MAY DAYS
Summer has arrived and so it was time to go get the children summer shoes. We found a local store that gives us a deal on shoes to help out the orphans in PingYu.
(left to right) Gene, Emma, Zoey, Philip, Jaxin, Tyler, Noah, Mark , Eli, Graham, Gabe and behind is Sarah…the only problem is that the shoes are cheap…cheaply made that is…one day after buying the shoes 2 children broke their shoes:(
All the children showing off their shoe’s.
Since our arrival here in PingYu several times throughout the day we have people standing at our fence looking in to see who we are and just what we are doing….especially when Michelle and my 3 boys are out playing. Unfortunately, the onlookers call the children over to talk with them and a few times to give them treats. More than 3 times people gave my sons a lighter to play with…we really dont believe to harm them…we believe it was the only thing on them that they could give…we say this because I gave back a lighter to one person telling him he can’t give a lighter to a child….so he returned with a toy. But one time someone gave my son a fire cracker and a lighter and before he knew that it was wrong, he lit it and the fire cracker hit our building. So we decided we needed to put something up to help keep people from handing things through the fence and we told ALL of the children DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING FROM STRANGERS.
(left)workers planting the trees (right) trees being delivered
When we lived in Gongyi we lived in a 2 story building surround by 6-10 story buildings…not much to see…..but by being patient, God has blessed us with a beautiful surrounding. So on the weekends we try to take the children for walks around our neighborhood to enjoy the beauty. During our walk we stopped at a park to let the children play.
We walked along this river…the children really enjoyed it.
All of our children come from poor villages with no dentists and all of them lived with very old grandparents that did not have the modern knowledge of how to properly take care of teeth. So it was not a big surprise to us when we looked at the children’s teeth to see that half of them have cavities.
(left) Gabe (right) Emma
(left) Gene (right) Mark
Even though we can see their cavities, the dentist rule is, “If it does not hurt, why fix it?” Mark was the only one who had a toothache…it was an absessed tooth….but after a few trips back and forth to the dentist he is all better now.
For Mothers Day all the children made Mothers Day cards and gave them to Michelle and showered her with hugs and kisses. Then for lunch we took everyone out to a restaurant. The children enjoyed it a little too much….most of them had stomachaches from eating too much:)
Fitting 17 people around a table is a little bit cramped but at least you can really get “CLOSE” to your neighbor.
Our 3 sons really enjoy the outdoors. Just about everyday they ask if we can go fishing. Since our move to China we have tried fishing several times..probably about 12 hours total…and have never caught a fish…actually never even had a nibble. We were beginning to think that Chinese fish do not like to eat worms but thankfully one of our housemothers husband told us where a good fishing hole was at.
Eli caught our first Chinese fish….it was a little bit small…the worm was bigger than the fish…talk about biting off more than you can chew!
We want to again really thank you for your support in our work here, but more importantly supporting the lives of these 9 wonderful children. If you would like to get more involved and get to know the children more, please visit the”Our Children” page.
Also as you can see we are still trying to raise money for our building. We still need to finish a few projects such as:
-Finishing the yard by hauling in some dirt, and planting grass seed Right now all the grounds are just covered with dirt, rocks and weeds. Total cost is $500.00
-We have been waiting to put a new roof over our dining hall until we can build a new safer and better entrance to the dining hall (Total for entrance is $750.00), but now that we are in the rainy season we have to redo the roof now…..its leaking pretty bad. Total for roof is $350.00.
-When I was younger I tried helping my dad and mom remodel our home…a few times I would be in the wrong place at the wrong time….but my dad would patiently ask me if HE was in my way….I never figured that out until we started remodeling our apartment.
I found it easier to put the children in a place where I could stay out of “their” way:)
-Please come back soon to hear more about our home and our new family here in China!
Building Fund
Posted: May 14th, 2010 under Uncategorized.
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