Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Today was Mary's birthday and she's written a blog about today's festive outing at Beijing Wild Life Park. It was her husband's birthday present to her as she treated 41 of us, including 24 kids, renting a huge bus to take us to the park and to a ten course meal afterwards.
I had been praying and hoping with all my heart that Teacher Wang (the head teacher) would allow MY Noel to join us on the trip last minute, as she was in Pre-school and only kids in kindergarten and first grade were permitted to go on this trip today. It first broke my hear that Teacher Wang couldn't recall who Noel was. After my reassurance that Noel was who she was, she went to Noel's house and told Noel that she was coming on this trip. She later reported that Noel's face was that of disbelief, as Noel has never gone on a field trip, as each nanny needs to take care of two children on field trips and Noel would need an one-on-one adult chaperoning.
Noel turned out to be an AMAZING little girl!! It was such a privilege and heart-filled joy to spend one-on-one time with her today! She sat on my lap for the bus ride and was in a stroller when we got to the Wild Life Park.
She is FIERCELY independent - refusing to allow me to help her tear open her candy wrapper. With only one functional hand, she grabbed the candy and bit the wrapper. When she was finally successful in biting off small pieces of the wrapper, she'd spit it out and laugh. And laughing did she do throughout the entire trip!
Noel laughed when people interacted with her; she squealed with laughter when I pushed her in her stroller, racing with other kids on wheelchairs and kids on foot; she laughed when other kids came by her stroller to say "hi" to her; she laughed when you tickled her; she laughed on our way back from the trip as she was trying to master twisting open and closing a water bottle. I was her human clamp - keeping the bottle steady so she can twist the cap with her hand (on and on she'd twist the bottle open, laugh, take two sips, laugh some more, twists the cap closed, only to twist it open and start the whole routine all over again - for most of an hour)! I was expecting that she'd be tired out and be napping like the rest of the kids. Instead, all you could hear on the bus ride home was her laughter!
She also showed her persistence without ever getting frustrated throughout the entire time she tried to open her candy package (it took like at least 45 minutes) - the most she did was making some grunting sounds and then went on trying; she stayed up the entire bus ride home practicing opening and closing the water bottle. Mary and Julia said I finally met my match with Noel's persistence and energy level : )
Lastly, it was so wonderful that she's been learning American Sign Language - Finger Spelling (she can't talk), as we reviewed the alphabets together. I also taught her sign for her name (an "N" going from one side of the face to the other to represent her laughing all the time), and some other basic words. She'd look fiercely at how I was signing and would copy me, while mimicking sounds!
Spending time with my grandkids the last few months have really helped to prepare me to interact with Noel: Due to her having Cerebral Palsy with spasms (she can't walk and only one hand is about 80% functional), she is unable to write or communicate expressively, so she functions as a much younger child physically...so, thanks to my daughters who have given me the privilege to play with your young adorable children, all of whom have helped to train me for "such a day as this!" : )
Thanks for reading this LONG update!
Please continue to speak to the Father on our behalf as I will be shadowing her at school for the next three days! I'm hoping to function as her para to give her some one-on-one attention in the classroom...
Blessings,
Elissa
Best Birthday Ever!
For my birthday, my hubby sponsored a field day trip for us to take the children to Beijing Wildlife Park. We (Team JAMES) along with aiyis, staff and volunteers took a group of 24 children. The children were extremely excited and they were up bright and early. The bus was scheduled to arrive at 8:30AM but the children rushed their aiyis out of their houses at 8:00AM.
We boarded the bus and the children were singing and smiling. They kept saying “we’re going to Beijing to see the animals!” We each were partnered up with a child; Elisa had Noel, Julia had Eric and I had Josiah as our buddy. Never have we seen such a well behaved group of children on a bus. They stayed seated and remained calm even when our bus took a wrong detour into some remote village.
Birds, monkeys, Lions, Tigers, Bears… The children loved every exhibit especially the safari ride where they got to see all the wild animals up close. The smiles on their faces made us feel really happy. There were many special moments; one of my favorite was watching Lucas pulling Bea away from a horse because he thought that she was in danger. It was so sweet to see how the children watch out for one another like real siblings do.
Praise God for this beautiful day and making this a memorable experience for us all!
~ Mary
We boarded the bus and the children were singing and smiling. They kept saying “we’re going to Beijing to see the animals!” We each were partnered up with a child; Elisa had Noel, Julia had Eric and I had Josiah as our buddy. Never have we seen such a well behaved group of children on a bus. They stayed seated and remained calm even when our bus took a wrong detour into some remote village.
