The Chapman family on Good Morning America

For those that missed it, here is the Chapman family's first interview since their precious daughter Maria passed away. Robin Roberts did the interview on Good Morning America which aired this morning. It was very touching and I think Marybeth Chapman was so real with her comments. Asking a parent to give up a child for God's good is a price that no parent wants to pay. I do not want to ever know that feeling. I pray for God's continued grace and mercy for the Chapman family as they recover from this tragedy.

Helping Bring Me Hope.

Some of you inquired about volunteering at a camp or helping this organization financially. Here is some info for you. I hope that you will look into going and helping in this amazing cause. This link is to sponsor a child to go to camp http://www.bringmehope.org/sponsor.html

This link is for volunteering and inquiring about more info. This is a 2008 form but I imagine you can fill it out. http://www.bringmehope.org/campapplication/volunteer.asp

Or you can contact them here. Please remember though that most of these people are all in China right now so give them some time to get back to you.
http://www.bringmehope.org/aboutus.html


I also posted a video that BMH put together that was from our week in China. You can't possibly fit an entire week in a 4 minute clip but it is a pretty good representation of the fun that is had.

Feeling the blahs!

I am so happy to be at home with my loving family. I missed them so much. They along with God are my foundation. Without them I am a purposeless man. I am feeling kind of sick (stuffed up, sore throat)since I have been home. I am so thankful God kept me healthy while in China. This time though I am unable so far to get my sleeping patterns adjusted back. I get up at 4am and drag the rest of the day. I guess I have real bad jet lag. I also feel a little bit of a let down after spending so much time in God's presence the last 10 days or so. It was an amazing experience going back to China and helping those kids. I went through so many emotions while there. Now I am experiencing some depression I guess. I know it is normal but when you come home and you realize that we are so distracted sometimes it is hard. I realize I have a home that is full of stuff we don't need. We have comforts that keep us from spending time with him. As I type this and get my thoughts down I can't help but think..."Do I need this computer and Internet? No I sure do not, but as long as I use it for his glory it is OK I guess." Here I go justifying my belongings. Kim and I talked about going through this house room by room and having a huge garage sale. I think we will put it in an account for a future adoption if God calls us to do that once again. I feel so loaded down sometimes by all of the things that we have. Some of it makes a house a home but a lot of it just weighs you down. We really want to simplify things in our lives. That is so hard to do but it is what we want to do. I am sorry for rambling but I needed to get my thoughts down. In fact, I feel a little better now. I have to admit, I am not looking forward to going back to work though. As much as I need to, it sometimes seems to pull me away from his presence even more. I can't let it though. Even though I see people at their worst and share the experience of their horrible tragedies, I need to do it for Him. I am supposed to go back tomorrow but I am not feeling 100% so I think I will take another day to recuperate. Pretty soon Kim and Hannah will be back at school and life will be back to normal. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not but it is our lives. Thanks for all of your continued prayers. Please also pray for the Bring Me Hope team as they are in their third week of camp this week. They have one more to go and are doing amazing things. I miss them. Love you all.

I am home!!! 33 hours of travel to get there.

I am so home!!!... Bill and I finished the evening and packed up all of our stuff and said our goodbyes. We headed to bed and slept pretty good. Eric had told me the night before that he would see me off. At 6:30 Eric gently shook me and said "Peeterr it is time." He did not want me to go but it was time. Eric and I hugged and said our goodbyes. We will be keeping in touch. It will be a lasting friendship. Thanks so much for all you did this week. Eric, you are very special. We left the University by van at 7:00 am China time and headed to the airport in Zhengzhou. Our flight was on time and uneventful. This time there were no people screaming at the attendants because the AC was not working, so that was good. We arrived at Beijing and Bill and I had our last Chinese lunch. We made our flight and it went pretty well. It was on time and smooth but long. There were a few families on board with newly adopted Chinese orphans so that was nice to see. I pray for happiness and peace for those families. We made it to Newark New Jersey with plenty of time to make our 7:20PM flight to Tampa. We made it through Immigration and customs very fast and headed to our departure gate. We saw the flight had not arrived yet and was delayed to 7:50 than 8:11 than we finally boarded and as we were waiting for air traffic to clear so we could taxi we were told another hour longer. UGGGH. Finally we started to taxi out and the plane was making a strange noise. Then we stopped. The plane headed back to the gate. The Captain got on the air and said "folks, this is your Captain. We will be slightly delayed as we seem to have had a flat tire. we should be back in the air in under an hour." Well after deboarding the plane and then finally switching planes we did not take off until after midnight. At this point it was comical. We finally landed in Tampa at 2:45am. I was greeted by my lovely Kimmie! She was so beautiful. I was finally home. Bill was met by his Brother and we hugged and parted ways. What a trip it had been! Kim and I headed home and finally made it. It was right around 4am. Exactly 33 hours later. The age of Jesus's death and resurrection. That is pretty signifigant because this trip had a little of both elements for me. I expierenced death of self and joy, happiness and hope resurrected in these children, on this trip. It was such a powerful trip. All I can say to those that are sitting on the edge of the pool and saying" I don't know if I can do this" just know that you can and God wants you to dive in and get wet! I love you all! Thanks to all your prayers and support. The trip is over but the journey will continue. ;)


Here are some pictures from our last evening and morning in China.

