Dear Friends,

 

Thank you to all those who sent words of encouragement and support after the recent death of my Grandmother. We were able to return to the UK for the funeral, which I am very glad of, and many have said that they too felt that was the right decision for us. The quick trip back has left us a little disorientated. Thankfully we suffered no jet lag on the journey home, which meant that we were awake and able to function properly whilst in the UK. Unfortunately this has not been the case in returning. I don’t know how many times I have still been wide awake at 3am this week! It was also good to have some unexpected “bonus” time with people who we obviously hadn’t expected to see until May. Thank you for the phone calls, meals, coffees and hospitality we received, as well as some of the very kind gifts towards our travel expenses.

 

News from the home

 

Even though we were only gone for 7 days, that week saw the opening of the new physiotherapy unit that has been built as an extension to the foster home. This means that there is now room for 38 children within the home and all but 2 beds are in use already (both those beds are taken but we are awaiting the arrival of the children). There has been a complete overhaul of the place with nannies and children being moved to new areas in the home, so we certainly returned to organised chaos! I’ve spent this week relabelling, reorganising and trying to identify and learn the names of all the new children – no easy task it seems. We now have Hai Sheng, Hai Xing (pronounced Shing) Fu Xing, Zi Xiao, Zi Xiu and Fu Zhao to name but a few. Please pray that we don’t get too confused!

 

At the moment the children’s bedroom, playroom and feeding area are complete, but over the next few months the physiotherapy room will start to take shape as equipment is added. Please pray for this as the unit will be valuable to those children we have here that will benefit tremendously from physiotherapy. Hope Foster Home now seems like an extremely large building, especially if you have to walk from one end to the other.

 

The completion of the new building also means that our new apartment is almost ready – yey! Here for you is a world exclusive of the apartment as it is at the moment. There are a few things that remain to be done (we have no hot water at the moment) but all being well we should be able to move in over the next couple of weeks. Our big task is to go and buy furniture and kitchen stuff. We have really appreciated Robin and Joyce’s willingness to let us be involved in the decisions about the design, décor, and furniture. It feels like our own place.

 

         

 

Spare a thought for Lee as this week, whilst I was getting to grips with the new babies and staff, he went on a whistle stop tour to Suzhou, a city not far from Shanghai.
Want to tell us about it Lee?

 

I had a great time the other day as 6 children went down to Suzhou for surgeries.  I would like to point out that I did very little on this trip really as the main work was of course done by Joyce in all the planning and the “on the ground” work by a Nanny called Heather.  This was her first time in charge of a surgery trip and she was very nervous.  She did a great job.   My role, and that of Bill Coughlin a Physiotherapist from New York, was to carry all the luggage.  BOY!!!!!   6 kids pack heavier than an Aldridge Youth Fellowship girl going on camp any day!!!!!!!!!  4 big suitcases plus holdalls!!!!   We travelled by night train and this was great fun.  The trains have several modes of travel.  Hard Seat, which you may remember Becky having to go on with Justine from Jiao Zuo, Hard sleep – 6 people in a small berth and soft sleep which is 4 people in a booth – we got the soft sleep!  It was an 11 hour journey and passed off very well.  Some of the kids were a bit unsettled through the night but I have to admit to you that Bill and I had a separate carriage and so the nannies did a great job.

 

So we got the kids into the hospital and after brightening the place up with some fruit and flowers Bill and I headed for home.  One thing I would like to say was that Suzhou was beautiful.  For a city not all that far away from Beijing it was like a different world.  No big lorries and green everywhere.  It is a bit like a mini Venice and there is water all over the place.  It rained a lot too so the flowers were all out and the whole place was in stark contrast to brown Beijing.  Spring is coming though so it won’t be long before we have colour.

