Family Retreat

In July, we hosted a wonderful Family Retreat, which included 22 families affected by disabilities. Also, we had seminars for 60 adults with disabilities. Here are some photos to give you a glimpse.

In the morning, the children spent time outdoors. This photo captures one of the four small groups.

The parachute activity has always been one of the favorite retreat activities.

This little girl with Down's Syndrome won everyone's heart. She was always eager for a hug. She attends our Heart to Heart English classes on Saturday mornings. Her English needs a lot of improvement, but her smiles speak volumes.

These girls are six-year-old twins. Cindy has a physical disability; Sara is typical. They are attend the English classes. In fact, the two volunteers standing behind them are also a part of the English classes. Amy translated for Dayna and me this summer in the adult class. Vivian is one of the adult students. An exciting component of this year's family retreat is that we had three volunteers who are affected by disabilities. We want to serve with and not just for people with special needs.

The hotel grounds were beautiful.

The kids also had free time to play games with their volunteer buddies. Here, Teddy and others are playing Chinese Chess and Go.

Many advocates for people with disabilities say that their greatest need is friendship. We are so glad the Family Retreat provides many friendship opportunities.

These adults were a part of the Fly Higher Adult Seminars. The lady in purple is Snowy, who helped us invite several families to the retreat.

There were many teaching moments during the day.

I was privileged to work with Samuel. He was one of three translators who helped me during the retreat.

Here is a photo of the whole group. More than 50 volunteers assisted this year.

I had the privilege of holding the microphone for Dr. Zhang. His story is similar to Joni Eareckson Tada's. He is responsible for the Chinese translation of Joni.

We enjoyed hearing from the Shenyang Blind Association Choir. A few of the members attend our Saturday English classes.

We were so glad Teddy could come.

This girl with Cerebral palsy can only say a few words like "mama," but she was deeply moved by the song the children sang about each person's value.

Leo and his mother were singing in appreciation of the decorative bags that were given to the children by Texas kids. Leo attends our English classes on Saturdays.

This is the North House where some of our seminars were held.

We enjoyed getting to know many new families. This boy (who we named Jerry) is also a part of our Saturday morning English classes.

Thank you for your support!

~Kevin

New Apartment

We're getting settled into our new apartment and actually feeling a little spoiled here! We loved living in our old place, and we were very suprised and disappointed when our landlord said we needed to move out so he could sell it. But it seems like this new place is a big blessing. It was the only available apartment in our same complex, and after looking around at a few other neighborhoods, we decided it was best to stay in this area. We love this location, and our kids enjoy the playground with swings -- very hard to come by in our part of the city.

Here are Samuel and Helen, two of our friends and helpers on moving day -- taking a little ma jiang break after working so hard!

One of our favorite things about the new apartment is the spacious kitchen that flows into the dining area and living room. Those doors open out to the storage porch.

In the photo below, the front door/entryway falls between the table and the cabinet.

Sorry for the photo quality! This gives you an idea of the living room.

 

One of my favorite features of the living room is this desk we were able to tuck behind a loveseat. It's the perfect place for homeschooling with the kids and all of their coloring and craft projects.

 The next photo is boring but gives you an idea of our huge hallway. The bathroom is at the end of the hall. On the left is our room and the office; on the right is the guest room and the children's room.

Molly and Hudson's room is bigger than our last apartment, but nearly identical since we bought the furniture from our old landlord. (There is also a wardrobe that matches the desk.)

The landlord agreed we could spend nearly the first months' rent on a few pieces of furniture so this giant wardrobe has been a great addition to our bedroom. There are lots of shelves and even a mirror inside of it.

We have one room devoted entirely to guests. After living here for three days, we had our first overnight guest -- a Family Retreat volunteer. This weekend, a close friend will be coming for two days and next Saturday, Kevin's mom arrives! It's like we're running a B&B. :)

This photo shows our glorious bathtub (Molly and Hudson love it so much!) and washing machine. It is so much faster and quieter than the washing machine in our last apartment. And since it's not in the kitchen, it doesn't interfere with cooking or washing dishes. It's fancy!

A few more photos for those of you who love details. Back in the kitchen, here is a view of our pantry cabinet and the door leading to our second bathroom. This bathroom is smaller, but it does have a shower.

 And here are two views of the kitchen porch. It's a handy place to keep cleaning supplies, and it is big enough to serve as additional kitchen space for our rice cooker and crockpot.

I still need to upload pics from our office and back porch, but this is more than enough for now. I hope this gives you a good idea of our new place. It's on the 6th floor -- exactly 90 stairs to climb -- but it's going to be a beautiful home for us.
~Dayna

The End of a Beginning

The English classes in the primary school included 20 children. Roughly, half were disabled, and half were "typical" orphans. 

In this photo, a Chinese teacher is leading a drama activity relating to "What time is it?" The six-year-old boy was eager to participate, although his English is poor. I partnered with him so that he could join in. We both had a lot of fun.

Some of the children and teachers did not come on this day, but the photo gives a good representation of our class. The primary school is behind us.

These two guys to the right (to my left) were my favorites. The six-year-old boy (the one I was having to hold to prevent escape), was a lot of fun. He was eager and joyful. This was his first chance to attend any schooling. The eight-year-old boy next to him has a welcoming, sensitive heart. We hope to see them both soon as the English classes move to a new location for the summer.

