Tales for Karina Marie: {Guest Post} Nicole Neesby from ::the neesby lookbook::

Yes, you read it right! This is the first guest posting on Tales for Karina Marie, and I am just SUPER pumped about it. (And feeling blessed that I've "met" this little lady in the blogging community.) I present to you, the lovely Nicole Neesby from :the neesby lookbook:. This woman is absolutely beautiful with her shinning auburn hair that I simply adore. (Kinda reminds me of Anne Shirely. DON'T hate!) And she has a love for God and serving his people that I sincerely admire. Enjoy!!!

Hey Lovelies! Nicole here, joining you from The Neesby Lookbook, where I scribble notes about my brand new Hubs, our adventures of living in a 120 year old house and our occasional travels around the world.

You are invited to join the adventures and be sure to say hey when you do. I know we'll become good friends!

July 2007 found me stepping off a plane in the famous city of Beijing, wide-eyed and excited.

Traveling had never been something I was accustomed to. I mean, I was born in Iowa and my traveled boundaries were Oklahoma, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota. Flying up over the North Pole and down into China was completely outside of my frame of reference.

I was in the big, Asian city to help with a summer camp.

And not just any camp.

A camp for chinese orphans.

Hope, Eliana and Matty where the three precious children I was paired with for the week. Little did they know that they would change my life forever.

We spent the week playing games, swimming in the tiny wading pool, eating our Chinese meals on tin plates in the big cafeteria, singing crazy camp songs and adventuring on the Great Wall.

When Friday came and they climbed the steps to that bus that would take them back to the orphanage, the tears fell helplessly down my cheeks.

As I hugged a friend standing next to me, I whispered through the sobs

I didn't know it would be this hard.

You see, experiencing the brokenness in life hurts. It hurts to look the suffering, the abandonment, the pain in the eyes. It hurts to hear their stories and know that there may never be an easy fix to the problem.

But when we have the courage to face it head on, that is when we are changed.

Changed and challenged to do something.

To do something to make a difference.

Even if it's in the life of one person.

That summer changed me. It changed me in deeper than just wanting to make the difference in the life of hurting children.

During those 10 days in Beijing, I {unbeknownst to me} met the wonderful, hunk of a man who eventually became my best friend. We were married in a white country church this spring with three hundred of our closest friends and family from around the world.

It also changed the course of my life. Which is evident by the five Chinese visas you will find in my passport from the last four years. It changed my dreams for the future. . . Hubs and I now dream of living in China in the near future. It changed what our family will look like someday. . . we can't wait to have our very own Chinese babies a part of our forever family.

My challenge to you is this. Find a way to make a difference. It may not mean traveling to China. It may look like visiting a nursing home across town. It may look like reaching out to hurting kids at your local school. Maybe you will travel the world, loving on people who need hope and love.

But whatever you do, please don't waste your life on yourself. Spend it loving God and the people He puts in your path.

It will change you. For the better.

And truly, true happiness is found through it all.