't really talk about that. We headed back for lunch, then we went to get foot messages. It felt so good! For dinner that night, we went to this fondu place. There was a bow of water in the middle of the table that was boiling. They brought out a bunch of raw meat, which you then place into the bowl, pulled it out and ate it. Very interesting dinner. After dinner, we all took a cab back to MBHOH. Fun stuff!

Day 10: This day was spent packing up, saying bye to the kids, and headin out to the train station to go back to Hope Foster Home. The train this time was a bullet train!

Day 11: Yesterday, we went to Bethel, which is a foster home for blind children. Very impressive place! On the way, our bus broke down, so we were sitting on the side of the highway for about an hour. Finally, a replacement bus came, so we loaded onto that one, only to load back onto the previous bus again. We finally started on our way...2 hours. It seems everything takes 2 hours to get to here. We spent the majority of our day there. On our way back to HFH, we stopped to get some dinner. Late last night, a bunch of us laid outside, watching for shooting stars. This was our first night of seeing the stars the whole trip. It was so exciting!

When I get home, I'll get some pictures up on here. We leave in 2 days...I can't believe it!

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Monday, August 3, 2009

ChIna!

We made it!! Wow, am I tired. We have been so busy ever since the morning that we left. On July 31st, Rianne and I flew out to Newark and met up with our team. We had a pizza party and we hung out all night. They are a great group of people! God has really blessed me with some wonderful people to spend two weeks with! The next morning, we got up real early and started our journey to the airport. 20 people, 40 bags, plus everyone's carry on. Not so easy, but we did it! We got done checking our bags, going through security and whatnot at around 9:30. Our plane didn't leave until 12:10, so we had some time to kill. We all went wandering around the aiport...I ended up at Starbucks with Rianne, Wes, Jonathan and a few other people. After we were done there, we just all chilled at the gate until they let us board the plane.

We finally got to board the plane at about 11:30. The 13 hour flight consisted of movies, sleeping and more sleeping. I watched Edward Scissorhands (finally!) and The Pianist. We landed in Beijing at 1:45pm, August 2nd. None of us lost our luggage and no one was quarantined. Success!! After we exchanged money, bought a soda (amusing), and loaded our bags onto a van and loaded ourselves onto a bus, we head to Hope Foster Home. It was about a 30 minute drive from the airport. Once we got there, the first thing I saw when I got out of the bus, were little babies peeking out of the window waving at us. So adorable!

Once we got the tour and got settled, we headed in to play with the kids for a while. They are so cute! After dinner ( Chinese Dominoes), we headed to bed at around 7:30. Everyone was exhausted. This morning, we all got up at around 5 or 5:30AM and had breakfast at 7:30. Then at 9, we loaded onto the bus once more for the Great Wall. On the way, we got some Subway. :D The Wall has some good stories, but it's way too late and I'm way too tired to get into them right now!

When we got back, some of us played with the kids, while some of us just hung around. At 5:45, we had dinner, which was some weird cabbage stuff, green beans, and rice. Not too bad! Afterwards, I went back to the yurt and fell asleep, only to be waken up by Rianne, yelling at me to get to devotions! Oops... When I got in there, I was so not awake. That's the last time a take a nap...it really messes with my head! That brings us to right now. It's late, I'm tired, I'm going to bed! I'll try to get on again soon to update again...hopefully with some pictures! :)

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Thursday, July 30, 2009

China, here we come...

Well, it's finally here! Rianne and I leave tomorrow morning for New Jersey, meet up with the rest of the group, and leave Saturday for China. It hasn't entirely sunk in yet for me that we're actually leaving tomorrow. I think it will when we get back to the states from China. ;) Please keep our team in your prayers! I will try to be updating this as often as I can, but our computer access is limited. Keep checking for updates! :)

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Monday, July 27, 2009

Holy cookie dough Batman!

5 POUNDS of cookie dough...holy cow!! I didn't know that so much deliciousness could be packed into such a huge container for purchasing! That's a lot of cookie dough. I just thought I'd share this wonderful discovery with you all! Oh, and it tastes really good...


Showing hope -
~Katie~


P.S. 4 days to China!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Swimsuit shopping...

Here's a little anecdote for you...hope you enjoy it!

For the trip to China, I am required to have a one-piece swimsuit, which is completely fine. The only problem is that I don't own one!! So yesterday, my mom and I went out to go look for one. Not an easy task! First of all, it's not really the right time of year to be buying swimsuits, so they're pretty hard to find in general. To add on to that, there are barely any one-piece swimsuits any where, even in the right season. We went to Kohl's, Land's End, Sports Authority, Boston Store, and Sears. A couple hours and a very tired-of-shopping-girl later, we finally found one at JC Penny's!! Praise the Lord! I thought that trip would never end. But now if I ever need a one-piece ever again, I'll have one, thanks to the China trip! :)

THE END.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

New Hope Foundation

Here's the specific yurts that we'll be staying in. http://www.hopefosterhome.com/tour/tour_13.htm They're located at the New Hope Foundation (formerly Hope Foster Home) in Beijing. They look so fun! I'm so thankful that God is giving my sister and I this incredible opportunity to serve Him and experience new things.