The principal took Dayna and me and the kids out for lunch to celebrate the completion of our English class project. Molly and Hudson were more interested in watching Toy Story 2 than drumming their chopsticks on the table. That, of course, was our reason to offer the iPad entertainment. It was a great time -- a wonderful way to end a new beginning!
~Kevin

Heart to Heart English

The Saturday morning classes began today. The students consisted of several "typical" children from a local orphanage school as well as some children with minor physical disabilities. For instance, one boy had a leg that was 8 inches shorter than the other leg. Another boy struggled to walk, and another child had difficulty speaking, but they were all clearly educated.

Their English was much better than I had expected. I quickly had to adjust my lesson plans. Here, a few of the teachers are helping me demonstrate an activity.

The children enjoyed some of Molly and Hudson's Sandra Boynton books.

We hope that this current project is only the beginning of our Heart to Heart English classes. In the coming months, we want to make further inroads, blessing children with moderate and severe disabilities -- those disabilities which have prevented them from receiving a formal education. We're excited that at least one child with Cerebral palsy will join us next time, as well as a child who has not been allowed to attend any kind of school. All in all, this day was an exciting start.
~ Kevin

Training Day

After a year of planning and anticipation, today was the first day of our Heart to Heart English classes for children with special needs (though the students themselves won't arrive until next week).

Today was training day. I taught more than a dozen primary school English teachers from three different schools. Even for those teachers who teach children affected by disability, this was their first time to receive any such disability training.

It is quite amazing to see the technical resources available to this primary school. I could draw on the screen with a special pen.

I'm standing with the principal in front of the primary school. Thankfully, she was very pleased with the morning training.

I'm also working on a textbook for the Heart to Heart English classes. The two characters above will likely be on the cover of the booklet. Molly has enjoyed watching to see what new characters I will draw.
~ Kevin

Easter

We wanted to share some scenes of our Easter day. Here's our best family photo -- sorry it's a little blurry. (Getting the kids to sit still is next to impossible.)

Molly & Hudson were excited to wake up to new Easter baskets! Kevin's mom sent a box last month for his birthday and included a few Easter surprises, including these baskets, plastic eggs, Easter pencils and a puppet glove craft. I added toy binoculars, Dove chocolate and cute socks.

We headed to our International Fellowship and had a very special worship time. Kevin ended up being in charge of children's church and took the opportunity to record an Easter message from Molly and Hudson. They send a shout-out to our Texas church, Bridgepoint Fellowship, but also include "all people" and "everyone in America."

After fellowship, about 14 of us went to lunch together at a nice Western restaurant nearby. I ordered penne pasta, the kids shared beef fajitas and Kevin had a hamburger. Quite the varied menu!

Then our family rode with Paula and Sherri to the orphanage. Hudson had just fallen asleep in the car as we pulled in, so he and I stayed outside while the rest spent about an hour with Teddy. (Sadly, the orphanage only allows Paula to see Elizabeth once a month now. They say it upsets her emotions too much, but we are praying for breakthrough here.) Kevin played five games of Chinese "go" with Teddy.

Pictured above: Sherri, Teddy, Kevin and Molly. Teddy is in the same room as this little girl Molly and I spent time with on our last orphanage trip. So Molly enjoyed trying to play with her again.

When we got home that evening, we had fun watching the kids hunt for Easter eggs around our living room. Molly was particularly inspired to sing a few songs before bedtime. This is "Amazing Grace," sung with gusto:

And I'll close with her rendition of "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" -- although clearly we need to do a better job of teaching her the lyrics.

~Dayna

At a Glimpse

We hope you enjoy a glimpse of our week. Most of these photos reflect common activities or scenes in our day-to-day lives here.

Sunday began in typical fashion -- Dunkin Donuts with Paula, Cathy and Sherri. The kids love donuts (of course) and Dayna and I enjoy a toasted bagel sandwich. In this photo, Molly is with our friend Cathy, a CPA and the financial director of our organization here.

This is our Sunday international fellowship. Only foreign passport holders can come.

After lunch, we shopped at Tesco, a British-owned store similar to Wal-Mart. There are several foreign-owned stores in our city: Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour, IKEA and Metro (American, British, French, Swedish and German). As long as you're willing to pay for import prices, most anything is available here ... well, except avocados. We miss avocados.

This is the view as soon as we exit Tesco. There are two Buddhist temples between our home and Tesco, which is a five-minute taxi ride or a 20-minute walk.

This is another view from Tesco. We hailed a taxi with all of our stuff.

We live in the apartments directly behind this well-known restaurant. We use it as a landmark to tell the taxi driver where to take us.

This is what we see when we are walking to the kids' school or to my office.

Our charitable organization is located on the 9th floor.

The kids were so excited to get bunk beds! We are very blessed to have so many friends who help us, whether with translation, transportation or even bed building.

Sweet dreams, Molly and Hudson!

For most of the winter, our apartment has been very warm. However, to save some energy and money, our complex shut off the heaters two weeks earlier than expected. It has been between 15-30 degrees outside, so it's been cold indoors. Thankfully, we have warm blankets! And thankfully, the outdoor temperature should begin to reach the 50s soon.
~Kevin