Asia Bound

Well it's official, I purchased my plane ticket today! I am headed out on July 14th from Cincinnati and will arrive at my destination on the 15th. I am scheduled for exactly 24 hours of travel! Definitely not looking forward to that, but super excited about beginning this awesome adventure!  God is doing amazing things. I can't wait to see all that he continues to do these next two weeks and after that.

Now is the time to beginning getting everything together for travel. I have to get my documents notarized(county-level), then certified(city-level),  and then authenticated(state-level). Lots of work to get a work permit, but I am praying that it will go smoothly once I get there! I don't want anything to happen like last time! I also just sent my flight details and passport info to get my entry visa! It's so exciting and fast! These two weeks are going to fly by :(. 

I am also having to pack all these books! I am so thankful for all the donations of books! The children are going to be so blessed with the opportunity to read some awesome books. I did find out that each box I take is going to cost $200. So I am praying God will provide the funds necessary to send these books. He has already provided half of the funding so I know he will provide the rest :).  

I just want to thank everyone for their support and prayers. This would never be possible without your prayers and support. Thank you!!! If you have any prayer requests please let me know!

What's Next?

Well I guess I should just come right out and say it... I am coming home today! It's had been a crazy 4 days that have led to this. It was definitely not planned or expected for me to be headed home so early. Here's the story...
 
On Wednesday (Dec. 10th) I headed to Hong Kong to get my work visa. I had all the required documents (work permit and invitation letter) all I had to do was go to Hong Kong and get the visa in my passport. Or so I thought. So I arrived in HK at 2pm and headed straight to the visa office. I had to fill out the application for the visa again and wait 2 hours to have my number called to give them all the paperwork. Once my umber was called I was relieved because I was about to submit my visa application and have nothing else to worry about, I could enjoy HK. But no.....

I gave my paperwork to the agent and she checked all the documents. After she marked up all my Deby documents saying that my name matched and passport number, all that stuff, she then looked at my visa. She was taken by surprise. She started asking the other agents questions, still not saying anything to me. Then she looks at me and asks,"why do you have a diplomatic visa?" I was like what? And she showed me the visa page and said ,"this is a w visa, it's a diplomats visa. How did you get it?" I was shocked! I applied for a tourist visa in June I had no idea I had a diplomat visa. So I tried explaining this to her but she just kept. Asking, "is anyone in your family a diplomat?" Why would I lie about being a diplomat? That's a big deal! But my answers weren't enough for her. She went back and talked to her supervisor. when she returned she told me that if I couldn't explain how I got this visa then they can't do anything except think I'm lying. Great. I have no idea how I received a diplomatic visa and she didn't like my explanation of how I got the visa. So she gave me back my passport and said I would have to return to the states to get the visa.

Well that was a setback! Here I am in a foreign country trying to get my visa and I am denied because I have a diplomatic visa. Are you serious! So then I had to figure out if there was something else I could do. The only option I had was to call the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. Well that posed a problem because D.C. is 13 hours behind HK. So that means when I am awake D.C. Is asleep and vice versa. Well now what? Thankfully I have some awesome friends back home who offered to help.  My friend Nina called the embassy for me and tried to figure out what happened and if there was anything they could do. After she emailed them all my paperwork they admitted their mistake and said they would fix it I just needed to send my passport to them in D.C. I'm sorry but I was not comfortable sending my passport to America while I stayed in Asia, that is just asking for something to go wrong.

So there I was in HK with no way to get a new visa. And D.C. wanted me to send them my passport. Ugghhh. What was I supposed to do? So I decided to go back to Beijing and use my return flight to go home on the 30th. I could send my passport to D.C. And they even said they would do my work visa too. Sounds like a great plan, right? Well I had this feeling to check my visa again and I noticed that the enter by date was the 9th of December. Crap! That was two days ago. So now I am really freaking out! I am in HK with a possibly expired visa. An expired visa means I can't return to Beijing and I didn't have enough money to purchase a plane ticket home. Immense crying freak out. What do I do? I had reached the point where I just wanted to go home. I prayed God would just send me home. I'd had enough.

