There is something about traveling at 556 mph and 33,000 ft. above the earth that always makes me reflect on the past. A similar flight occurred just over eight years ago, and I was nervous then as I’m nervous now. At that time, I was yet to be a dad, but that was all about to change. I had just kissed goodbye my very pregnant wife so that I could bring back our twelve-month-old daughter waiting for us in China. Read more.
Returning to the Shantou orphanage is always like coming home to me. I have been visiting this orphanage for over nine years, and two of my children spent the beginning of their lives in this facility. This trip was especially poignant to me as the word “changes” kept swirling through my head. There are so many changes in China each year, both wonderful and somber, and my heart felt split in two as it soared with joy at moments but then also crumbled at the increasingly complex needs. Everyone with a heart for the orphaned has to face the reality that almost every child abandoned now has a medical need, and so the issues the nannies face are often immense. The days of orphanages being filled with healthy baby girls due to the one child policy are over, and yet that myth is still perpetuated in news articles and blogs. Read more.
LWB’s Education team is proud to introduce you to this handsome young man, Birch, a four-year-old boy in our Believe in Me Shantou school. This precious young boy has epilepsy, but he does not let that get him down. He has a great time at school every day!
In the classroom Birch likes to stay busy. His teachers have told us that he loves to build and that he will use nearly any toy they give him to try to build something. Perhaps this sweet child will grow up to be an architect! Read more.
If you read our blog last week, you may remember a story about Brandon, who had just received surgery for droopy eyelids and was waiting for new glasses. Well, we wanted to share this photo to show everyone how handsome he looks in his new specs! He sure looks proud of them and is probably quite excited by how clearly he can see the world around him.
Although Brandon is no longer waiting for his glasses, he is still waiting for his forever family. We sure hope he won’t be waiting much longer!
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Patience may be a virtue…but it’s just so difficult to wait! For almost a year now, Brandon has been waiting for his forever family while living with his foster care family in our Shantou foster care program in Guangdong Province. According to his foster care reports, this sweet and lively boy enjoys a good game of hide-and-seek with his little friends and staying close beside his foster mom (seen below) as she goes about the day’s housework. Like many three-year-olds, he loves to “help” with the daily chores and is said to be extremely observant.
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Dance is the hidden language of the soul. — Martha Graham
I wonder what we would learn about Sara if we could but read the language of her soul. She loves to dance. If music is playing, Sara is dancing. For much of her eight years, she struggled with spoken language; perhaps dance became her language of expression at an early age. Now that she speaks fluently with her friends, aunties, and teachers, she still loves to express herself through dance.
We’d like you to meet Troy of Shantou! Troy is an enthusiastic three-year-old student in our Believe In Me kindergarten program in Shantou who loves school. He also loves his foster family in our Shantou Foster Care Program. When his foster mom leaves, he makes sure that she remember her keys and then greets her at the door with a big smile when she returns. What a joy he must be to come home to!
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When I read the LWB foster care reports each month, it always bring me such joy when I see a photo of a child with a big, spontaneous smile. In every report we have received about two-year-old Rusty and his personality, abilities and needs, there is one thing that never changes: HE IS ALWAYS SMILING!
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When Sara first became a student at our Shantou Believe in Me School in 2007, the teachers described her as shy and quiet. She never smiled for pictures, and the teachers were very excited when they finally “caught” her participating in dance class. A few months later she smiled for a photograph displaying her artwork.
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In our continuing series, “A Day In the Life,” we are featuring three volunteers who were inspired to work with our Orphanage Assistance (OA) program. We hope you enjoy learning more about these dedicated volunteers and what they do for LWB!
MaryHelen Donnelly, Orphanage Assistance Coordinator: I am a single mother who works full time, so after I put my daughter to bed I usually log onto the computer to check my email and then 2-3 times a week do some of my LWB volunteer work. I wear two hats in the Orphanage Assistance program. In my role as the OA Child Coordinator, I archive all the pictures, stories and sponsor updates that are produced by the OA team. Parents who have adopted from China can request any information that LWB has on their child from their days living in the orphanage. When I receive one of these requests, I look through the archives and send the parents what information I have on their child and/or the SWI in which their child resided.
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