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~

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~

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!

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.

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~

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~

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 asked 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 journey 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~