 My friend Nina contacted the embassy for me again to find out what they would say and if there was something they could do. While waited to hear back from her I prayed to God asking what I was supposed to do. I felt like I was going to be coming home. There must be a reason I am supposed to be home. When Nina got back to me she told me that D.C. had contacted her and said I was ok to enter China on my current visa. They said once I was back in Beijing I could send my passport to them and they would fix everything and give me the visa.

Now I was wondering what God wanted me to do. I still wasn't comfortable sending my visa overseas without me but did this mean I was supposed to return to Beijing after I got my passport and visa fixed in the States? I had just decided before I got the news that I would go home and start looking into something else (maybe international school or whatever God has planned for me). So I just needed to get back to Beijing and make a decision about what to do, and continue to ask God because He is the one that knows. But at least I knew my visa wasn't expired according to the embassy.

So since I couldn't get a new visa until I went back to the states and my flight back to Beijing wasn't until Saturday, I decided to go to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort! Yes that is right I went to Disneyland!!! I had never been to any Disney park before. How cool is it that my first ever Disney experience was in Hong Kong?!? It was so much fun! I love Disney!!!!

On Saturday I was to fly home. So I headed to the airport at 10:30am to catch my flight that was at 2:50pm. I wanted to get there extra early to make sure everything would work and I could go back home (to Beijing). It's a good thing I went early. As I was checking into my flight the lady at the counter started flipping through my passport. I knew then that she was looking for a visa. When she asked me if I had a new visa I told her no because the embassy in D.C. said that it was still valid. She went to ask her boss a d guess what? She came back and said no they are wrong the visa is expired. ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!? Now what do I do? This has been one stressful day after another. 

I had to go talk to the visa counter in the airport and see what they say. Ugghh! So I went to talk to them and they said I could apply for a visa but it wouldn't be ready until Monday at 7pm. I knew this would work because the visa office already said the couldn't give me a new visa. So my other option was to get a transit visa. You can enter China on a 72-hour visa free transit entry. But the catch, you have to have a plane ticket saying you are leaving Beijing within 72-hours of arriving. Well it's a good thing I had a return ticket from Beijing to Kentucky on the 30th. I just had to go the United desk and have them change the flight to the 15th. Thankfully they could, I just had to pay a $300 change fee. (This HK trip has cost me a lot of money!)

After I got the new plane ticket I had to go back and check into my flight to Beijing from HK. I encounter the same question. Do you have a new visa? No, I have a plane ticket leaving Beijing in less than 72-hours. She looked confused and had to go talk to her boss. UGHH is there no communication about visas and everything in Asia? But she came back and said everything was ok. She gave me my plane ticket a d I headed for the gate. 

Was this really happening? Was I really going to leave Beijing and headed back home within 48-hours? This was not in my plans. I thought I would be staying in China longer. But God's plans are better than our own. I didn't (and still don't) understand why all this happened, but I believe God has something great for me I just can't see it at the moment. But just because we can see or understand doesn't mean God isn't at work! I can't wait to see what God has for me next. 

So I returned to Beijing. Said "see ya later" to as many people as I could and I headed home to pack all my stuff. Tanith joined me to help me and keep me company. We also cooked one of our infamous meals. I am going to miss that girl. She better get her butt to KY ASAP!!!

So now I am coming home just in time for Christmas. I will have to go to D.C. to get them to fix my passport and give me a work visa. And I will continue to pray about what God wants me to do next? Will I return to Beijing? Will I return to IVY? Will I go somewhere else? I don't know what's next but I know it's exciting :). I had a vision of Jesus running through the airport holding my hand pulling me to my next adventure and we were both excited. I can't wait to see where we go!!!!

It Gets Easier, Right?

