Finally–A moment to Catch our Breath!

Okay–So I know we have been kind of leaving pretty quick messages, but we have very busy. When we haven’t been transitioning, we’ve been at appointments.

BUT today we were able to have a pretty easy day.

We began our day at church on Shamian Island. Yes–Finally a chance to worship!!

The service we attended was half Mandarin and half English.

We sang two songs that everyone sang together. We sang Amazing Grace and I Could Sing of Your Love Forever. The most moving part to me was that it was a glimpse of Heaven–all of these different people worshiping the One True God. All of these voices blending together–simply beautiful.

The other thing that brought me to tears was that the church was completely packed. If anyone got out of their seat, someone else filled the seat. There was literally “no more room”. It was certainly a priority for these people to attend. I wish you could have seen the joy on most of their faces. Happy to be at church, sitting on hard benches, and CROWDED! I’m sure God was pleased with the praises He received.

I’d like to say that we got to enjoy the preaching, but this was the girls first time in church, and it was quite eventful.

(Note to our VBC Family: Watch out–we will be doing some training over the next few months) LOL!

While we were on the island, we also gave each child a budget envelope and took them shopping. No better time to start teaching our newest girls about the value of money. We had our guide Kelly, explain that we were giving them a gift, but that they had to buy things with money out of their envelope and when it was gone it was gone. They could not ask for anymore. It actually worked out pretty good.

This afternoon was a trial, Hannah is grieving hard for her foster parents and her previous life. She had a pretty good meltdown this afternoon. She gets mad with us, because we took her from her previous life. It is such a hard place to be. She’s crying and will not let us comfort her, and at the same time she is crying big tears. We have had to work hard to make it through these kind of afternoons, they drain you physically and emotionally.

SongYan on the other hand (at this moment) has been pretty easy going. Only a few times have we seen grieving. The hardest part right now with her is the language barrier. (Of course we are not naive to think the meltdowns are not coming–we know that she too will grieve more.)

Let me just take a moment to brag on Leighanne and Zach. They are really cool kids and I have loved hanging out with them for the past couple of weeks. They have kept the focus on helping the girls make adjustments, and they have been very giving of their time and love. I’m so proud of them!!

NOW let me tell you what we were able to do on last Thursday. We heard about this family who moved to China in 2005 and opened a home for truly special needs children. The other couple that we met during our week in Fuzhou had also heard of this family and also wanted to go see their home. On Thursday, we were able to go visit them.

This family had renovated a rundown Kindergarten School and turned it into a wonderful home. They have 24 full time staff that help to run this home. They currently have 43 children in residence. Oh my goodness!!! I can’t tell you how wonderfully these children are being loved and cared for.

We were able to love on some of the children. I got to hold sweet little Monique who was born prematurely, but has made up for lost time in her little 4 months of life. Monique arrived at this home with 12 other children who did not have a great chance of survival. They are being cared for in an inclusive environment with other children and you could feel the love of Jesus throughout the home.

One of my favorite rooms was a room that had several blind children, and children with downs syndrome.
We got on the floor and played and loved on these little ones. Sweet little “Amy” attached herself to Zach. He held her and played music with her for a long time. The “mom” said that Zach should feel special because she doesn’t readily attach to many people. We also saw Hannah in her “big sissy mode” she found a little girl that was blind in both eyes and played with her. Before we left, we found her at the table feeding this little girl her supper. (Oh so sweet to see Hannah loving on this child) Leighanne and SongYan played with some of the other children also.

I was able to play with James and Issac who are pretty much blind in both eyes. They loved to be tickled and hugged. Such precious little gifts. These children have literally been put into a life-saving environment. They are getting the stimulation, physical attention and love of Christian people. AMAZING! God is at WORK!

This home has volunteers that are coming from all over the world. Some are doing 1 year stays to help with the kids.

This home can certainly use your prayers, and gifts of love. You can look them up on the web at http://www.loavesandfishesintl.com/

Some of their immediate needs are: 3 or 4 full time staff, plastic backed baby bibs, small socks and/or children’s clothes and money for needs. This family constantly has medical needs/surgeries for the kids at this home. They also need volunteers–it would be an awesome opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

This was one of our highlights of the trip!

Okay–back to today. Here are a few pictures of our day.