Lovin' My Babies in Fishersville

Hello friends and family!

Sarah and I are slowly recovering here in Fishersville. Essen did a great job taking care of the family while we were away...but the house is a bit disorganized and Miss Lydia is wanting lots of cuddling and play time with Mom. We're spending time in the garage so she can ride her new Chinese scooter, we're watching Dora in Chinese(pretty funny!) and eating yummy Chinese snack foods together. I got some laundry done yesterday, but felt pretty dizzy and out of it for most of the day. I woke up at 4:30 am today and feel better, but my stomach seems a little bit shaky and I know by this afternoon I will want a nap! Sarah says she was up a lot last night.

Talking with friends and family, Sarah and I have been trying to process more of our trip. In the middle of great poverty and an atmosphere of great persecution, we saw incredible love and redemption. Chinese and American Christians seeking to be used to love the abandoned, discarded, orphans of China.

Every day at New Day we gathered and prayed for medical miracles for the children and for future families for these dear little ones. I personally felt very stretched in my role and saw daily answers to pray for the right ways to help and train staff. At just the right time, God seemed to give me insight and ideas. He protected us. We were healthy and safe throughout our whole time in China. He comforted us as we grieved with the New Day staff for Chase and for the unknown future for Judah and other critically ill/deeply scarred orphans at New Day. He filled us with His joy as we saw Matt get his forever family.

We are processing and praying how to best to communicate the things we saw and experienced. Please pray for this time of reflection and for our recovery.



We love you all and thank you for your support and encouragement along the way!



In His Amazing Love,

Sarah and Cathy

Finally Home!

Cathy and Sarah got in to the Richmond International Airport at 8:26pm tonight (Wednesday), greeted by a family that missed them a lot! We had an good drive home catching up on the past twelve days we've been apart. It was remarkable to hear how the Lord used Cathy and Sarah at New Day. I'm sure they'll want to update the blog some more tomorrow--but for now, it's late and they need some sleep. Thanks for your prayers throughout this journey and for their safe travel home. Our Father in heaven cares for all our needs!



love,

Essen

Last Day at New Day

Today, I started the day working more with Jenna. She was in a pretty bad mood and at one point even pushed the table and chairs at us. I believe she has been so affected with institutionalism and abuse that she is deeply scared. She doesn't talk because she can control that. Love will have to be strong and consistent in this little girl's life, but she is in a wonderful place where many are thinking of her best all the time.

Lucy then came to therapy and we set up the stations again to work on some speech goals and physical therapy goals. This interdisciplinary approach is new and they seem to be really eager to try it. Zoey started to write out some therapy goals today for next week. I have realized that there is very little training that they get here in speech/language therapy. But I think the modeling I have done and the training has been a start. I know they love the children so well and want to learn and do all that they can for them. I spent the rest of my time today meeting with the nurse about pediatric feeding disorders and cleft palate.

Sarah played again today with the babies. A highlight for her was when Sean told her he loved her. She also had the babies blowing kisses to her. After lunch, Sarah and I were in the English School. We discussed our lives, adoption, and homeschooling. We even played a fun game of Jenga.

Tomorrow morning around 10:30am we head to the airport. We will be traveling a total of 24 hours if you factor in the car rides to Beijing and then from Richmond home. It will be a very long day...but I am hoping that Sarah and I can chill out some and process this incredible time. I have had some good times every morning, but not nearly enough time to journal. I am hoping to do that some on the way home. Sarah and I both at times have had a roller coaster of emotions as we have been stretched to serve. We have encountered so many new things. Emailing has been such a hard way to communicate with you. When the internet is working, I am invariably tired and can't seem to find the write words to adequately tell what I am seeing and experiencing each day. I have sensed you all on this trip and know you're thinking about us. That has been very important to our time here. I love you all and after some recovery from the crazy jet lag...I can't wait to share with you all the details!

Love,
Cathy

Second to Last Day

This is the second to last day here in China. It has only been 11 days, but it really seems like over a month. I just can't believe the needs that are here at New Day and in China.

