To make the New Jersey Marathon an entire weekend of fun, the New Jersey Marathon Festival (along with many sponsors and volunteering organizations) has created a special day full of fun family events for all ages and abilities.  Held on the Great Lawn at the Ocean Front Promenade in Long Branch, right next to the Ocean Place Resort Hotel where Runner’s Expo is taking place, there will be three running events just for kids and a variety of other fun activities.   Besides the fun everyone will surely have, the best part is that funds raised by the ticket sales to these events will go to support the amazing children in LWB’s Education programs, some of whom you can see in these photos.  If you live in or near New Jersey, please consider joining us!

New Jersey Family Fun Day
Saturday, April 30th 2011, 8:30AM – 12:00PM
Great Lawn at the Ocean Promenade, Long Branch, NJ

Special Family Fun events include:

· 3 Mile “Fun” Run/Walk – A non-competitive event with no car traffic. Strollers are welcome!

· Kids’ Races – Separate Races for ages 2-12

· “Kids” 1.2 Mile Marathon – For the entire family, this event finishes at the official 2010 NJ Marathon and LB Half Finish Line!

In addition to races, there will be clowns, facepainting, music, carnival games, crafts, refreshments, awards, medals, and commemorative T-shirts. Various entertainment will be provided including a DJ, the Fun Bus (a school bus packed with fun exercise equipment for children ages 2 to 8), and CareGirlz, a 60-minute musical concert for kids and their families.

For registration and more information, please click here.  Spread the love by spreading the word to friends and families, and encourage everyone in the area to come by to support LWB’s Education program!

When Norzin lost both of his parents, his world was crushed. As a double orphan, Norzin has been supported by Love Without Boundaries and Mama’s Wish sponsors since 2005.

The Mama’s Wish program provides education support to impoverished rural students from the Tibetan Plateau. Norzin showed great potential and was selected for sponsorship. He put all his efforts into studying in order to forget his past, and in return what he found was a newborn sense of self.

We are happy to announce that Norzin will graduate from Qinghai Medical University in Xining this summer with a degree in Medicine and an average of 85 in all subjects. After graduation, he plans to return to his village and open a pharmacy with some of his classmates. We are very proud of Norzin and pleased that Mama’s Wish and LWB could play a part in his success. To learn more about the Mama’s Wish Program, please go to http://lovewithoutboundaries.com/education_mamas_wish.cfm.

Jody Goering is Mama’s Wish Associate Director for Love Without Boundaries Foundation. She lives in Illinois, USA with husband Addison and five children. Jody and Addison have one homegrown son and three daughters and a son adopted from China.

At 17, Tim is the oldest student in the Kaifeng Education Program. His progress and hard work have set a wonderful example for the younger students. Last year, Tim was accepted into a vocational school for dentistry, which consists of 3 years of vocational school and 2 years of college.

This term, Tim is learning general information about teeth, including how to draw teeth and engrave models in wax. Here is an example of one of Tim’s carvings.

The more involved Tim gets with his major, the more encouraged he is about achieving success and having a wonderful future. Tim’s progress and determination are very inspiring. We know that he will make an excellent dentist some day!

Christine Melloh is Kaifeng Education Coordinator for Love Without Boundaries Foundation. She lives in Florida, USA, with her husband ,Tim. As they await the referral of their first child, she is enjoying getting to know the LWB kids and the culture of China.

Dear Love Without Boundaries:
I’m Lillie. I’m ten years old and have been looking for my forever family for a while now. Since you are in touch with many nice people that might be looking for a loving daughter like me, I thought I’d share the ten best things my Believe In Me Teachers from Changde in Hunan Province write about me on my report cards.

I can’t wait to share my report cards and everything about me with a Mom and Dad, someday soon.