Birds, monkeys, Lions, Tigers, Bears… The children loved every exhibit especially the safari ride where they got to see all the wild animals up close. The smiles on their faces made us feel really happy. There were many special moments; one of my favorite was watching Lucas pulling Bea away from a horse because he thought that she was in danger. It was so sweet to see how the children watch out for one another like real siblings do.
Praise God for this beautiful day and making this a memorable experience for us all!
~ Mary
Sunday, August 29, 2010
I FINALLY Got to Be With Noel!!!
This afternoon I finally got to spend two and half hours with Noel!
We were on our way to her house: House of Love in the morning, and got “side tracked” with some of the kids form the House Peace right outside our Inn and spent time playing with these kids outdoors: pushing them around on their toy vehicles and encouraging them to take turns playing with one another. We saw Moses – the deaf mute boy who is also a dwarf. We enjoyed playing with him during our last visit in January and were glad that we were able to “pick up where we left off” with him. One of my new co-workers from Nyack College met him over the beginning of the summer and had fallen in love with him. So, we had to take some extra pictures of him so we can send them off to his admirers back at the States. Moses had such a great time making gestures into the camera as he was able to simultaneously look at himself on the screen (thanks to Mary’s wonderful and advanced camera)!
We then went on to what we thought was the House of Love. I saw a girl, Charissa, who looked like an older version of Noel, and for a second I thought that Noel had “graduated” to a wheelchair, and my heart sank when I realized that I was not at the House of Love after all…we had “mistakenly” walked into Zachary House. We stayed and played with kids with Cerebral Palsy, and were able to take them out of their wheel chair/baby carrier so we can hold them and get them out of their chairs for a bit. Asa, who was in a baby carrier, peeled with laughter anytime we pushed or spinned his carrier around, or took him out and held him. He was an extremely happy child, laughing on and on…
We finally arrived at the House of Love by 11:00 AM, and much to my dismay, Noel had finished lunch just prior to our arrival and had gone upstairs for her nap…we had a good time playing and chatting with Grady and some other older boys. Grady is the 15 year old who broke my heart when I found out from the newsletter that although he was matched with a very loving family, his paperwork was not able to be completed in time for him to be adopted (kids over 14 in China are not allowed to be adopted). He was his usual easy going, friendly, outgoing and helpful self, updating us on what was going on at SFCV.
We had to leave when it was time for these boys to take a nap as well. We were set to return at 2:00 PM, but Grady said we were to return at 2:30 PM. We didn’t think he knew what he was talking about, and were ready to go back at 2:00 PM when Chris, who is an one year English teaching intern, was functioning as our “liaison/guide” for the weekend, informed us that Grady was correct, as the houses weren’t ready until 2:30 PM… meanwhile, a group of 21 young people from a Beijing 3 Self-church were here for a visit for the day. Mary got to share her testimony with this group and we went back to the House of Love with a small team of this group.
I FINALLY got to see Noel! I was so glad to see her happy and smiley face! Noel Joy, another beautiful girl with CP, had actually remembered us from January! I first gave Grady an Easy Ken Ken booklet and tried to explain to him the rules of the game. I was shocked to find that he didn’t know his Times Table! As a result, he wasn’t able to use the booklet…but he was extremely generous in allowing all the other kids (who were just interested that there’s something new) to take turns looking at this booklet. I grabbed Noel and sat her on my lap on the floor, and tried to help her play a picture booklet, “Sepot the Difference,” and realized that she cannot hold a pencil properly, as she grabbed it really tight, making stray lines, and soon broke the mechanical pencil she was using. Also, I found out that there’s no such thing as giving something to only one child, as all the other kids snatched the booklet to play with it and Noel only had it for about three minutes – and that was with me fighting off other kids! The booklet went around the house, with each kid refusing to return it to me or Noel. By the end of the afternoon, it was ripped and one of the nannies had to rescue it from the kids and put it on the bookshelf.
Noel kept on pointing to the bookshelf, so we took numerous trips picking out books after books for her to peruse through. I’ve had to also “entertain” some other girl who also wanted to “read” books. Since I really only wanted to focus on Noel, it was a tough task to appease the other child while trying to spend quality time with Noel. I was able to spend a good amount of time with Noel with her on my lap, and I abandoned my teammates as they moved on to the House of Blessing for the rest of the afternoon.