This morning, I helped work with little Jenna on the picture communication system. She was able to use one card last week to communicate that she wanted candy or a drink. And I think she understood that if she gives this card she got something. Well today I am pretty sure understood that the picture represented the item she got. Today we put two cards in front of her and she pointed and tried to grab candy bag. When I prompted her to use the card, she looked at both cards and picked the candy picture! This will be a slow process, but I do think it will give this little girl some way of communicating her needs. What fun to introduce the staff to this type of communication. The therapists really seem motivated to learn how to use it with Jenna and I have even heard they are thinking about another little one to use it with.

After our session with Jenna, I worked with a very busy Lucy. She was pretty distracted in the therapy room and there were no really therapy goals for our time together. Developing therapy goals and planning are what we are going to discuss tomorrow. Today I suggested that we develop stations for Lucy to go around the room and do. We had a large ball for her to work on core muscle strength and targeted speech sounds in one station. We did a farm/animals station to work on animal sounds while singing "eieio". In another station we set up oral air flow/oral motor activities (bubbles or a windmill). And the fourth station we had her looking at a mirror on the wall, identifying body parts while singing "Head shoulders knees and toes." Lucy needs to work on her walking and so we had her walking between each station. She was busy, so we stayed busy with her.

A group of us headed over to the Healing Home to evaluate a new cleft palate/cleft lip baby that they have named Anton. Anton also has a severe heart defect. He is 10 months old, but he is as tiny as a five month old--unable to sit on his own and so itty-bitty. We chatted about his feeding with the nannies--talking about careful positioning, burping and the bottle nipples to use. I asked if they were brushing his teeth, and they said they weren't. So we spent the remainder of our time cleaning his teeth and cleaning his nose. I was told the nannies were too nervous to do this. I left several types of toothbrushes for them to use with Anton along with a teether that vibrates that he seemed to love.

Sarah spent her day lovin’ the babies in the baby room this morning. Baby Judah is back from the hospital and doing better. The afternoon she and I spent together in the English School. We talked to the students about our life in Virginia and other places that we have traveled to. We also talked about Current Events. Every afternoon the students are in discussion groups to practice their English. It was fun to be with Sarah talking with the students. Here are some of Sarah's impressions:

"China is amazing! I can't believe I'm actually here! At first it was really weird seeing, hearing, and smelling different things, but as the days go on I've gotten more and more used to it. The kids here at New Day are adorable! I want to take them all home! This past weekend we saw the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. They we so beautiful! We have had amazing weather. Blue skies, but hot! I am getting pretty tired tonight, so I will write more later. I miss you Dad, Michael, Rachel and Lydia. We will be home soon!"

We need to run to pack and do a little preparing for tomorrow's meetings and sessions with the children. We can't believe tomorrow is our last day here at New Day.

Enjoy the pictures of some of the children we worked with today and also the students in the English School. Sarah helped get the gift bags done for the nannies tonight.
Love to you all!

Sunday Sweetness

We made dumplings today!

Summer Palace Gate

The Summer Palace from the lake

In front of the Summer Palace

Dear all,

What a wonderful refreshing time we had--some Sunday sweetness. Our time at Beijing International Christian Fellowship was so good. The worship leader was here from the States and Dr Stuart Briscoe preached. He preached on priorities and it was incredible. I was deeply moved with the time of singing and teaching this morning.

Sarah didn't attend the large group, but rather the children's time. She and Bethany were disappointed that it seemed to be for younger kids.

We headed to the Summer Palace after a little shopping and lunch. It was a beautiful day--blue skies! When Essen and I went before, we didn't get to climb to the palace, but only saw the lake. Our team had fun climbing the rocks and taking fun pictures. All those stairs and climbing had us sweaty and tired! Some of the rooms were open to walk into. These dark rooms were filled with large Buddha statues. This was a bit creepy for the kids to see. After taking in the palace, we walked along the lake and got on a boat. The day was spectacular. So many were on the water in boats or having picnics. We could have spent hours there...

