A Letter to Lucas' Donors

Dear Friends,

We are writing you to inform you of some good news. As you know, we had started a Cause for Lucas donation drive to fund his cochlear implant surgery and your donations totaled $10,040. The Cause for Lucas officially ended on Jan 26, 2011. Recently, we learned that a family from the United States is in the process of adopting Lucas so we contacted the Director of Shepherd's Field Children's Village to let us know of the status. He replied that they were hoping China would finalize the adoption this Spring. We are so happy for Lucas and thank God that he will now have a forever family and all the medical care he needs.

Because the funds are no longer needed for Lucas' surgery, we will instead direct those funds to the medical/surgical needs of other orphans at Shepherd's Field. As you may know, there are plenty of other surgeries that need to be funded for the orphans at Shepherd's Field. If you have any questions concerning donations, please contact us at james2010blog@gmail.com

We thank you for your love and care for the orphans.

God Bless,

Kids are so CUTE

The past three days went by so quickly, filled with assessments, speech therapy, and training for L-ST. I enjoy so many different aspects of the field of speech-language pathology that once again, I must thank my Heavenly Father for leading me to this profession that fits me so perfectly. I enjoy teaching the children and feel such joy when they are able to communicate more and use their newly learned skills. I enjoy being a mentor, using my academic training and clinical experiences to train students, and to educate families and staff on ways they can help facilitate speech and language development. And... I love being around the children!

Photos courtesy of Elaine F. 

Reagan and Lillian

  

Hannah

 

 

Yum

Annabelle

Robert is matched! (JACE)

In His Service,

Angela 

19th, January 2011

Saturday, January 15^th – ICE SKATING

I woke up refreshed this morning and ready to start the day. Lydia met me at 8:45am and brought me to the lunar market to buy fruit (The lunar market link will connect to a blog created by 2 teachers currently working at New Day). The morning was COLD and per Lydia, most of the vendors and shoppers don't come until later, when the weather warms up. But since I needed to meet with the foreign volunteers to go skating, I went early to the market and was still able to buy lots of yummie fruit. As I picked out mandarin oranges, an elderly lady graciously showed me how to pick the sweet ones. Maybe my internal cluelessness showed externally? Perhaps it did, and because of her, I now possess the life skill to pick out sweet-tasting mandarin oranges. 

After I dropped off the fruit at the apartment, I met up with the foreign volunteers and we headed into Beijing city (~ 1 1/2 hour drive from New Day). We went to a man-made lake (I do not recall the name), that is completely frozen over in the winter, where people can skate. Elisha and I walked around the shopping area before we ventured onto the ice. I managed to decipher the signs and communicated with the workers, but it was a challenge, especially since they looked at me and automatically assumed I spoke Chinese. We decided not to ice-skate or chair-skate:

but bicycle-skate:

