YES!

Oak Harbor gals

I am so excited to be able to blog this morning! It is now Sunday in China; we arrived early on Friday morning due to lots of stormy weather, but this is the first time I have been able to get connected. In Beijing things were blocked, and up here everything was in a foreign language (no, not even mandarin), so I was unable to peruse my way around the page. So the "YES!" title is a quote from me when everything worked this morning.

After visiting the wall and toboganing down in Beijing, and meeting up with Bill and Lynsay from Morning Star foster home, we are happy to be in Chaoyang.

Dinner with Lynsay

Great Wall

As usual, the best laid plans always change while here, and that was evident from the get go. Seems we were "bumped" from our usual foreign-friendly hotel, due to a Comm. Party convention, so we are down the street a ways in a different hotel. That has been some of the difficulty connecting to the Internet too, but hey, a new adventure is always good.

After checking in and grabbing a quick lunch, we headed off for the orphanage. We were greeted by many familiar faces that were delighted to see us (and vice versa).  It was wonderful to see many walls brightly painted and a brand new play area that the was bought for them by the government. We were saddened to learn that one little one from last year that we nicknamed Mighty Mouse passed away about three months ago. Last year there were two limb difference kiddos that stole my heart, and when I inquired about the one that is not here this year, I learned he is in foster care somewhere, so that was exciting news. There is a three day old baby that is the tiniest little peanut. He is not doing so well, but we are able to pick him up and show him plenty of love. We are currently thinking of a good name for him, as he does not yet have one.   Yung Yung seems to be adjusting to live in the orphanage, and we are told that he will begin school in September. We have a physical therapist with us this year, so she was able to go around and assess a lot of needs yesterday. Today we are hoping for receptive ears as we she tries to implement some new ideas.

Anna reunited with Jian

John

"Wei" that's how Chinese answer the phone

Traci and "Peanut"

Kendra shows off her iphone

Traci and Wu Jia Wei

Min Yer (red) remembered us

A journalist that was wrote about us last year was with us all day. We also met the tutor that we hired to teach one of the girls. One of our team members is going to room with her for the next four months as she continues to work here for some college credit. It's a very exciting opportunity.

Coutney and friend

We closed last night with an adventure to the city square and mingled with the locals. We attracted crowds as we handed out glow sticks and bracelets to the kids we came across. Some of the group "swing danced" with the group of dancers, while a couple girls jumped over a light up toy that twirled around their ankle (I know there's a name for the toy, but my brain won't come up with it).

















On our way back we to the hotel we stopped to speak with a gentleman who was playing a authentic chinese instrument. When he asked our guide about us, he informed us that a few years ago he found an abandoned child and took her to local authorities. Amazingly he had found Chao Bao, whom was at the orphanage the first year we were here, and she is now in the states! We got to share information with him, and I thanked him for saving a child's life! He had such a proud look on his face.

Chao Bao's rescuer

*Well I just tried to upload photos, but no such luck. I will email some to Mike and hopefully he can post them.  I welcome any comments you want to leave, or can pass on messages to team members if you want. We are getting ready to head out to the orphanage again this morning.

The End (at least for this post)