We walked over to where the bus was to meet us, and I guess there was some confusion. We waited for a little less than an hour for the bus in the sun. We had all these people trying to sell us things...and their persistence and low prices had us buying some gifts to take home. Guess we are the gullible Americans and ended up buying half their goods!

After the Summer Palace, we headed back to New Day and then over to a friend's home for dumplings. This was very special and we were privileged to be invited. I can't wait to fill you in on more stories...
Off to breakfast and a full day of loving on the babies!

Love to you all! Enjoy the pics from this day!

A Fun Saturday

Cathy climbing the Great Wall of China

Tobogganning Chinese style!

Stylish Sarah!

Our Team at Tiananmen Square

We had a crazy fun day today. We headed out at 7:00am for breakfast and then off we went to the Great Wall. Dr. Jean's little son Hudson calls it the “Big Wall.” Too cute! We were in the car for over two hours with no air conditioning, so Sarah was feeling pretty weak and dizzy when we arrived. It was a beautiful sunny day and so we saw the mountains and the Great Wall so well. When we were here for Lydia's adoption, we only saw the sun one day! So, it was so wonderful to have a great day for the Great Wall!

This is part of the Wall is very touristy, but really fun. We took a ski lift to the top and then we rode a toboggan down! I am scared to death of heights, but the views were just incredible...so that helped some! And after the crazy accident on the moving sidewalk at the Beijing airport, I was not feeling as confident. Dr Jean bought our team Chinese hats to wear for our group picture. They are pretty good at shading the head from the intense sun we had today!

The toboggan ride was so cool. Our team cheered and laughed the whole way down. You could definitely go pretty fast on the track, but they have men along the track to tell you to slow down.
Our guide wanted to do a sit down lunch, but we had in mind to get as much in today as possible. So we grabbed a Subway sandwich (yes, they have Subway at the Great Wall). We have had only Chinese food since we have been here--besides the hamburger from the cookout last night. It was quite a tasty sub!

We drove by the Olympic Village and saw the Bird's Nest and the Bubble Cube. Those Olympic facilities are huge! Then we got to Tiananmen Square and walked to the Forbidden City Walls. We just didn't have the time to do the Forbidden City.

We wrapped the day with some shopping and dinner at a noodle restaurant. Didn't care to see the big snake in the aquarium when we went into the restaurant, but the food was pretty good. I just can't seem to get good at the chopsticks and especially find it hard to eat rice that way! We’re tired from a long, fun day, so it’s time to turn in.

Communication Sucess (and Tears)

Apartments near New Day


Alleyway near New Day


Communication Board


Sarah with Angela

Today, Sarah headed to the baby room to care for the sweet babies there. She has particularly fallen in love with Angela. She is adorable! We would love to take her home! She lights up when she sees Sarah come into the baby playroom and insists to be held by Sarah. Angela has club hands, but seems to not be held back at all!

I headed to the therapy room to begin working with Jenna on the picture board communication. We found out from her foster mom what foods and drinks she likes--coke, skittles and orange juice. So after running to the store, and having the right picture symbols, we were ready to give this a try. Well, Jenna was very into the Skittles! After just a dozen or so times of working with her, she independently used the card to request the candy! It was quite surprising for the therapist to see how she learned. Jenna is easily distracted, but with persistence and practice this maybe the way we can help her communicate!

After Jenna tired out, the therapists and I looked at the straw kit that I had brought. It was recommended to them by a Speech Pathologist that came here to New Day in January. I have noticed that there are several children that have motor disorders and this straw therapy could be a great help.

In the afternoon, Sarah and I were in the preschool. We used strung beads, had a snack and did music with them. The sweetest was seeing the little ones say "ready" with their hands held together to request another slice of apple.

