Journey of Hope

Well. If you had asked me a year ago whether or not I would ever start a blog, my answer would have been a quite staunch "HA! Maybe when pigs fly! I'm not a writer!!" Now, in case you are worried, pigs have NOT begun to fly.  My current bloggy-ness is due to an upcoming journey. A journey to China, specifically. For those of you who may not be aware, China is very close to my heart and I have been looking forward to a summer when I would finally be able to return ever since we came home with my baby sister, Erica XinLeigh, in May 2006.

(Finally 3 Toering girls- 5/23/06)

Erica- 8 months old, right after "Gotcha Day"

Erica now- 5 years old

Over the last 5 years, I have been able to stay closely connected to the adoption world, through dear family friends who were in the midst of their adoption journeys, as well as through multiple organizations that I began to read about and look at getting involved in. Last year, I have had the privilege of volunteering as a report writer for a wonderful organization called An Orphan's Wish, a special needs non-profit organization created to provide medical care and support for Chinese orphans in need. This care is funded by a sponsorship program much like a Compassion International, and you have the ability of watching your child that you sponsor grow and flourish under the medical care that they are receiving. We are currently in the midst of a summer campaign, called A Summer's Wish, with the hopes of finding 65 more sponsors, so that each child at the House of Love will be fully sponsored. 

This summer, in 2 short weeks, I will be leaving to spend 8 weeks in a special needs orphanage much like the House of Love, which is the name of the orphanage run by An Orphan's Wish. I have the incredible opportunity to live and work with the beautiful children at New Day Foster Home, where I will be spending most of my time working specifically with the children, as well as doing a little bit of language study and learning the inner workings of how a successful 501c3 organization is run. I am EXTREMELY excited, to say the least, and I am packing and preparing over these next few weeks. I am so thankful for all of your prayers and support, and welcome emails and comments as I'm preparing to go, as well as during my time in China! I hope to post updates and pictures every few days or so while I am in China, so that you can follow along with me on my journey. Check back for updates as I'm getting ready to go! 

-Meredith