The Grand Holiday Plan

Only 120 days left until Christmas!  For the last several years I have tried to get all of my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving.  I usually do pretty well, with only one or two gifts left to buy in December.  This year I learned about the Grand Holiday Plan and I am going to give it a try.  The plan starts this coming Sunday, August 31, and runs 18 weeks.  Each week the plan focuses on a specific area of holiday preparation, as well as “deep-cleaning” one area of your home.  I like how the plan helps you get organized with lists and your holiday schedule.  I try to host a cookie exchange or an open house each year, but so often December sneaks up on me and then it’s too late to send out invitations.  Plus, I think the Grand Holiday Plan will help distract me from focusing too much on our adoption.  I hope to post a weekly update on my progress. . .anybody up for joining me on this holiday prep plan?!

Focus on the Family interviews Steven Curtis Chapman

Christian musician and dad Steven Curtis Chapman sat down to talk with Dr. James Dobson of “Focus on the Family” recently about the death of his five-year-old daughter Maria Sue.  The interview is airing on the radio broadcast this week.  I listened to the first two parts today and was touched once again by the faith of this family.  In the second part, SCC talks about how they came to adopt Maria Sue.  I did not realize she was a special needs orphan at the time SCC met her in China – she suffered from a heart condition.  He also talks to Dr. Dobson about Maria’s decision to invite Christ to be her Savior, just a few months before the accident.  It was a touching interview, and I am looking forward to the final part of the interview tomorrow.

To listen to the interview, visit Focus on the Family or download the podcast on iTunes.

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan on DVD!

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan now available on DVD

Nickelodeon has released a DVD of its animated series, ”Ni Hao, Kai-Lan”.   We have only been able to see a couple of episodes because we do not subscribe to cable.  Maybe now I can learn a few basic Mandarin phrases that will help me when we travel to Taiwan!

HT: China Adopt Talk

The Ugly Duckling

Quite a story out of a small mining town in Queensland, Australia.  Seems the mayor wants to encourage more women to relocate to his town, but I think his tactic is a bit unusual:

“John Moloney, mayor of Mount Isa in northwestern Queensland, told a newspaper his town was a place for “ugly ducklings to flourish into beautiful swans” and called on the “beauty-disadvantaged” to flock there.” – Read the full story at breitbart.com

Have to wonder if Mr. Moloney is going to be re-elected to his position when his term comes up.

Larry King interviews Chapman family

The Chapmans’ interview with Larry King Live brought tears to my eyes, when SCC and and his wife, Mary Beth, talked about the day of the accident.  At times, I thought Larry King seemed brusque and insensitive with his questioning, but the family took the questions in stride and spoke from their hearts.  It was an amazing hour, especially to hear the wisdom of their 18-year-old son Caleb share how they will live their lives in light of Maria’s death: honoring Maria by honoring the One who gave her to them, and not being ashamed of what they have been created to do.  Larry King asked SCC his motivation for continuing on, despite this tragedy:

LARRY KING: Why do you want to go on?

STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN: The reason for that is, you know — and we read it before we came out here again today — I think the word of comfort. We realize — one of my first thoughts when this happened, we had just come back from China. We were sitting in the Shanghai airport in China when the earthquake hit. We didn’t feel it. But we do a lot of work in China with orphans. We had been there doing some of that work. We’re on our way home. We got home and started to hear the numbers of how many had died. We’d just been with our friends there. Our hearts were broken.

Even as we were in the emergency room grieving the immediate news of Maria going to heaven, I immediately thought of the people of China and I thought, we have — we have a comfort. We don’t have words. We don’t have an explanation, as we’ve fumbled over trying to explain how, why, all that. But we do have a comfort and we do have a hope.” – From Larry King Live, August 7, 2008

Jesus said in John, chapter 10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  After Maria’s passing, I prayed for the Chapman family – that God would put a hedge of protection around their whole family and protect them from Satan’s lies and attacks.  I believe God is answering that prayer.   

The entire show is available on You Tube now, divided into segments.  I included the last few moments of the broadcast in the link below.   A full transcript of the interview is available here.

Steven Curtis Chapman talks about adoption

Steven Curtis Chapman and his family will be on Larry King Live tonight, talking about their faith in Jesus and how it is helping them cope with the loss of their youngest daughter.  In the lead-up to that interview, SCC shared some thoughts about his family’s adoption journey in a commentary he wrote for CNN:

“My wife and I had always supported the idea of adoption, and as Christians, we understood the importance of loving and caring for others. But what I had not yet grasped was that adoption is a physical picture of what Jesus has done for me. I did nothing to deserve God’s love; in fact, I was living as an orphan, without hope. Yet God chose to pursue a relationship with me, and through the death of his son Jesus, I was adopted into God’s family. . .

“If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. If everybody would be willing to simply do something to care for one of these precious treasures, I think we would be amazed by just how much we could change the world.” — Steven Curtis Chapman (To read more of his commentary, click here.)

GMA interviews Chapman family

For the first time since their 5-year-old daughter Maria died, Steven Curtis Chapman and his family spoke publicly on Good Morning America about their grief, their faith and how they are coping.  (See previous post about Maria’s accidental death here.) It breaks my heart to hear Mary Beth Chapman speak about her grief and how she would just like to have her little girl back.  I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child.  I pray for the Chapmans, that God would continue to be their Comforter and give them strength on the tough days.  You can watch the GMA interview here.  The Chapmans are also slated to be guests on Larry King Live on Thursday, August 7.  And People Magazine will feature an interview with the family next week.