Tonight, we had a yummy barbeque. Felt good to eat American food again. :) Sarah had a fun time playing volleyball and hanging out with a 12 year old girl (adopted from China) named Shauna. After a team meeting, we got ready for bed. Can't wait for The Great Wall and Pearl Market! We leave New Day at 7:30 and get back pretty late. Except for the getting up early, Sarah and I are getting excited!

This has been a difficult day too. These past few days our team has been running pretty hard in our jobs and so we are getting tired. The weekend break with touring is much needed. But tears flowed a few times today for me and for Sarah. On the day of our arrival, New Day had lost a little one to death, dear sweet Chase. So the staff had a memorial service for Chase today and the nannies gathered and planted a tree in the backyard as a rememberance. Sarah has been helping with the babies every day and has watched how fragile little Judah is. Today the nannies tried to feed him and he got sick to his stomach and then began to have a hard time breathing. The nannies rushed around the orphanage to gather his things and a get him to the hospital. This was quite upsetting for our team to see. Judah has a severe heart condition and no plan to treat him. Sarah and I had a good cuddle and cry tonight. Sucesses and tears today.

A Full, Fun (and Wet) Day!

Hi everyone!

I spent the afternoon writing notes on the children I have seen , but here is how I spent my morning...Crazy busy, but so crazy rewarding. I marvel that the small things Sarah and I do and say and how that seems to be so lovingly received and appreciated.

Sarah and I are in good health and are sleeping well! The whole team seems to be adjusting to the time change and keeping healthy. There are some children with staff infections. So we are being careful.

Today, I spent the first part of the morning modeling speech therapy in the preschool activities. When I was a speech therapist in the schools I worked with preschool special education. I would take children out of the classroom sometimes to work on their language/speech goals, but mostly I worked alongside the special education teacher in the classroom. So the thought was that I could model speech therapy in the classroom today. Well, we had a huge thunderstorm today, and the preschool planned to go outside to experience the rainy day. So with boots, raincoats, and umbrellas we headed out. We had a wet and wonderful time talking about getting under the umbrellas. We jumped in the puddles, and saw and felt the rain on our heads, hands, legs.... As I got soaking wet, the therapists could watch me interact with the kids using signs and working on their newly developed speech goals.

I then spent an hour with several nannies and the therapist to discuss two very speech delayed children and give ideas/model language stimulation techniques. I got Sarah out of the baby room to help demonstrate. We had been wanting to find a way we could do something together. She was a great help and the nannies enjoyed seeing the two of us playing together and acting out situations. We had some good laughs together!

I then spent over an hour with the New Day preschool teacher and her staff. It was fun to talk about our time outside in the rain and explain what I observed in the children. I presented to them a sign language DVD for the children and a sign language music program. I also showed them the communication board system I brought for nonverbal children. We shared how that in the American school system we get together as professionals with the parents to discuss goals and plan ways to implement them in the classroom, in therapy and at home. From what I am learning/observing is that there is little to no communication between the therapy team, the preschool teacher/staff, and the nannies. That is a new concept here, but one the New Day staff hope to develop. Therapy is done in the therapy room, school is done in the preschool area, nannies take care of the basic needs of the children in the orphanage. It was fun to see the Chinese preschool teacher/staff meeting with the Chinese therapists talking together about the children and ways they can work in a team model. I am hearing from the New Day staff that the these ideas are being received well. The Chinese here love these dear children so much and are eager to learn new ways to help them. I am letting the staff at New Day lead on what is best to share, how to be culturally be sensitive, and I really am excited to see how just sharing what I did in the United States seems to be impacting.

This time here in China is just incredible and we are so very thankful to have this opportunity to be here and see and experience these little moments to bless orphans in China. Thank you so very much!

Lots To Do

I am officially exhausted! I have run so hard that a barely have time to get a drink, go to the bathroom, etc. I know I am needed here. Wendy keeps telling me that the therapy tools, talks and modeling is a help. I feel just drained. I am either in the therapy room, preschool, toddler room, or out on home visits. I am so tired, I can't even remember what I did yesterday without looking at pictures! Yikes.