I really need to get better at updating this! I feel like I only update every two weeks and so I have to sit and type like a short novel about everything that is going on! If only I would update every few days or something! I will try to work on that. Maybe updating about what I am eating for lunch, oh wait I don't usually eat lunch. Guess I will have to figure something out! :)

Well where to begin... I have really been enjoying my job at Ivy School. My kids are great and so stinking cute! They are so smart and so much fun to teach. It makes me sad that I will have to leave them at some point. I don't know when that day is, but I am already dreading it. I am also enjoying my extra cooking classes in the mornings. It is so cool that I get to teach cooking. I love cooking! And now I get paid to do it (kind of!). The past couple of weeks I have taught the kids how to make a peanut butter and jelly roll, a banana roll, and this week we are making fresh fruit yogurt! YUMM! This week's recipe was a last minute decision so I am hoping the kids like it! They are my guinea pigs. :). Once I get more comfortable I plan to do some more American cooking :) (I have no idea what that entails but I am excited!). 

The Wangjing West Subway Station. I know this station like the back of my hand!

I am riding the subway every afternoon to get back and forth between Wangjing. I think I have filled up all my time and I feel a little insane but I love everything I am doing and don't really want to cut anything out! I am still doing home tutoring Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I love the little boy! He has truly captured my heart. I just wish his parents would allow me to teach him instead of them giving me stuff that is English and they think he should learn. I know they are frustrated because he isn't memorizing the things they want him to know, but I am doing what they tell me to do. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks this will change. They want me to start teaching him a simple story and song every week. Great I can do that! That was my plan from the beginning! (Sorry for the tangent ramble, it has just been stressing me out a little).

Anyways..... I have really enjoyed getting to know some of the other foreign teachers at my school. Last Saturday we made dinner together! OMG it was delicious! We made chicken, broccoli, corn, and purple potatoes (yes they really were purple and they were YUMMY!). And we just hung out all night! It was great! So glad I get to work with these AWESOME ladies everyday! 

The only hiccough I have met this past week  (that has really stressed me out) is that my work visa was denied. :( Sad day. But my boss thinks there is another way to go about getting it. There is another TEFL course I could take here in China that is supposedly offered through the Education Cabinet of China. Supposedly with this TEFL course (mind you I already have my TEFL certification that I paid a lot of money for) they will look past the 2 year experience that are required for the work visa. My hesitations are that I have to miss a week's worth of pay to take this class and my boss is only paying half the tuition (1500RMB = $250). So technically I am paying for the class with the missed work wages and still losing money. The good thing is my agent is paying the other half of the class so it is suppose to look like I am getting the class for free. But the class is also like an hour away from my apartment so I would have to commute back and forth on the subway everyday for 7 days, at the most busiest times of the day (8am and 5pm). Of course all of this is coming from my own funds. The other option would be to stay at the hotel where the class is being offered but that would cost me 2100RMB ($325). 

I think I am worked up over this class for many reasons. 1) I asked God for the work visa to be denied if I was supposed to go home in December. Well the visa was denied but does that mean I shouldn't try for this other way just in case? Also the thought of leaving China in December kind of saddens me :(. I mean I miss everyone back home, but I am having a pretty good time in China despite the work visa stuff. 2) I already have the TEFL certification and the class I took was long and intense and to be honest it kind of pisses me off that China won't acknowledge it because I don't have 2 years experience. 3) This class is only a week so how intense is it going to be? Yeah I'm not looking forward to that. 4)It seems like I am out to lose quite a bit if this doesn't work out for me to get the work visa. 5) There is money coming out of my pocket for this class that I don't really want to take. 

I may be overthinking the class and everything, but it has caused me a lot of stress the past couple of days. So I am continuing to pray that God leads the way like he has the whole time I have been here. I know that I can trust God to take care of me and this situation. I just have to keep reminding myself that he is bigger than all this. Also I have to remember to cast all my worries and fears on him. I know his plan for me is great and if that plan includes me coming home in December or staying in China longer, I know it will be the best plan for me! Thanks for praying and being with me on this journey! :)

**one of these days I am going to have a blog post that only has positive things to say about what is going on! God has great plans!**