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Yurts

As it starts getting closer to the China trip, I'm starting to get more info on where we're staying, what we're going to be doing...that kind of stuff. The latest e-mail that I got informed the team that we will be staying in a YURT while in Beijing! All I know is that it's going to be hot, there's going to be mosquitoes and we have to go to a separate building for showers and bathrooms. It's going to be quite an experience!


Showing hope -
~Katie~

Monday, July 13, 2009

Update time!!

OK, I think it's time for an update. I haven't done this in quite a while. For now, I'll just get you up to speed on what I've been doing lately.

I've done quite a lot since my last posting (March 28th). First things first, I started my job again this summer at Willow Run. Last year I worked for a few months there and they ask
ed me back. I started some time in May this year. You could say that it's going well. Besides one crappy day there that made me want to quit, it's been going well. But that's a whole other story...

On June 6th (D-Day, yes sir), I graduated high school! It has been quite the jo
urney through high school and let's just say that I'm glad it's over. God has blessed me with the greatest parents in the world who were willing to keep me at home since second grade and homeschool me. I am so thankful for them and I love them more than anything! The graduation ceremony went very smoothly. I was in the worship band, playing the piano, for the third year in a row. We had a new music director this year, which gave it a kind of rocky start, but everything turned out great. I had my party the next day, which was perfect. The weather was absolutely beautiful...praise the Lord!

The next big thing that I did was go to Lifest!!! It was a last minute thing, getting my ticket a week before we left. I wasn't planning on going this year, but my best friend Abby and her family invited me to go along with them. I'm so thankful for them! Lifest is a giant, Christian music festival up in Oshkosh. You camp out on the grounds in a tent or camper...we had tents. We usually have a huge group of people when we go up there, but this year it was just the three Froncek's, Abby's boyfriend Kendrick, and me. We had such a good time and saw so many good bands! We saw TobyMac, Green Means Go, Undying Allegiance, Pillar, Red, Stellar Kart, Hawk Nelson, and Third Day. I'm probably forgetting some in there, but that's most of them. :)


That's pretty much what I've been up to. Now in the mean time, I'm waiting for China. Only 2 1/2 weeks to go!!

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Hockey



As many of you know, hockey is a huge thing in my life. I love to play it, watch it, read about it...really anything about it, I love! God has given me a pretty amazing gift to be able to play goalie as well as I do. At least, I've been told I'm pretty awesome. ;) I am very thankful for that gift and I try to use it as much as possible. One thing that makes it hard though, is that I'm not on a team. Instead, I have to wait until The Pettit Center has some open pick-up sessions. This can get pretty tiresome and frustrating.

Yesterday I got to play on a real rink (other than the one in our backyard) for the first time since around September. It felt so good! Every time I play, I get a new love for the game and it makes me want to play even more. After I played yesterday, I became so thankful for the Pettit. If they didn't have any pick-up, I wouldn't be able to play at all. The Lord is definitely providing for me!

Playing at the Pettit, I get to meet some pretty cool (and not so cool) people. Two pretty amazing people that I met there are Marc and Joel Rechlicz. We (my family) had played with Marc quite a bit before we met Joel. The first time I saw both of them play, I knew that they were both extremely talented and would make it to the big leagues. Lo and behold, Joel is now playing in the NHL on the New York Islanders! I've never been so proud to say that I'm from Milwaukee. Marc is playing for a CHL team call the Odessa Jackalopes, which is affiliated with the Islanders, only a couple of steps away from the NHL. He has a contract with the Islanders, so I know that one day he will be joining his brother Joel. I wish those two the best of luck in their hockey careers, and I pray that God will continue to bless them.

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Saturday, March 21, 2009

I'm going to...


CHINA!!!

That's right! China. Back in November, when we were in Nashville for a weekend for Shaohannah's Hope (see earlier post), I felt like I was being called to go on their mission trip to China. For a while, I had been feeling like there was something I was supposed to be doing for the Lord, but I just didn't know what it was. During the weekend in Nashville, they talked a bit about the trip to China that a group of 20-some people took earlier in 2008. As they were talking about this, I really felt like I was supposed to go on their next one. I prayed about it all that weekend, and am still praying about it.

I mentioned this to my parents after we got home. After that, we kept an eye on the Show Hope website for any information on the mission trip. Around February 17th or 18th, Rianne and I applied for the trip. The deadline was March 10th, so we knew that we had a while to wait until we found out if we were going. That month of waiting was full of LOTS of prayer, and me being very anxious!

On Wednesday night, I was checking my e-mail just like any other night, not expecting anything special. I had a few new e-mails but one stuck out to me. The sender was Emily Richards, who is Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter. That fact didn't really stick out to me, yet I still opened the e-mail. I knew it was a God thing that I did, because I never open e-mails with a sender that I don't recognize. So I open the e-mail, and lo and behold! I'M ACCEPTED!! I was so happy I actually squeeked and jumped out of my seat (very unlike me)! I had to read the e-mail a few times before it really sunk in. The next thing I did was thank God, then went running to my mom and told her what just happened. She was so happy! Then my dad came down and I told him...also really happy!! Rianne was at driver's ed while this happened, so I checked her e-mail to see if she was also accepted. She was!! Happiness all around! My mom told her when she went to pick her up.