Please let them know that I’ve been saving up hugs for a long time. All they need to do to find me is contact: education@lwbmail.com

The Ten Best Things about Lillie
By Lillie and her Teachers

1. I comfort others who are sad or distressed.
2. I’m a quick learner.
3. I have a great memory.
4. I am a good writer and enjoy writing .
5. I have a beautiful singing voice .
6. I’m very curious and like to ask questions.
7. I am well spoken.
8. I get along very well with everyone.
9. My teachers say that I am a super assistant for them.
10. I’m very ready to meet my forever family.

Linda Mitchell is a wife and mom to four, Associate Director of Education for Love Without Boundaries, volunteer at her kid’s school, student of School Library Media, K-1st Sunday School Teacher…..and creative writer when she can get a word in edgewise.

I first “met” Adam when I was volunteering with LWB’s education program. He held a determined look in his little eyes. I learned that Adam had been born with multiple medical issues including a heart defect, a spinal meningocele, hydrocephalus and club feet. That’s a lot for one little guy to deal with!

Following his spinal surgery and prolonged hospitalizations, Adam was placed in an LWB sponsored foster family in Loudi, Hunan. Even with the more individualized care of a foster family, Adam showed significant developmental delays. Missy, our LWB education director wanted to try something new – a headstart program of sorts – and so we funded an enrichment program for him with the goal of additional TLC and stimulation.

At about the same time, the opportunity arose for Adam to travel to Guilin to have his club feet corrected. Karen, in LWB medical, secured his spot and sent him for treatment. Correcting club feet through casting is a long process, but he completed the casting and moved on to bracing. He has been living with a wonderful foster family for a year now.

Missy’s “headstart” initiative has provided the family with quality developmental toys for Adam and he’s caught up nicely in so many ways. This foster family loves Adam dearly and cares for him wonderfully. He continues to blossom with each passing report. His photos just ooze love and joy – and hope.

We recently learned that Adam’s heart defect has closed on its own, his feet are correcting nicely with close attention to his bracing and skin care by his foster family, he enjoys counting in both Chinese and English, and he pulled to standing for the first time recently!
And perhaps most exciting is the news that his orphanage his submitted his paperwork to make him eligible for adoption!

The progress this child has made has truly been a cooperative effort with nearly every LWB program touching his life in some way for the better. Each sponsor that has supported him has forever changed the course of Adam’s life. I can’t wait to celebrate with all who’ve watched his progress when we finally hear that he has been chosen by a forever family to call his own.

Melissa Widenhofer lives with her husband and three children in Maryland. Her youngest child was adopted from Hunan, China in 2005. She is honored to be able to serve the children still waiting through LWB.

The children of Believe In Me: Jingjiang would like to share a Mother’s Day greeting with all of you. Their greeting is sent specifically to TWO Mother-Daughter teams that have impacted their lives in a most positive way . . . Judy and Heather Williams and Marilee and Tiffany Gilmore.

No words could be truer for the children of Believe In Me: Jinjiang, as Heather and Judy, and Marilee and Tiffany have brought to reality what once seemed impossible to these 35 children . . . their very own school.

Marilee, pictured at the top of this entry with her daughter, Tiffany, first visited Jinjiang SWI in 2007 and quickly set to work coordinating the work for a desperately needed pre-school program.

She later joined, Heather and Judy, pictured below, of Hope’s Heart Orphan Foundation, and together they established funding and set about finding on-going sponsors for the school’s children.

Marilee’s adult daughter Tiffany, adopted from Korea, was not only able and willing, but eager to assist her mother with this project.

In Tiffany’s own words:

“When I first heard the term forever family, I thought it was absolutely lovely completely fitting. We cannot express how much it means to us to be able to help other children find their own forever families and to share the love and happiness it has brought to our own lives.”

This is a Mother’s Day full circle of love. Mother’s love between Marilee and Tiffany, and Heather and Judy has provided a path for orphans to grow healthy in body and mind, ready for the day that each child adopted from Jinjiang can celebrate Mother’s Day with their own forever family. In the meantime, our Believe In Me students are so very thankful for the mothers and daughters that have been watching over them from afar.