Camp has ended, But God's work continues!

I love you all. I could not have done this without your prayers. The camp has officially ended as we wind down praise and worship time. All of the children have returned to their orphanages and we are all left here a little broken but hopeful and full of God's love. as I type this "How great is our God" is being played on guitar and 20 or so staff, translators and counselors are singing. I am inspired right now and I wanted to start blogging while God was talking to me before the thoughts left me. Today was going to be the hardest thing I have ever had to do. It started with Dominic leaving his room and coming to my room to wake me up at 6:45am. He pinched my nose shut and put his hand over my mouth. What a boy!! I woke up to a mischievous little guy that I have come to love like my son with the biggest grin on his face. This was the first time he came to wake me up. He had dressed himself and left his room without Eric even knowing. How he got passed the hall monitors is beyond me but where there is a will there is way with this boy. Nothing can stop him. I just hope and pray that God reels him in and finishes the precious work he started in him. He pushed me to get up and get dressed. He was so eager to be with me. A first this week for him to show me so much attention. The boys van was to arrive at 8:30am so we packed all of his belongings along with Stones and we headed out to breakfast. For this meal he held my hand tightly on the way to the cafeteria. He did not want to let me go. He knew that he was leaving and I am sure he wanted to spend more time at camp. I guess he thought that if he was good he could stay longer. I am not sure what he thought but he was an angel this day. We got to breakfast and Dominic only picked at his food. This is from a boy that went up 2 and 3 times for more food at most meals. I asked him if he felt sick and he said no, that he just couldn't eat. Eric told me that he did not sleep much either. Like I was on the first night of camp, his little mind must have been racing all night with all kinds of emotions. God only knows what this little boy is going through right now. During breakfast I told him I loved him as I had done every day. Stone always responded with OK like he always had, but Dominic looked at me square in the eye and told me he loved me for the first time. It felt so good but it hurt so much. I almost started bursting in tears right in front of him but I held it together for a little longer. After breakfast we headed to a small grassy area and waited for the boys ride. I gave them the gifts that I brought to camp for them and that made them smile. Of course the van was right on time. I was praying that it would break down on the way and that they could stay longer but the inevitable was here and it hurt more than I ever thought. My heart just sank when I saw them gather their stuff. We hugged and kissed and took some pictures and said our goodbyes. The boys never cried. They smiled at me as if they were saying, we knew this could not last. We have been down the road of disappointment so many times we are used to it. That is the way it felt to me. As I watched the van pull away the dam burst. I just started balling. I could not even look at them. I mustered all I had to continue waving with my other hand over my face. It was so hard. Then Eric comes up behind me and puts his arm around me and says it will be alright buddy. I will pray for you. That of course made me cry even harder. Thanks Eric! You are such a great friend. The look on his face was priceless. He was feeling real bad for me, I am sure he felt helpless. Eric told me later on that Dominic told him that he will look at my picture when he misses me. That made me feel real good. I pray that we wil meet again. If not in this life, than in heaven would be nice. I will always love you boys. You will always be in my prayers. Always have Hope and Love in your hearts.... After the bus left I started to feel better. I knew that they were survivors and would be fine. They were going back to their home. It is all they know. This was Disney World to them. We all have to leave Disney after awhile. I just hope they have more trips to Disney in their lives.... Eric and I decided to have a nice free day together. we decided to go over to the pool and have a nice shower. The pool shiower were the place for showers this week. They were very nice. I appreciate hot water and this place has plenty of it. Afterwards we explored the city together. We walked to a couple of stores where Eric wanted to buy some gifts for Hannah. It was very sweet that he wanted to do that. We went to an awesome park and talked about our relationships with girlfriends, spouses, parents, friends and God. God is working on Erics heart and I expect something profound soon. He treated me to a lunch of Dumplings, noodles and beer. We were stuffed and spent a grand todal of 2.20 USD. It was by far the best meal I had ever had in China. He took me to the real China. There were no tourits there. I felt like I was on an episode of Anthony Bourdains, No reservations. There is nothing better than exploring a foreign land with a local to help you and show you things you thought you would never see. We really talked allot and it is abundantly clear He and I will be life long friends. After visiting many shops and getting an authentic one hour Chinese massage that was fantastic for 5.00 usd, we headed back to the campus. The staff had a ceremony for all of the translators where we got to present them a certificate, say some kind words about them and have some cake which turned into according to Chinese tradition some face smearing with icing but it soon got out of hand and turned into an animal house style cake fight. It was a huge stress relief and allot of fun. After the festivities. I went and took another shower at the pool and headed back to a volunteer meeting. Eric and I decided to skip it and head out to dinner. He treated me for lunch and I agreed to spring for dinner. We had some grilled mutton (adult sheep) on skewers and these giant pitas with onions that they fry right in the street. It was another fantastic meal. Eric and I finished our meal and headed back to the office for praise and worship. I invited Eric but he was tired and headed to bed. He said he would see me off in the morning. This was a great week that I will never forget. As the guitar music stops, all you can hear are the voices lifted up " How great is our God, How great is our God?"

I love you Buddy!! I love You!