Rianne and I will leave on August 1st and get back on the 15th. I don't think it has completely sunk in for me yet that we're going to go to China. While we're there, we'll be going to orphanages, focusing on Maria's Big House of Hope. You can read more about that here: http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer?pagename=giv_luoyang I'm so thrilled that God has given us this opportunity to serve Him. I pray that He will use us to the best of our abilities to further the kingdom of God. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare to go to China to serve the Lord.

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Revelation


More and more recently, especially with college coming up, I've been trying to figure out what I want to do. Actually, what God wants me to do. I also always want to make sure that what I'm doing presently is God's will. It's a tough thing to know. These thoughts were racing through my mind a couple days ago, when a song came onto the radio. "Revelation" by Third Day. I was amazed at how accurately it describes my life right now. Until I get my revelation, I need to trust in God and know that He will be with me every step of the way. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

My life,
Has led me down the road that's so uncertain
And now I am left alone and I am broken,
Trying to find my way,
Trying to find the faith that's gone
This time,
I know that you are holding all the answers
I'm tired of losing hope and taking chances,
On roads that never seem,
To be the ones that bring me home

Give me a revelation,
Show me what to do
Cause I've been trying to find my way,
I haven't got a clue
Tell me should I stay here,
Or do I need to move
Give me a revelation
I've got nothing without You
I've got nothing without You

My life,
Has led me down this path that's ever winding
Through every twist and turn I'm always finding,
That I am lost again (I am lost again)
Tell me when this road will ever end

Give me a revelation,
Show me what to do
Cause I've been trying to find my way,
I haven't got a clue
Tell me should I stay here,
Or do I need to move
Give me a revelation
I've got nothing without You
I've got nothing without...

I don't know where I can turn
Tell me when will I learn
Won't You show me where I need to go
Oh oh
Let me follow Your lead,
I know that it's the only way that I can get back home

Give me a revelation,
Show me what to do
Cause I've been trying to find my way,
I haven't got a clue
Tell me should I stay here,
Or do I need to move
Give me a revelation
I've got nothing without You
I've got nothing without You

Oh, give me a revelation...

I've got nothing without You
I've got nothing without You

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Soccer!


As the weather is starting to warm up, it's now time to start getting ready for the oncoming soccer season! The two months or so of the season are some of the highlights of my year. I always have so much fun playing and I have a great team to play with, which always helps with the enjoyment factor. The season starts at the end of March, so I have until then to whip myself into some awesome shape!

Being a senior, I want this to be my best year and hopefully get into the best shape I can get into. This means RUNNING! And lots of it, too. I'm also going to be working on leg strengthening (and arms, but I have a lot of that already hehe). There are many advantages of condition prior to the sport you're playing. One is that you will be ready for the game and not get worn out as easily and as quickly. Another reason is to prohibit injuries. My team seems to be prone to getting hurt, so I would like to prevent that as much as possible.

I can't thank God enough for giving some awesome girls to play soccer with! This team has really made up for not playing hockey on a team anymore. I pray that God will make this an extra special year for myself and the rest of the seniors. I know I'm going to miss playing very much, and I'm also going to miss my team.

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Monday, January 19, 2009

Back to normal...

Well, it's back to normal life for my family and me. Ever since the wedding, every thing's been pretty boring. We had one week left of Christmas break after the wedding before school started up again. It was tough getting back in to the swing of things. I think it just sunk in for me this past weekend.

Alex and Venera went to Disney World for their honeymoon and had a great time! They got back on the 8th. They're now living in an apartment in downtown Waukesha right on the river. It's a really nice place! I miss Alex a lot, but he's close so we get to see him pretty often. On the 11th, it was time to send Bill back to college. After having him home for a month, it was hard to send him back again. I miss my brothers very much!

After Bill lift, my dad has been stuck with 5 women in the house! I feel bad for him not having another man around, but I think he'll be OK. I watch sports with him and manly movies (my choice, I love it). It's better then watching a chick flick every night with my mom and Rianne! ;) I think he secretly likes this whole set-up. hehe

Now that everything is settled down a bit, I'm getting ready for college. It's getting a little scary but I'm really excited! I applied to Liberty about two weeks ago as a business-economics major. I'm going to do their online school for my first two years, and then go live out in Virginia for my last two years. While I'm out there, I'm going to try out for the hockey team there. I really hope I make it! God has given me a great gift as a goalie and I'm praying that this is what He wants me to do. One other thing that I'm doing is looking for a job. I worked at Willow Run Golf Club in the summer. It was a nice job with nice people, but I'm hoping to find something else so I can start before they open again. If I don't find anything, Willow Run will work.

Showing hope -
~Katie~