Our insane, always changing lives!

For months now I have known how badly I needed to update everyone. But so much has been going on that every time I tried to sit down and type up an update, I just didn't know where to start. I would fumble around for a while, then run out of time and I would save it and try to come back to it later, but I could never come up with a decent update because I just didn't know how. It is also very easy to forget about my blog because I do regularly post on Facebook, and sometimes I forget that people are not seeing updates there. But this time, no matter how poor my wording is, no matter how bad it sounds, this needs to get done. So please, bear with me! Here is a quick update update on life...

The past few months have been a whirlwind! Within 6 months time, I went from being single and independent, to being mother of 9 children, and then married. Life is beyond crazy, but also beyond amazing!!! So for anyone who does not really know what has been happening, I will give a very brief  overview. In May, my sister, Taryn, and I moved into a house down the street from my parents and started taking in kids. About the same time, I started dating my best friend, Stevie. Within no time, Taryn and I had 9 kids in our home and Stevie and I were engaged. Then started the insane 3 month engagement... planning a Guatemala wedding and trying to plan a U.S. wedding as well (thankfully we have an amazing friend in Ohio that took care of all the U.S. Stuff!), and doing all that while caring for 9 kids and trying to keep up with everything.... needless to say, I'm glad that the insanity of  that phase has passed. 

On November 3^rd we had our Guatemala wedding. It was absolutely amazing having all my kids, all my parents' kids, and all our Guatemala friends and family celebrating together. We also had Stevie's mom, my grandparents, my aunt and her sister-in-law, and our friend who photographed the wedding (and did an incredible job!) all fly in for our wedding. It was absolutely beautiful!!!! Stevie and I then flew to Ohio on November 6^th. The next 6 days we got to visit friends and family and work out the last few wedding details. Then on November 12^th we got married again! This time with all our U.S. friends and family. This wedding was also absolutely beautiful as well.... it was just incredibly cold, but we made it through. We then got to go on a 5 day honeymoon. We drove out to PA and stayed at my aunt and uncles cabin in the woods. We had some wonderful, relaxing time with no responsibilities! It was really strange and absolutely amazing, just what we needed. After we drove back to Ohio we had just a few more days to spend time with family before heading back to Guatemala on the 20^th..... just in time to go into the craziness of the holidays.

Now into the Liberia update...
I am still going, but I will now have my best friend, husband and ministry partner to go with me. We will still be doing the same work, we will just be a better team and be able to provide support to each other in it all (if you would like a reminder of the work we will be doing, feel free to go to my previous blog post, titled Adventure Awaits: When God Calls You Somewhere New, for the details). The plan was for us to head out in the spring, but that looks like it will be delayed. We are in the process of talking to the ministry partners there in Liberia to nail down specifics, but at the moment we are unsure of when we will be going because we are quite underfunded.

Ways you can help:
1. Donate! We have a lot to raise, and ideally we would like to be able to raise that money while here on the ground continuing our work, instead of having to head back to the States. If you feel God is calling you to donate, you can get the info at hopeforhome.org. Just be sure when you donate to specify that it is for the Liberia fund.
2. And of course pray! God is our provider in everything and we trust Him, please pray with and for us as we prepare. Pray for the ministry here in Guatemala, that He will help us be effective workers, and that we will be able to show all our children His love. Pray for the ministry in Liberia, that God will continue to help it thrive. Please pray for us as we make decisions that we will really hear God's will for us each step of the way.

Thank you all so much for your continued prayer and support.

From the crazy (and impossible to get a good picture) Chapin Family, Merry Christmas!!!

Adventure Awaits: When God Calls You Somewhere New

In February, when I came to Guatemala to visit the family, I was struggling so much with why God has called me to live so far away from the family. I began poring out my heart to God and praying for understanding. In that moment I felt Him remind me of the specific things he had called me to... First was to care for children with disabilities and second was to go to Uganda "until I call you somewhere new." I always assumed that those two would go hand in hand for years to come, but I felt as though God was telling me that things were maybe going to change very soon. Naturally my first thought and hope was "Guatemala!!!" and even though I am here right now.... He had a different idea starting in 2018. That night I started to pray that if He had something else planed for me that he would show my dad, so I would know that it was not from my own desires but His. Three days after I began praying about this, my dad asked if my mom and I could go to his office with him to talk for a few minutes. He proceeded to tell me of an opportunity in Liberia where I could oversee the opening of a community of homes for children with special needs. Over the next few weeks we all prayed and talked about it a lot, and we all feel at peace and that this is what the next step is for me. I do not know how long I will be in Liberia, I will be heading there in January of 2018 and will be there for at least a couple years, I am going to go and we will figure it out one step at a time. I may be there for 2 years, then back in Guatemala, or head back to Uganda, or somewhere else, or maybe I will be in Liberia for 15 years... I don't know, but God has called and I am walking.

The plan is to have a large property that we will build individual homes on. In each home there will be a mama or a married couple who looks after 5 or 6 kids. There will also be a community center on the property that will consist of space for everyone to come together for some meals and a therapy area. For all of this Hope for Home Liberia will be teaming up with two other existing ministries in Liberia to further the kingdom of God. My dad will be doing his own blog post before too long explaining the logistics of the ministries and some of the details a bit more, so stay posted for that.

My life in Liberia will be very different from any experience I have had. All things considered I have lived a fairly comfortable missionary life. In Uganda I experienced comfortable living situations but was on my own and had to figure everything out myself. In Liberia I will be joining existing projects so they will be able to show me around and help me navigate life there, but my living situation will be a stretch for me... I will be living in more of a village setting (as opposed to city or small town) and I will be living in a house that has no electricity and no water. This will be super new to me and will be a huge adjustment but I am following the call.

