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 ...

A very wise woman recently compared the brain to a computer hard drive. She said when it's full, it is very much like that of a person who worries and internalizes everything . I am that person. That realization is shocking.  I suppose you could say I have just experienced the ethereal "blue screen of death," we all hate.  Sometimes the awareness that this has happened is all we need to fix the problem. Sometimes, it isn't just as simple as black and white.  The simplicity in this idea cannot be understated, but sometimes I have to be slapped upside the head with something to conceptualize and apply the principle(s) to life.  Admittedly, I have lain awake many nights with so much on my mind that I could not sleep. A friend once told me that anxiety isn't a sign of  weakness   as a Christian, but a symbol of our own deep-rooted insecurities. Those are hard to change , but it doesn't mean I shouldn't strive to change them. Now, this isn't to sa...

An observation of a friend prompted today's blog post.  I usually do not go overboard when it comes to political correctness, or PC as my husband and I like to call it. This is a sensitive enough topic, alone, without having to throw in the PC issue.  This friend observed some signs at our church which advertised for our Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPs) group.  The fliers had a who, what, when, where, kind of format and under the who, they stated, "In utero through eighth grade."   As many of you know, I am an adoptive mother and this bothered me as well as a friend of mine who understands that not all mothers come in the form of biology. I normally would not take offense to something like this, except that the audience the group wishes to attract is ALL mothers-to-be.   I know many might argue that a "prospective adoptive parent," isn't an "expectant mother," but many of us travel this journey of miles of paperwork and red tape because we h...