Carmella's Hang Out

Me and my translator for week one

I’m in China.
I am tired.
I’m having a blast.
I have lots to tell when I get home….and week one is not fully done yet!
I am going to leave you all in suspense now.

NIGHT!!!

P.S. Thanks to those who sent me emails!

So I leave in the morning. For a month. To China.

Even with this in the plans for so many months, it is hard to believe I really am to board a plane tomorrow and leave this country to go BY MYSELF to the other side of the world!

We said goodbye to Kade on Sunday night. She did very well with the goodbyes. I am so very proud of her, what she is doing, and how she is handling it. This 6 days without her have gone by SO very slowly! Each day has been very full with lots of fun stuff, but not havin her here, not having to work, and knowing camp was less than a week away was very strange.

My flight is to leave at 9:40 in the morning and I head to Chicago first. After the stop at O’Hare, I have a non stop flight into Shanghai where I have to switch airports before leaving. From there, I will go to the final airport of my first trip which is where I will meet up with the staff of the first camp.

I then have a trip in between, as you all probably already know, and then I head out of my second camp and begin the trip home on the 8th of August. That trip is another oh….matter for some *eek* *gasp* and however you want to put it…..need for prayer! heh.
On my way back, I will fly to the first camp city first. That is on the 8th. I don’t leave from that city till the next day. Once I leave from there I will go back to Shanghai, do the airport switch again, and fly to New York’s JFK airport. I leave from Newark airport….the next morning.

So yeah. heh!!

I still do not know just how much I will be able to update everyone, {I.E. how much access to the internet I will have. I have been told its limited but I don’t know what that means} And when I have internet, I still do not know what sites are allowed in China. However, I will do what I can to stay in touch with people back in the states.

While I have cell service, I will be updating Twitter, so you can follow me on there. {username is sajmakii.}

See you all in a month! Thanks again to all that are praying for me!

Ticket prices went up for my flight to China, and I found out I had to pay for another trip inside the country. Due to these factors, I will not be able to afford the side trip at this time, so that will be done later. {My older brother got a job with VOM and will not be returning home in September as we had hoped. Dad, Mum, and the kids will be taking his things to him while us older girls are gone so Kade and I had wanted to go visit him at his new place. While the ticket prices were down, I could do it all for less that my budget, which now I am going to be pressed to get all of my China travel done for the money I have/will have.}

HOWEVER, I am still very sure this is where I am suppose to be going, and I KNOW 100% this is all in His hands, so if I have anymore troubles with money I know it is going to show up in the right amount of time! Don’t think I have ever spent that much money on one thing though. That was a new experience! Mum and Kade were right next to me as I hit the ‘purchase’ buttons, for support and all ya know!

It is now midnight, way past when I said I wanted to go to bed! hee. There was a game tonight and it went into overtime. Then I actually did go to bed but something told me I should get up and search flights, and since my laptop was next to my bed it was easy to do. It was then I found the prices were starting to creep up again, and felt it would be the right time to buy them.

I am excited! As Kade said “Now you really have to go.” {no returns on the tickets allowed. Guess that means that if I end up not being able to pay for camp by the deadline, I am going to be in China by myself for a few weeks! lol}

Silver Leaf starts the same day I am to leave Michigan and ends the same day I am to return. {KOI picked the RIGHT year to be the first they are not there, since I will not be able to attend at all.} There is a countdown on the website for openeing day, so I go there to see how long I have till my big adventure begins. {and I do mean big. You should see the flight plans I was sent. MY WORD. And that is not even counting all the fun and hubbub of camp. tee hee!! I always have done things big haven’t I?}

How many days do I have?

65.

Thanks to all that have been praying about this up until now, but please do continue. I still have some money I need to raise and a deadline to have it by. {I know I can have the money by the time I leave, it is the months time I have to earn it right now that is at all a worrysome problem for me. And even then, it is only a fear when I take my eyes from where they should be.}

The first time I spoke to the director of Bring Me Hope, he told me he didn’t know how many volunteers would be there in 2009. I replied with “Enough.” as I knew the Lord would send as many people to the camp as would be needed. This is the same attitude I am using towards the money and deadline. I will have ‘Enough’ when I need it.

Is this what it feels like to be a ‘big girl’?

Its fun! lol. {Still would rather have Gill deal with it all, but that should come later….perhaps}

Now it really is time for bed. Thankfully I do not have to be to work until 2, as I am working the closing Mall shift. However, I have gotten little sleep in the last few days and I do not see much in my future after tonight. {Was up for work at 5 Tuesday, didn’t get a nap in like I had planned, walked 2 miles, went to bed at 1:30am after the game, got up at 5 for work on Wednesday, got about an hours worth of a nap in, and will be staying up for a game Thursday night that has a 10:30 start time. I may not be the coolest person, but I sure know how to fill a day, don’t I?}

Ah, the things we do for the stuff we love.

Thursday plan:
Sleep…work….watch Ducks smash some Sweden to D-town, red tinted transplants.

God is good!

Hey,
I know I have not been my usual blogging self…and that is not for lack of things to say, just for lack of the motivation to write them. This is a very sad fact, as there has been a lot going on.

I got to go to a Stanley Cup playoff game in Detroit last weekend {as in the 18th of April} and it was so much fun! I got to go with Kade and Mum, the latter of whom had only just been to her first ever NHL game not two months before! The team I was hoping to win did not in the end win, but it was a very enjoyable game anyhow.

Savings for China are coming along SWIMMINGLY!! In fact, as things stand right now, I nearly have enough for all of it, and have even been able to tack on another small trip at the end. {meaning I will be flying somewhere else for a few days after China} I am very excited for all of it and can’t wait for the time to get here.

Now that the sun seems to be shining more often, I am going to be able to get back to my walking, wich is a very good thing indeed. My back has been hurting a lot more and I have been having a harder time getting rid of it. This can, and DOES, often put me in a not so good mood, or just shorten my wick a bit. Somedays I don’t even notice it really. It is not until after I have blown up at someone that I realize things are not right, and it is then I feel just how much my back hurts that day. {NOTICE: I am NOT saying this gives me the right to be in a bad mood, for those of you reading this who have been on the recieving end of one of said blow ups.} The weight also complicates things with my PCOS which is really not good. Things were so much better when I was at my lower weight, and I am in a very big hurry to get back to those days! heh.

Work has been hard to figure out. lol. One week I am told I will no longer be working at the mall, then I am told I will be again but only one day a week rather than two, then one of the mangers from the mall is moved back over to our ’stand alone’ store and another co-worker is moved over to the mall. It is all very back and forth.

My plan when I woke up this morning was to head out on a long walk right away, pick up something to eat, and just walk for a nice long time. However, things changed so now I am going to eat here, and THEN take off for a long walk. It should be a nice time, as the sun is VERY bright today.