Below is a picture of my new prayer card. On my next blog update I will add a PDF for anyone who would like to print of my prayer card.

Prayer requests:

1. That God will continue to have his hand on the ministry that I am presently doing here in Guatemala.
2. That this time here will be a way to even better prepare for Liberia.
3. That He will help me as the move approaches... It is still months away, but this will be a huge change for me and will need extra help as those changes get closer.

Thank you to everyone who is praying for me and supporting me financially, I need you all now more than ever. God bless.

Sudden move to Guatemala and all the insanity that comes with it...

I am so sorry that I did not get this done earlier, the past couple weeks have been insane. As many of you know, I am now living in Guatemala (again). Before I get into the details of the last 2 ½ weeks I want to take a moment to explain that this move is not me ignoring Gods call on my life. I always said that I was going to live in Uganda until God called me somewhere else, I imagined (and lived as if) that would be for years and years, but back in February, well…. He called me somewhere else (more on that coming very soon). So temporarily, I am in Guatemala to help with my parent’s ministry.

So, here is the breakdown of the past couple weeks….

Because of the orphan crisis going on in Guatemala, Hogar de la Esperanza received permission to open up a second home under the first home’s license. So on March 19^th my parents asked Taryn and I if we would consider heading back to Guatemala earlier than expected to help get the second home started up (because of my experience with the first home, I am ready to jump right, if someone else were to open the home they would require extensive training). We spend the next 20 or so hours praying about it and we felt like that is where God wanted us, so we started preparations. Mom changed our tickets and we got busy with selling stuff, packing everything else, frantic goodbyes…. Lots of insanity. 8 days later (the 28^th) we were on a plane. We landed in DC the following day and spent 2 days with my grandparents (the trip from Uganda to Guatemala can be around 50 hours, so being able to break it up a bit is super helpful), but then on the 31^st we were back on a plane heading to Guatemala. We got here that evening and hit the ground running. We have spent the past few days unpacking and doing any other preparations on the home that can be done. 

Monday, the 27th, the ministry received the key to our new house. While we were doing last minute things in Uganda and traveling home, everyone in the ministry was kicking butt and getting all kinds of work done on the house.... it looks amazing! Here are some pictures of what it is looking like now, doors and windows will be installed (hopefully) today, plumbing was finished yesterday and a fridge was installed. Once the doors are installed will begin setting up the rooms a little better, getting everything in place. Now, we are only waiting to receive kids... Until then, we are continuing to make little changes and adjustments to the house to make transition as smooth as possible. 

Courtyard/ ministry parking

Kitchen (a.k.a my favorite room in the house)

Living room

This will be the dining room and (on the other side of the curtain)
 the changing room/laundry room 

From our roof you can see Hogar de la Esperanza (#1) and on the
other side of our house is Brittney and Joel's place

Mine and Taryn's bedroom

Intern room that is being used as storage right now

Boy's bedroom

Play room

Girl's bedroom

Bathroom

So this is where we are do far, working hard and getting stuff done. Hoping and praying that we will revived kids in the next couple days before the insanity of Semana Santa (Holy week) sets it.


For all my supporters, I know that I am not where I had planed, but I am still doing the work that was planned. If you would be willing to continue supporting me, that would be greatly appreciated. This role that I am taking on is not a paid position so I could really use the continued support. As always, I still need lots of prayer and emotional support, thank you to everyone who is continuing to stand by me as a prayer partner, financial partner, or both. God bless. 

Back in Guatemala

I am so sorry that it has taken this long to do a blog post, it has been a crazy couple weeks! Not only that, but this is now my 3rd attempt at writing a post but my computer has had some issues and keeps deleting it.

As some of you may have seen, Taryn and I are back in Guatemala for a month. I am going to try to make a long, confusing story as simple as possible.... for visa proposes when we entered Uganda we had to have a ticket showing we were going to leave within the next 6 months. Well, because of the high fee for changing our tickets on top of the price it would be to visit a nearby country to renew our visa, it was actually cheaper (by three hundred dollars each) to keep our original ticket and go home for a bit.

On January 9th, I got a Skype call from my mom and my sister, Krishauna. I called Taryn in the room and my mom said, "I have good and bad news. The bad news is it is going to be really expensive to change your tickets. The good news is, that means it is cheaper for you to come all the way here. So, we will see you guys on the 26th!" The next 2 1/2 weeks was crazy difficult to keep it a secret. 

So, January 25th we left our apartment.... about 42 hours later we were greeted by our parents (and some family friends) at the airport in Guatemala. We drove home and got to surprise some of the family (the kids were in bed, so we didn't get to see them yet). Early Friday morning, we headed to San Pablo to surprise Joel, Brittney and our future nephew. We also got to help them move into their new house. We again got home late again, so the weekend was basically all spending time loving on the kiddos! I got to meet the 4 kids that have joined the home since I was gone, and we got to welcome Genesis to the family as well.

In addition to all that, on the 3rd, we got to welcome a new baby into the family, Christopher Caleb. It has been so nice being able to be here with the family during all of this (considering when we found out Brittney was pregnant we never expected to get to be a part of this). God has the best timing, this has been exactly what both Taryn and I have needed. 

Taryn and I will be heading back to Uganda on the 23rd. Please pray for finances.  Even though we saved money by coming home instead of paying the change fee, it still all cost far more than we had budgeted for visa renewal. Also, please pray for the continued guidance and timing of God for the upcoming months and years. Thank you for your continued prayer and support.