Jinjiang’s Believe In Me School currently keeps a waiting list of children eager to attend classes. Contact Love Without Boundaries Education if you are in helping one of them join their friends at school!

Linda Mitchell is a wife and mom to four, Associate Director of Education for Love Without Boundaries, volunteer at her kid’s school, student of School Library Media, K-1st Sunday School Teacher…..and creative writer when she can get a word in edgewise.

It is only a few yards between home and school, yet those few yards can make a world of difference!

Our Believe in Me Huainan, Anhui students leave home and enter a school environment that strives to achieve many goals including a focus on learning, providing creative stimulus, and developing positive relationships with peers and teachers.

From the quarterly reports we gauge the learning progress. We are privileged to receive photos of our sponsored students having school fun as with the Rice Ball this past winter. The BIM Huainan program also provides instruction time for developing constructive social skills that give the children a sense of confidence to interact and create ones own identity.

Social skills are also boosted when the older children assist with the younger children. A sense of purpose is witnessed by our teachers when a student takes the hands of younger students and leads them to the classroom from home. The student who helps a special needs student to the toilet develops responsibility. Taking the time to comb and fix a younger girl’s hair defines the kindheartedness and trust of an older student among the other children.

It may only be a short walk home from school but the social skills cultivated, encouraged and emphasized in the BIM Huainan School will travel far in the lives of our students. Thank you to all our sponsors for your trust and benevolence in the students.

Karin Cooper is on the education volunteer team for the BIM, Huainan Anhui. She’s a college professor and lives in Southern California with husband Craig, and daughter Bailey, 6, adopted from Huainan, Anhui.

Wande has been in the Mama’s Wish Program since 2005 and will be graduating this year with a degree in Tibetan Medicine.

She is spending part of her last semester at the hospital in her hometown. There she will get some practical experience as well as contribute back to her local community. What an amazing young lady or should we say soon to be graduate of Tibetan Medicine.

Jody Goering is Mama’s Wish Associate Director for Love Without Boundaries Foundation. She lives in Illinois, USA with husband Addison and five children. Jody and Addison have one homegrown son and three daughters and a son adopted from China.

I met Matthew a year ago this week. He was a teen living in Loudi, Hunan who had been benefitting from an LWB-sponsored tutor. He was working hard to keep up in his classes despite a visual impairment and everyone was impressed — including me!

Fast forward 6 months: Matthew’s efforts prompted the SWI to request that he be allowed to accompany the physical therapists for the SWI (who were being sent by LWB for training in working with the special needs children in the orphanage) to the neighboring province for a course in massage therapy. He spent a portion of his summer completing that course and returned to the SWI.

Fast forward 6 more months: Matthew is still receiving tutoring, still doing well in school (he received an award last semester for being the hardest working student in his class!), but now he has another task as well. He assists the physical therapists in the SWI with the treatment of the special needs children. He seems to have grown several inches due to the confidence and pride he now feels as he serves a greater purpose – helping his younger brothers and sisters in the orphanage.

Way to go Matthew! We’re so proud of you.

Melissa Widenhofer lives with her husband and three children in Maryland. Her youngest child was adopted from Hunan, China in 2005. She is honored to be able to serve the children still waiting through LWB.

One of the fun things about LWB’s older kids is that they can write to us. This is from our lovely Li Ying, who is now one of our Shantou teachers.

We help professionally support her in evening correspondence classes. Li Ying has been in the heart of LWB since our start.

2009-3-19
I am dong great this semester. I study hard in my night school. I am never late for school or miss schooling. I finished all the homework my teacher assigned to me. I should study hard in these two subjects: Oral English and English listening and try to make progress.
Thanks lwb’s help to me so that I can continue enjoying the great time of studying. Thank you again!

Li Ying
March 19th,2009

Missy Ridley is the Human Resource and Education Director of Love Without Boundaries. She and her husband Tim live in the Twin Cities of Minnesota with their 3 children. She is aunt to 4 children born in China.