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Beautiful............

As I am typing this entry I am listening to the song Beautiful by Mercy Me, and the lyrics are bringing tears to my eyes. If you are not familiar with the song, the chorus goes like this:

You're beautiful, you're beautiful. You were made for so much more than all of this. You're beautiful, you're beautiful. You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His. Yes, you are beautiful in His eyes.

Today was a day spent seeing the beauty in each one of these precious children. The teens on our team are especially amazing me, because they do not hesitate to interact and snuggle with what appears to be the "untouchables" of these children. Yes, there were a few tears today, but we feel very privileged to be placed in this position, of sharing God's love!

We began the day by bringing out the shades! We remembered how much the children loved our sunglasses last year, so this trip we remembered to bring them with us, and I'm glad we did, because they were a hit, as you can see. I spent most of the morning learning from the German physical therapist who works with a program called LIGHT. We hope to partner with her in the near future. There are some children that are in need of surgery and some she wants to get into foster care. The most exciting part was that she had an update for me on a child we had lost track of from the second year we were here. He has cerebral palsy, and last we had heard he had surgery to help him walk and that he was now in foster care. Well now we know that Min Bo, otherwise known as Timothy, is doing wonderfully, walks and talks, and in with a wonderful foster family. Not only that, but he and other foster care children have impacted the families and community around them. How amazing how these orphans, the unwanted, are being used by the father!

In the afternoon we took advantage of the unseasonal mild weather and took the children outside. Last year we bought the padding that is the outdoor play area. Hopefully in the near future there will be more toys in the area than just the merry go round, but it is a good start.

The good news at the orphanage was that the water is back on for the bottom floor. The bad news is that the water is going off for 24 hours at our hotel, beginning tonight at 8:00 pm, for some work. We are coming back a bit earlier this afternoon so that we can shower before we head over for Wednesday evening study at the local church. Please keep us in your thoughts. We definitely feel them over here!

Orphanage Day 1

Today was our first day at the orphanage and was not a disappointment. For those of us returning there were many familiar faces, three new ones, and sadly a couple missing ones. We were thrilled to meet a German physical therapist who runs a foster home in the capital city of Shenyang, and comes to Chaoyang every couple months to work with children there. She had a young American gal with her who has come alongside since November. It was nice to get a little more insight and opinion on the children. 

Toes and fingers were painted, walks were taken (some in wheelchairs), much laughter was made. Unfortunately the pump for the well at the orphanage went out a couple days ago, so there will be no water for a couple more days. This can be a bit challenging at times, but for us it is only temporary. We have to remind ourselves that many people live with this daily! 

One extremely exciting bit of news is that the orphanage is installing an elevator! We had come prepared to install a lift for the stairway, so were shocked to learn they were putting in a real one. Evidently they had a shaft all along, but had never installed an elevator. They were rushing to get it complete before we came, but it did not happen. The worker is busy trying to get it complete in the next couple days, so hopefully I can post a photo of one of the non-ambulatory kids being able to come downstairs in a wheelchair, rather than one of us carrying him down the stairs!

Tonight was a wonderful personal experience for me. We hire a young lady named Juan to tutor one of the orphans. She had asked us to bring over a specific supplement to help with her grandfather's illness, which I was honored to do. Well the family insisted that I and Ying (he shopped for the product in China and had it shipped to me) be treated to a home cooked meal at the grandfather's home. That was quite a treat; the food was amazing and the whole experience was quite humbling. Juan even remembered how much I loved eggplant last year, so her grandfather made a huge dish of it, along with many other delicious foods, washed down with almond milk!  The rest of the group went out to dinner and headed back to the square with our interpreter. Guess they were quite the stars when they handed out glow sticks and took polaroid photos!

Tomorrow we will work with Sa in planning to award the nursing contract. For now, enjoy the photos, and keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

 

Chaoyang Finally!

Once again we had a delayed flight, but we finally made it safe and sound to Chaoyang! We were greeted at the airport by the director and our friend from last year, Sa. After eating a wonderful dinner, we headed to the Pagoda and Square to mingle with the locals. You never know what activities will be going on, but always entertaining. Tonight it was ball room dancing, jump roping, skating, break dancing, Chinese version of hacky sack, and more. The kids dove in and did most of the fore mentioned, and drew a crowd where ever they went. Three girls we met tonight are supposed to join us in working at the orphanage tomorrow. That happens every year, and we are always excited to bring the locals with us, in hopes they will continue the visits when we are gone.  We cannot wait to see the children tomorrow! Now time for some much needed rest.

1 Maca - 2-Maca - 3- Macarena ...4-Maca......

You can barely see Tracie in the middle of this mob

Learning to "shuffle" from a break-dance group

Trains + Planes + Buses + Morningstar + Drum Tower + Great Wall = Exhausted

We got our passports back, boarding passes, and I led the team on a subway adventure to the People's Square in Shanghai! Most importantly I found a Starbucks and got a new mug for the collection! Caught the subway back in time to catch the bus back to the airport:) Made it to Beijing!! Today was a busy day at Morningstar, Great Wall, Bell and Drum Tower, and now exhausted.

Here are some pictures.

Good News/Bad News

The good news is that we landed safely; the bad news is that we are in the Howard Johnson hotel in Shanghai due to thunder storms, and we are not sure when we are getting out. Directions were very vague, and we heard rumbles of sometime after 5:00 tomorrow night. We can't really go anywhere because the hotel has our boarding passes and passports, since they didn't have time to photo copy 300 tonight. Will try and keep you posted. For now I am going to try and go to sleep and shake this headache. Hopefully I can buy a Shanghai Starbucks mug for the collection:)

Dad's Day...

From the time we woke up today, it was all about Dad! The girls and I got up to fix blueberry pancakes, then they thoroughly enjoyed waking him up by tickling his feet. At church the fathers were all greeted with candy bars, followed by more candy from the girls after Children's Church!

Once home we spoiled him with gifts. Kaia made her favorite kind of card, one that has flaps, and she made a coaster tile with her photo on it.

Jaelyn made a picture of she and Mike, and a pottery version of Flounder, the fish from Little Mermaid. If you look closely, you can see how well her drawing resembles her.

Notice the fish in her hand. The photo below is of Jaelyn giving Mike his present last year, a pottery dinosaur the same color (she is holding both above). I think maybe she is starting a tradition. Just think how many matching pottery animals he will have by the time she moves out someday!

From the whole gang they gave him new crampons for hiking. While Josh and I are in China, Mike and his brother are taking on the task of climbing Mt. Rainier.

If you didn't notice, Kaia decided to go back to wearing bangs. I was ready for the change too; tired of them always falling in her face, so we had them cut off on Saturday.

Next we took the traditional silly face family photo...

We then went to see Madagascar 3, which really was quite entertaining. We then filled up our bellies with fresh fish and chips at Seabolt's Smokehouse. I also bought some yummy salmon jerky to give as gifts in China. 

Tomorrow is our last day of school, and Joshua and I head to China on Wednesday. I doubt I will post before then, but I will be trying to blog while away.  The first chance I will be able to do so probably won't be until the 22nd, so check back then. I will try to post something every day, unless too exhausted or bad internet connections. Keep us in your prayers!