MARIA SUE CHAPMAN, DAUGHTER OF STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN, DIES IN ACCIDENT AT FAMILY HOME

NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08... At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters.

More than five years ago, Chapman and his wife Mary Beth founded the Shaohannah’s Hope ministry after bringing their first adopted daughter, Shaohannah, home from China. The ministry’s goal is to help families reduce the financial barrier of adoption, and has provided grants to over 1700 families wishing to adopt orphans from around the world. Chapman is a five-time GRAMMY ® winner and 54-time Dove Award winning artist who has sold over 10 million albums and garnered 44 No. 1 singles.

The Chapman family is so grateful for the incredible outpouring of love and support at this difficult time.

* In lieu of flowers, the Chapmans request any gifts be directed to Shaohannah’s Hope. Donate here >

* Also, due to tragedy of Wednesday, Steven will not appear at the May 24th show, Artist appearing in his absence to be announced shortly.

Funeral Arrangements for Maria Sue Chapman. These times are open to the public if anyone would like to be a part of celebrating the life of Maria.
FRI May 23rd Visitation 5-8pm
SAT May 24th Memorial service 11am

At Christ Presbyterian Church
2323 Old Hickory Blvd, Nashville, TN
(615) 373-2311

Building Progress--Church and Office

Here are some updated pictures of our new church and also our new office.

A little of This and That

It's been a little nuts lately. There really hasn't been much to write about. Last weekend was really busy with Mother's Day and friends and relatives in town. So it was nice to not really have much going on this weekend. We ran out to the outlet mall again. But this time came home with nothing. We saw a few things that we might go back for in a few weeks.

We wanted to plant flowers but just didn't get to it. We'll look this week for some. The Memorial Weekend looks pretty good. Yippeeee. It's about time! Maybe we'll even get to the pool. Monday is supposed to be around 82. Seeing is believing. But it has to be sunny. We even turned the heat on this morning. It's almost June...

I attended the Asian Bridge silent auction on Saturday night. http://www.theasianbridge.org/ This was the second one and seemed to have more people there this year. It was fun to see some that I had met last year. They hope to raise enough for 4 grants this year for adoptive parents. They match what the person raises. For me though...I just can't do a fund raiser for adoption. It's just sort of strange to tell people to give you money so you can adopt a child. There are some people though that can.

There were some good things to bid on. Still waiting to hear if I got anything. I think I bidded on 4 items. I left right before the big auction which I couldn't afford anyway. It was raining some so I wanted to get home to the kids. It was past their dinner time.

We did get the I-171 from the USCIS people on Saturday. Yeah Hey. They had said two weeks. So we weren't looking for it yet. Martha also got finger printed at our local police station. I think this is the 6th or 7th time in the past two years we've been finger printed. We're all finger printed out that's for sure. We will have to renew our prints again for China in November I think. But will probably wait until Feb 2009 when the I-171 expires again.

So as you can see...not really much going on right now. A few of the families have gone to get their girls...one in China and another one left on Friday for her little girl in Kyrgyzstan. It's just so hard to imagine that with us. When are we going to hold our little girls. This is just so hard. Every day seems harder and harder. Nothing seems real...We picked out some more paint colors for the room. So we have a lot to choose from. Maybe when the room starts taking shape it will seem little more real...it has to. Nothing seems like it will change. I read today that the certain orphanages are expecting 40-50 children from the earth quake. Not sure if they are considered abandoned or what. Of course so many lost their only children.

NOTE TO READERS: Where in the World are you from?

I'd love to know where everyone is from who's reading my blog. I'd like to hear from you. Maybe just a quick note to let me know what part of the world you're from. Something that I might not know about your country, state, etc. And maybe a good suggestion for Moms-to-be. Something that you found helpful, etc. We need all the help we can get. We only know about dogs.

Then when our girls get older it would be fun to show the various e-mails to them. It would be fun to look back and see how many people around the world contacted my sister and I.

Our e-mail address is theadair6@aol.com if you'd like to contact us. Looking forward to hearing from you where ever you are in the world.

Earth Quake in China Report

On Monday there was a really bad earth quake in the southwest area of China. It was felt as far away as Beijing.

Below is a report from Great Wall regarding their orphanages.

As you know, several orphanages that Great Wall regularly receives referrals from in the Sichuan and Chongqing provinces have been directly affected by the catastrophic earthquake that occurred in China May 12, 2008. It is our understanding that China is doing their best to meet the needs of those impacted by the quake. Our Beijing office is trying to obtain as much information as possible regarding the orphanages in Chongqing, Sichuan, and the surrounding provinces. Currently communications with these provinces is limited. We do know that the CCAA has not received any reports of any serious injuries or fatalities for any orphanages. We have also received word on some of the orphanages in the hardest hit areas:

The Chengdu Social Welfare Institute did evacuate its children due to the aftershocks. They carefully inspected their buildings and there has been some foundation damage to the rehab building and there are cracked walls in other buildings. The children’s building is in the best shape and all children have been moved to the first floor but spend most of the day outside, weather permitting – or in the institution buses if there is rain. All of the Chengdu SWI staff is working around the clock to care for the children and keep them safe. All the children at the Deyang SWI are safe and accounted for; however this orphanage did sustain minor damage to its building. Nanchuan, Chongqing and Xiushan, have indicated that all of their children are safe and no damage to their orphanages was reported. All of the Children at Zhaotong, Yunnan Foster Care are accounted for and are safe. The children at Chongqing Children’s Welfare Institute and Yibin CWI are also all ok. The children were all evacuated until the tremors passed. The buildings only had minor damage and none of the children were injured. We have also been notified that Yuyang SWI, Fuling SWI and Liangping SWI had some damage during the earthquake, some of their buildings were destroyed. Among them, Liangping’s damage was the most serious, half of the yard of the institute collapsed, but fortunately, all of the staff and children in these three orphanages are safe and accounted for.

http://video.aol.com/video/video-category/2123777