Chen Chronicles

I was inspired to write this because of our church's MOPS chapter.  This month's theme was "Courage to Tell Your Story," and falls under this year's theme, "Be You, Bravely."  Thank you for inspiring me to share this testimony.  I did not see God’s purpose in all the suffering until over a decade later, in the cold, dark abyss of Eastern Russia.   Twelve years ago, I was a tiny, energetic, beautiful 22-year old with stars in my eyes.   I was an on-air personality for a national radio conglomerate and was going to be the NEXT Katie Couric.   I had the world by a string….until one fateful day when a host of medical problems stopped me in my tracks.   Three kidney stones, a horribly traumatic infection and a blood clot left me a miniscule of my former self. I was broken. What I did not know then is that God had greater plans for my life than even I could envision. In the book of Jeremiah, it is written,"For I know the plans I have for ...

Okay, so firstly, Aaron and I BOTH want to thank everyone who continues to pray for us as we await news on our baby girl, Katie Allison Chen. There have been some recent developments in adoption news between the U.S. and Russia and at least one newspaper (The Moscow Times, I believe) reported this morning that an agreement between the U.S. and Russia was signed. This, however, sadly is not the case. BUT, the latest information received over the past couple of weeks is indicative of a move in the right direction for both countries to come to a mutual agreement about how the children should be protected once they are released to adoptive parents in the United States. 1. Joint Statement of U.S. and Russian Delegations on Inter-Country Adoption On July 21-23 in Moscow, U.S. and Russian experts led by Mary Ellen Hickey, the Managing Director for Overseas Citizen Services at the U.S. Department of State and Alina Levitskaya, the Director of Department of Upbringing and ...