Yesterday, I observed a group of three girls doing speech. The therapist and assistant are doing a wonderful job. I worked with a new little one named Lucy. She has hydrocephalus. All they have heard from her up to this point was some vowels and the “m” sound. It was wonderful to hear her imitate three words during our session. Later in the day, I went to the Healing Home to observe the little ones there.

I spoke during Dr Jean's lecture to the nannies about cleft palate babies. I shared how we learned to feed Lydia and gave them suggestions for bottle positioning. Dr Jean lectured on ear infections and we were able to give the nurse here the otoscopes to train on how to detect ear infections.

I also was in the English school yesterday. They were playing Brain Quest and they had us speak the stories to them so that they could hear our dialects and practice.

Sarah has been as busy. She works in the mornings with the babies and in the afternoons in the preschool. She has been loving on them so well!

Today, I spent the morning training the therapist on oral motor exercises and an augmentative/picture board communication system. The therapists and I then went to the Forever Family Home to observe a nonverbal little girl there, Jenna. She is dear and has been thru so much. An American couple is loving and caring for 4 older girls along with their two biological children. We looked at family routine and environment and they are going to see how best to develop a plan to use this picture board I was able to get donated.

This afternoon, we went to see 5 children in their foster homes. It was a wonderful to bring the children and families gifts. And we couldn’t resist doing a little therapy while we were there! We got little Eliana to do her first sign! She got a stuffed animal that made music when you pushed it. She loved it and so when the music stopped, we got her do to the sign for “want”! The family was so excited to see her to this! A special moment.

I need to go! Dinner is over....

Great Expectations

Yesterday was good and hard.
We started our day hearing from several of the staff on the history of New Day and the different parts to it--English school, foster home, factory, formula project, and pearl house (for the elderly). Then we were taken on a tour of the factory and foster home. While heading to the factory, I was able to chat a bit with Karen, who with her husband and another Chinese couple had started New Day. She told me the last Speech Pathologist they had here was worked to death...I swallowed hard. There are many needs here.
In the afternoon, I was handed a therapy schedule! I was thinking I would be sharing my supplies and chatting with the special education teacher and PTA. They had a very delayed 2-yr-old come to be assessed by me! And she had feeding issues! I was quite stretched. The little one appeared burned on the jaw line and Doc Jean thought maybe she had fetal alcohol syndrome too. She suggested she a barium swallow test or be scoped. I just don't know what resources they have for that kind of testing.
I brought out some oral motor tools, and we had her working at drinking from a straw, but needless to say I was an emotional wreck afterwards. They had asked for the straw therapy kit because a speech pathologist had been here in January and suggested it. Here I had assumed they requested it because they were on top of oral motor therapy. Yikes. I was honest about my lack of knowledge and experience, but I felt their expectation and thus disappointment.
I was pretty sad. Sad for this little one, burned and so delayed. Sad I couldn't be a better help to her and to the staff here. But I hold on to the fact that I am here for a reason--if to just bring these supplies and encourage them. I did enjoy talking thru an interpreter to the foster mom to show her how she can be more verbal with this little one explaining how she could talk about what she is doing and what her foster child is doing in order to encourage any vocal attempts. I showed her how to label and read books. Kids do a lot of TV watching.
Wendy--the Special Ed teacher, is from the Virginia! Went to JMU and I like her a lot. She homeschools her children and is only at New Day once a week. I teased with her that I felt way more comfortable chatting with her about homeschooling and curriculum! She said she is considered an expert here too and has been stretched with the training and assessment she has been asked to do. I am thankful for her honesty and compassion on that. She has done an incredible job with doing some assessments and writing up goals for each of the children.
Last night, we took a walk in the village. The cars and bicycles will run you down if you are not careful! So, walking with Jean's little ones and even Sarah made for a nervous time. The people seem happy to see us, and Sarah even had her picture taken by a woman in a store. The market area is wild. Meats on tables to be cut, carts of vegetables/melons, people cooking on big grills or pots on the side of the road. The park was busy with children and adults playing cards. I have seen similar scenes in Guyana. Sarah was a bit shocked at the animal parts they eat and the flies on them...so Sarah and I had to remind each other to be careful with our facial expressions! I am quite impressed with Sarah's faith and comfortablity here. She is running around constantly with Bethany and Julie and so eager to learn and practice her Chinese. When she worked with the babies in the afternoon, she had the nannies help her with her Chinese. I heard from another team member that she was wonderful with the babies! We did hear that one of them has Hand Foot Mouth Disease and that concern our team some. But the Doc seems to be more concerned about other infectious things she is seeing....so please think of us on that. We are all feeling well and very thankful.
One of the staff's little girls had a bad seizure last night and Jean rushed back from the village. She spent a good deal of time with the little one--she was having the seizure and her dad tried to catch her and ended up falling on her. Jean sent her to the hospital.
Today, I am scheduled to observe and work with some nonverbal children.
Thank you for your prayers, and please continue: the expectations, the intensity of the needs, the fatigue...I am still not getting a good night sleep, but thankfully Sarah is!

