Goodbyes galore

Today marks 1 week until I move to China!  It's so crazy to realize that I'll be flying to Beijing at this time next week (can't wait for that 29+ hour flight...wooo...). 

On Saturday, my family threw me an amazing "Farewell to China"/birthday party!  It was such an incredible time of fellowship and encouragement!  70-ish close friends, family, and supporters came out to say goodbye and give me a proper send-off.  It's so humbling to know that so many people believe in the work that I'm doing and are lifting me up on a daily basis, some of whom I've never even met!  Thank you so much to all of my friends and supporters; I couldn't have asked for a better send-off and I'm so grateful to have all of you as partners in this work!

I've had to say goodbye a lot this week and will have to say it even more over the next several days.  Even though I'm ridiculously busy now that it's down to crunch time, I'm trying to make time to have proper farewells with everyone.  The party allowed me to say goodbye to a lot of people, but I've also been meeting with friends throughout the week and on Sunday my fellowship will have a time to lift up me and my work.  So far, I've kept it together pretty well, but that will absolutely change when it's time to leave my parents and sister.  This morning, shortly after midnight, I looked over at the clock and realized that I only have 1 week left with my family before I leave for a year, and I almost broke down.  I'm pretty sure we're all going to make a scene at the airport, and I'm completely ok with that! 

Anywho- I doubt I'll have time to post another update from the States and I'm not sure when I'll have time to update this once I'm in Beijing for training, as I've been told we'll be going non-stop all month (and I've been told the same thing about the entire year of teaching).  I'll definitely try to update this asap to let everyone know how the massive culture shock is going; until then, please keep lifting up me, my fellow teammates, our students, and the People's Republic of China!

Alarm clocks: because every morning should begin with a panic attack

The worst sound in the entire world is an alarm clock; normally, I wake up every morning having a minor panic attack because of that obnoxious, screeching, buzzing mechanism of sleep-deprivement.  When my alarm started going off this morning, I had my minor panic attack and pressed snooze (because who wouldn't want to have that experience multiple times per morning, right?).  As I was falling back into blissful sleep, I suddenly realized something: I'M MOVING TO CHINA IN 2 WEEKS!!!  Man, talk about an intense morning wake-up call!  I know I'm young and fairly fit, but I thought I was having a legit heart attack; it wasn't a feeling of fear or even panic, but more like reality is finally settling in.  I'm moving to China in 2 weeks.  Only fourteen days until I move to China.  China=2 weeks.  No matter how many times or different ways I say it, it still just doesn't actually feel real yet, but I know that it is real and that it's coming REALLY soon.  The past 9 months of preparation have flown by and now it's almost time to put all of that preparation into action! 

Suddenly, I'm beginning to wonder if everything I've done to prepare has made me ready for this next year.  I'm about to move to China and begin teaching English to 300+ Chinese children, who only speak Mandarin Chinese and I speak very little of their language (poorly, I might add), not to mention that I've never been to Asia, oh and that my BA was in Psychology... After 9 months of preparing for China, learning Mandarin Chinese and taking 3 master's courses in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, plus the month of training in Beijing during August, and I'm somehow now qualified.  And then I remember the only thing that actually matters when it comes to my "qualifications": He doesn't Call the qualified; He qualifies the Called. 


P.S.- only 5 days until my birthday :-D

Countdown with a massive to-do list

My departure for China is now down to only 20 days (you can follow the countdown from that cool little widget I made on my page)!!  So here's kind of what I'll be doing over these next 20 days:
-Learning Mandarin Chinese (my accent is almost slightly better than horrible now)
-Taking 3 master's courses to become certified in Teaching English as a Foreign Language- which will continue through August while we spend the month training in Beijing
-Reading more than a dozen books on the history/culture/customs/laws/cuisine/shopping/etc. of China
-Sending out my 2nd newsletter- which you'll receive later this week and you should be super stoked about it because it's pretty stellar, if I may say so myself ;-) (if you haven't given me your mailing address and want to receive my newsletters from China, just message me your contact information)
-Having several more appointments with supporters to share about my work
-Speaking at Fellowships
-Saying goodbye to all of my friends and family: bu hao (no good)
-Finalizing my Will, PoA, and Medical Directive (also bu hao)
-Signing over legal authority for all financial and medical accounts to my parents while I'm gone
-Preparing my 2011 taxes, which is pretty ridiculous, but I can't very easily do that from China
-Buying teaching supplies and USA memorabilia for gifts to Chinese friends
-Packing- which is seriously ridiculous because there's SO MUCH to pack and we can only take 2 suitcases including our winter clothing, and we have to pack a 6-month supply of several items that aren't sold in China (including deodorant- yay for super small spaces with sardine-like capacity in a country where they don't wear deodorant!)
-Putting all the rest of my earthly possessions into storage
-and lots of other things, but I can't find my to-do list at the moment!

There's obviously still so much to do in preparation, but the past 9 months of preparations for moving to China have already been a vital part of my journey that I wouldn't trade for the world.  I've learned so much and have grown in ways that I never thought possible, and I'm not even in China yet!  I can't begin to imagine all that He has in store for me over the next year, but I do know that it's all part of His plan and He has complete control, so I'm thrilled to continue this journey and see what comes next!

Closing in on freaking out

We've now reached the 1 month countdown until I leave! In only 1 month from today I'll be on a plane headed to Beijing and I couldn't be more excited!!

I still haven't had the "I'm really moving to China" freakout. The closest I've come to that so far was in May when I made all the big pre-China adjustments: quit my awesome career and said goodbye to all of my closest friends in Baltimore and moved out of my apartment to stay in St. Mary's with family for the summer. That was a lot to deal with in only a few days, but even then I didn't actually freak out, it was just that everything started to become more real.

What amazes me is that I haven't become nervous at all. I've never been to Asia, never been an English teacher, never been away from family and friends for more than a month, am claustrophobic, am super picky about food, and am a pretty big control freak but have almost zero control in this situation: these are all legit reasons that I should probably be nervous about since I'm moving to China for a year. Obviously, the only reason I'm staying sane is because He's in control and I handed this entire journey over to Him back in February... since then, I haven't had a real moment of doubt or anxiety. How awesome is that?!

I've been told, though, that period of freaking out will absolutely come before I land in Beijing. So here's my plan: hold off on freaking out until the plane from LAX has left the landing strip; that way, no matter how much I start freaking out, there's no turning back! I might scare my co-travelers a bit, but at least I'll have 29 hours to deal with it before we land... Sounds like a pretty foolproof plan to me!