I have not ridden a bike in 6 years (unless you count Tuesday evening when I rode on the back of the bicycle) but here I am, riding a bike, in China, in the dead of winter, on ICE! It was an interesting experience =), not one I think I will repeat. (Thanks to my mom for knitting these ultra warm leg-warmers that kept me toasty.)
~~~

Sunday, January 16^th – REINFORCEMENT

I attended a BICF service in Beijing with many of the foreign volunteers. It was wonderful to be in the presence of other believers and worshipping the same God. One woman shared her testimony of God bringing her to China to work and changing her life in the process. It was very inspiring. She reminded me that God's plans are perfect (Jeremiah 29:11). 

After the service ended, I went out of the meeting room to look at the book table. I ended up buying the Bible, with the text printed in pinyin and in simplified Chinese characters. I was so excited. Now I have a way of "reading" the Bible in Mandarin and learning Mandarin in the process.

I had lunch at Pizza Hut with some of the foreign volunteers. It was a strange experience to be in Pizza Hut, in China. I do not eat Pizza Hut when I'm in the U.S. and since it seemed strange to eat pizza in China, especially since my favorite cuisine is Chinese, I instead ordered a rice dish that tasted pretty good. Towards the end of the meal, a server stopped and asked if we wanted to refill the pitcher of Sprite. It took a few seconds to process what she said, and I needed clarification, but I finally understood that it was a free refill. We were quite pleased with the refill as we had been nursing our first cup of Sprite for most of the meal.

After lunch, I met Wu Jie (the driver) and we went to the airport to pick up Elaine. During the car ride, we made small talk. I wish my Mandarin language skills would be at a much higher level than they currently are because we were only able to have very basic small talk =\.

Elaine safely arrived on Sunday afternoon. Prior to returning to the apartment, we stopped off at a large supermarket, Merry Mart, in the BDA (Beijing Development Area) to buy groceries. Elaine and I realized we have even more in common as we enjoy grocery shopping. It was fun exploring the aisles, figuring out the differences between two similar-looking products, and loading up on fruits and Chinese snacks. We returned back to the apartment and planned to walk the 10-15 minutes to the yummy noodle shop place, but instead we were invited to a simple dinner by one of the foreign volunteers. He, his wife, and their children were having sandwiches.  So... Elaine's first meal in China was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich followed by oranges for dessert (and also eating the fleshy part of the orange which contains high levels of vitamin C - something new we learned).

The weekend was just what I needed to be renewed. I enjoyed glimpses of China by going to the lunar market, bicycle-skating, and shopping at the supermarket. Attending the BICF service was refreshing and the testimony by the sister reinforced God's plan for me to serve in China at this time. I am thankful Elaine safely arrived and look forward to serving and getting to know one another.

In His Service,

Angela

Note: We safely returned to New York on January 30^th. I apologize for not posting regularly to the blog while we were in Beijing. There was quite a lot going on! I will be posting over the next few weeks so stay tuned =)

Thursday, January 13^th - SPEECH THERAPISTS GALORE!

Elaine’s classmate, Pen-Pen, in their graduate speech-language pathology program, was in Beijing and was interested in visiting New Day, and so, she came for a visit in the morning. It was great having another SLP around. She is fluent in both Mandarin and English and interpreted for me so my brain had a lots of speech therapy terms for L-ST. My brain had a break from switching between languages.

In the evening, the preschool teacher, L-ST, a few of the other a-yis and I attended a workshop on speech and language stimulation techniques for children from birth to 18 months. It was sponsored by Care for Children and presented by a Hong Kong trained Speech Therapist, employed by Care for Children, in Mandarin. She used Powerpoint and between reading the slides, listening to her speak, and my own knowledge of speech and language development, I comprehended 60-70% of what she said. Not too shabby =). At the end of the session, when I approached her, I spoke English, which may have surprised her, given that she presented the Powerpoint entirely in Mandarin, and we were in China. I gave her another mini-shock when midway into our conversation, I switched over to speaking Cantonese. It was great having the opportunity to network and I plan to maintain contact with her.

During the course of our conversation, I asked about job opportunities for speech-language pathologists in Asia. She mentioned Hong Kong has an established system with an adequate amount of opportunities, China has a need but the current employment opportunities in China are primarily in international schools (for children of expatriates, in which the salary is higher). When I mentioned my interest was in social services in China and not necessarily in working at the international schools, she looked intently at me, and then asked “Are you a Christian?” I responded, “Yes, how did you know?” Her response, “You can tell.” Hmmm... Food for thought.

Friday, January 14^th – GAME PLAN

On Friday, the team met and we formulated a plan for the following week:

 L-ST and I would provide therapy to the children we had evaluated in the first week. For the first and/or second session, I would model the therapy techniques. During the last sessions, L-ST would work with the children and I would provide feedback. I would also be working with the physical therapy team and providing suggestions on how they can incorporate speech-language stimulation into their therapy sessions with the children.

Elaine was scheduled to arrive on Sunday, the 16^th. For the first day, she would spend time with L-ST and me, observing the sessions and modeling therapy techniques for L-ST. The rest of the week she would be based in the pre-school, working with Sarah, the teacher, to incorporate a “push-in” model of therapy, i.e., incorporating speech-language therapy goals in a classroom environment.

Our plan focused on the following:
- Collaboration between staff members is essential to encourage the development of a child
- Speech-language stimulation can occur in all settings (e.g., home, school)
- Speech-language stimulation can occur in everyday routines (e.g. eating, getting dressed, taking a bath, reading a book)
- Children learn from adults and from each other

~~~

By the evening, I was exhausted and needed to rest for the weekend. The time difference, my internal switching between languages, and working and playing with the children wore me out. On Saturday, I was going ice-skating with some of the foreign volunteers in Beijing. On Sunday, I would attend fellowship with the most of the foreign volunteers in Beijing. Afterwards, a driver, Wu Jie, and I would pick up Elaine at the airport.

It is hard to believe that a full work week went by; I did not expect the time to go by so quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed my time and look forward to what the next two weeks will bring. I anticipate lots of opportunities for mutual learning (between L-ST and me), hugs and kisses from the children, and laughter-filled days and evenings with Elaine.

In His service,

Angela