Sunday Smiles

Cathy and Sarah had a good day yesterday, visiting the Beijing International Fellowship and spending the afternoon downtown at a flea market.

Sarah is enjoying some good food (see picture) and our friend Kari is making sure we get some shots of the trip.

Please continue to pray for the team as they dig in today. SOme team members from Charlotte NC were injured in a "moving sidewalk" accident at the airport. There was a pile up at the end of the people mover and there were actually some broken ribs and a broken finger suffered as a result. Cahty and Sarah are fine though, and we're thankful.

Bless you all,

Essen

Jet Lag in Bejing

Here we are at the Beijing Airport!

Sunday am here. I am tired still....I woke up at midnight, at 1:00 am, and then finally at 4:30. Sleeping in community--ie snoring--Oh well. Wasn't up with Sarah at all! Just push through today with lots of coffee and coke!

After attending Beijing International Church, we are shopping today. Can't wait to find the bargains that our team has found in past years. Bethany, Jean's oldest adopted daughter, is apparently quite the bargain/deal maker! Heard coats, purses and jewerly are on the team's shopping list. I am not a shopper...but when I am with friends and have a list...I do pretty well.

Answered prayers!

Last night, at our church's prayer meeting, I told everyone how the physician on our team was planning to teach on ear infections and I had found an otoscope company selling otoscopes for us at cost. We were thrilled to be taking these much needed otoscopes to train the orphanage staff on ear infection detection. Well...the otoscopes didn't arrive. I had the group last night pray, and God answered our prayers in an amazing way! The medical supply company said this morning that the shipment should have arrived a few days ago and on line it showed they were in Richmond. How could they possibly get here in time? Our mail comes pretty early most days and Richmond is 2 hours away. So, when the postman arrived at the house(later than normal, I might add) I ran out to ask him if the package came in tonight, could I pick them up at the post office. He then told me he had a package for me--and it was the otoscopes! Now, that was amazing, but this is the incredible part of the story. The postman then proceeded to tell me how another postman had gotten in his own car this morning and traveled the two hours to get the package along with 20 or so other packages that had been misdirected. Wow! That's answered prayer! My postman seemed pretty happy to hear about the blessing these otoscopes would have on orphans in China. I love my dear prayer warriors!!! Isn't it fun to see answered prayers! God is soooo good!

Where is New Day Foster Home?

Where in China are we going to be and what it is like? New Day Foster Home is 45 minutes or so south of the airport. The Qingyundian village feels very rural eventhough it is in Beijing. Here are some pictures Essen and I took while on a walk in the village three years ago. We will be visiting the orphans and their foster care families in the village. There is also a home for the elderly that New Day supports and for some of our evenings we will play in the village park.

Sarah and I leave tomorrow pretty early! Doing the last bit of laundry and packing. Lydia seems little more clingy and easily sad. It is always harder on the ones staying behind.....