Henry and Eric came and scooted Noel off my lap and came “riding” on my legs, each possessing one, and I was their human horse (and got a good thigh work out) for a while. I looked at Noel helplessly, as these two boys occupied my lap. She then joined the rest of the kids in the house to watch an animated DVD, never complaining…I was trying to stay through their dinner so I can feed Noel, but 5:00 PM came around and they still weren’t serving dinner, and Grady “verbally ushered” me out of the house, as 5:00 PM was the “curfew” time for visitors to leave…sigh…
While at the House of Blessing, Mary was overjoyed that she finally got to see her buddy, Josiah, and snapped numerous pictures of the kids (she took over 412 pictures for the day)! Julia also enjoyed meeting and playing with all the kids she met for the first time on this trip. They both saw Lucas, the boy who cannot hear, Team James was trying to raise the funds toward a Cochlear Implant operation. Mary noted how Lucas has grown and matured and appeared much better integrated with the rest of the house.
We went to a local outdoor BBQ for dinner as Julia tried to stay awake, and we feasted on lamb meat, lamb tendon, beef tendon, chicken gizzard, chicken leg, chicken wing, stewed peanuts, edamame, grilled string beans and grilled squid for a total price of 43 RMB (equivalent of $6.51 for the entire meal)!
We look forward to attending Beijing International Christian Fellowship on Sunday morning and to check out Summer Palace in the afternoon…
~ Elissa
Sat, August 28th, 2010
We were on our way to her house: House of Love in the morning, and got “side tracked” with some of the kids form the House Peace right outside our Inn and spent time playing with these kids outdoors: pushing them around on their toy vehicles and encouraging them to take turns playing with one another. We saw Moses – the deaf mute boy who is also a dwarf. We enjoyed playing with him during our last visit in January and were glad that we were able to “pick up where we left off” with him. One of my new co-workers from Nyack College met him over the beginning of the summer and had fallen in love with him. So, we had to take some extra pictures of him so we can send them off to his admirers back at the States. Moses had such a great time making gestures into the camera as he was able to simultaneously look at himself on the screen (thanks to Mary’s wonderful and advanced camera)!
We then went on to what we thought was the House of Love. I saw a girl, Charissa, who looked like an older version of Noel, and for a second I thought that Noel had “graduated” to a wheelchair, and my heart sank when I realized that I was not at the House of Love after all…we had “mistakenly” walked into Zachary House. We stayed and played with kids with Cerebral Palsy, and were able to take them out of their wheel chair/baby carrier so we can hold them and get them out of their chairs for a bit. Asa, who was in a baby carrier, peeled with laughter anytime we pushed or spinned his carrier around, or took him out and held him. He was an extremely happy child, laughing on and on…
We finally arrived at the House of Love by 11:00 AM, and much to my dismay, Noel had finished lunch just prior to our arrival and had gone upstairs for her nap…we had a good time playing and chatting with Grady and some other older boys. Grady is the 15 year old who broke my heart when I found out from the newsletter that although he was matched with a very loving family, his paperwork was not able to be completed in time for him to be adopted (kids over 14 in China are not allowed to be adopted). He was his usual easy going, friendly, outgoing and helpful self, updating us on what was going on at SFCV.
We had to leave when it was time for these boys to take a nap as well. We were set to return at 2:00 PM, but Grady said we were to return at 2:30 PM. We didn’t think he knew what he was talking about, and were ready to go back at 2:00 PM when Chris, who is an one year English teaching intern, was functioning as our “liaison/guide” for the weekend, informed us that Grady was correct, as the houses weren’t ready until 2:30 PM… meanwhile, a group of 21 young people from a Beijing 3 Self-church were here for a visit for the day. Mary got to share her testimony with this group and we went back to the House of Love with a small team of this group.
I FINALLY got to see Noel! I was so glad to see her happy and smiley face! Noel Joy, another beautiful girl with CP, had actually remembered us from January! I first gave Grady an Easy Ken Ken booklet and tried to explain to him the rules of the game. I was shocked to find that he didn’t know his Times Table! As a result, he wasn’t able to use the booklet…but he was extremely generous in allowing all the other kids (who were just interested that there’s something new) to take turns looking at this booklet. I grabbed Noel and sat her on my lap on the floor, and tried to help her play a picture booklet, “Sepot the Difference,” and realized that she cannot hold a pencil properly, as she grabbed it really tight, making stray lines, and soon broke the mechanical pencil she was using. Also, I found out that there’s no such thing as giving something to only one child, as all the other kids snatched the booklet to play with it and Noel only had it for about three minutes – and that was with me fighting off other kids! The booklet went around the house, with each kid refusing to return it to me or Noel. By the end of the afternoon, it was ripped and one of the nannies had to rescue it from the kids and put it on the bookshelf.
Noel kept on pointing to the bookshelf, so we took numerous trips picking out books after books for her to peruse through. I’ve had to also “entertain” some other girl who also wanted to “read” books. Since I really only wanted to focus on Noel, it was a tough task to appease the other child while trying to spend quality time with Noel. I was able to spend a good amount of time with Noel with her on my lap, and I abandoned my teammates as they moved on to the House of Blessing for the rest of the afternoon.
Henry and Eric came and scooted Noel off my lap and came “riding” on my legs, each possessing one, and I was their human horse (and got a good thigh work out) for a while. I looked at Noel helplessly, as these two boys occupied my lap. She then joined the rest of the kids in the house to watch an animated DVD, never complaining…I was trying to stay through their dinner so I can feed Noel, but 5:00 PM came around and they still weren’t serving dinner, and Grady “verbally ushered” me out of the house, as 5:00 PM was the “curfew” time for visitors to leave…sigh…
While at the House of Blessing, Mary was overjoyed that she finally got to see her buddy, Josiah, and snapped numerous pictures of the kids (she took over 412 pictures for the day)! Julia also enjoyed meeting and playing with all the kids she met for the first time on this trip. They both saw Lucas, the boy who cannot hear, Team James was trying to raise the funds toward a Cochlear Implant operation. Mary noted how Lucas has grown and matured and appeared much better integrated with the rest of the house.
We went to a local outdoor BBQ for dinner as Julia tried to stay awake, and we feasted on lamb meat, lamb tendon, beef tendon, chicken gizzard, chicken leg, chicken wing, stewed peanuts, edamame, grilled string beans and grilled squid for a total price of 43 RMB (equivalent of $6.51 for the entire meal)!
We look forward to attending Beijing International Christian Fellowship on Sunday morning and to check out Summer Palace in the afternoon…
~ Elissa
Sat, August 28th, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Pixs
Dear Friends,
Here are some pictures from today's interaction with kids.
Children are so adorable; they welcomed us with open arms. The 1st day went by too fast.
There were not enough of us to go around.
With love,
JuliAMaryElisSa
Sat, Aug 28th 2010
Dear Friends, warm greetings from China, Tianjin!
Last Night after long total of 17+ hours on the trip, Team JuliAMaryElisSa made it safely to the SFCV (Shepherd's Field Children Village). ...And the bags followed us safely here!
The weather is good in Tianjin. Although the first thing you notice as soon as you step out of the car is dusty polluted air. It makes it harder to breath. The combination of a major construction work right in front of SFCV (it looks like a factory some sort), dusty unpaved roads, and humidity. However, inside of SFCV it is nice and peaceful. The air is full of love. Everywhere you turn you see children's faces on the paintings and pictures. We have yet to meet them in person. We will be seeing them at 9:30am since today is Saturday and the kids are off school. Looking forward to spending the whole day with them!
Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and mentioning us to him. We will need it. We are remembering you all as well. He is good!
~ Julia
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Anticipation
It’s difficult to imagine that in one week I’ll be half a world away in Beijing again. I left China a changed person and so very grateful that I got to see God’s work in action. I miss the children so much that I just have to return one more time. Thanks to my sponsor - Anita (daughter #1), I’ll be on my way soon. Yay!
Back in the States, I was able to follow the children’s adoption stories and development through networking sites. God is definitely moving and touching hearts! There have been so many matches and volunteers going through both orphanages. Praise God!
I am filled with excitement as my teammates (Elissa Lin Rathe & Julia Ri) and I prep for our trip. Special thanks to all our friends and family for prayers and filling all our empty suitcases with donated goods. You guys are just awesome!
Our team will be staying at Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village for 10 days. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you soon!
Blessings,
Mary
Back in the States, I was able to follow the children’s adoption stories and development through networking sites. God is definitely moving and touching hearts! There have been so many matches and volunteers going through both orphanages. Praise God!
I am filled with excitement as my teammates (Elissa Lin Rathe & Julia Ri) and I prep for our trip. Special thanks to all our friends and family for prayers and filling all our empty suitcases with donated goods. You guys are just awesome!
Our team will be staying at Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village for 10 days. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you soon!
Blessings,
Mary
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