 

    

              Waiting in the Station                                          Waiting to go into the hospital                                 Tiger Park in full bloom

                       

In the last week we have been given the possibility of receiving a faster internet connection and maybe even broadband, which has got us all very excited! This may seem like a very superficial thing but to us it is huge as a large part of all of our jobs is corresponding through email. At the moment we have a dial up connection which limits us as we cannot be online together, we cannot send very big files and it can be unreliable. The town down the road has broadband, but because we are so remote the authorities did not feel it was worth extending the cables to our village. Having a better connection would particularly benefit Joyce in her correspondence with other doctors and surgeons regarding the care of the children. A company in Beijing has offered to set us up and so please pray that this would go ahead.

 

Kindergarten

There have been a lot of changes over the past few weeks. Firstly, Ji Bei has now left us and is with her adoptive family in Texas, who have 4 other adopted children. She had become very special to us and we are glad that she now has a family to be with. It seems very quiet without her here, especially as her English had improved immensely and she liked to practise with us as often as possible. The circumstances of her departure were unpleasant as she had to be returned to her orphanage nearly two weeks prior to the arrival of her parents. It was upsetting to have to let her go but we are comforted by the fact that despite that time in a strange environment she is now in a loving home and settling in very well we hear. Zi Run, the 6 year old boy, has also left us to join a foster program in Luoyang, the city he is originally from, so that he can receive the one to one care he needs due to his hearing and behavioural difficulties.

 

This leaves me with a class of 2 year olds – 5 of them! This is a very different dynamic for me to work with but the children are all settling in well and I’m getting used to how much two year olds like to empty things, hit things together, hit each other and I’m astounded at how independent they like to be! Please pray for the class as they are all bright children who have the potential to develop so much. I still have Guo Fu and Ling Quan and they have been joined by Xin Dong (Aurora), Xiao Xin (Joshua) and Chun Sheng (Toby). It always hits me as I start to teach these children and get to know them more that their future could have been so different. Each of them has such potential to grow, learn, love and experience life in its fullness and it is heart breaking to think of those that do not get the opportunity. But these little ones are such bundles of fun, energy and curiosity and although a challenge, I know I am going to enjoy seeing them develop. The helpers that we mentioned in our last email have been incredible and I am so thankful that they are willing to serve us in this way.

 

New Members:

 

                                             

            Aurora                                                    Joshua                                                      Toby

 

Out and about in China

 

	Firstly, spring is in the air! Winter has gone and the cherry blossom that inspires so much of Chinese art is in bloom.   Lee has packed away all his winter gear – I’m not convinced that it’s that warm yet!   The atmosphere has also begun to get very dusty as it seems to be a very dry season.		At the beginning of March Jill Plummer (Lee’s Mum) and her friend Glenys Owen came to visit us which was a great encouragement to us and lifted our spirits as we had still been feeling tired and lethargic at that time. We had a chance to travel to Xian to see the Terracotta Army and explore the city a little. It was nice to feel like tourists again! We all had a chance to go on a tandem for the first time with hilarious results. We had the opportunity to meander through the side streets and see the “Chinese” side of life rather than the tourist front and we also ate some of the greatest food we have had in all our time in China for the grand total of 1 pound per person! The army were phenomenal to see. Such a vast area covered with models of the soldiers and mind blowing considering the time and man power put into the creation of it. It is incredible to think that one man had this built for himself as well as the Great Wall. I wonder if he would win a prize for the biggest ego in history?

            “Daisy, Daisy…”                                                            in front of the army                                remind anyone of Mulan?            A night food market

 

Prayer needs

 

• For the quick completion of the physical therapy room and volunteer apartments.
• Internet access
• Lee is leading worship next week at the Easter service. Please pray that he would be inspired as to what to include in the service
• The new children in Kindergarten
• The children receiving surgery in SuZhou
• Thanks for the prayers about my health. I now feel a lot better and energy levels have returned. Please continue to pray for good health for us both.

 

So bye for now. We will be in the UK again at the beginning of May (as someone commented to us last week, people may start to wonder if we are commuting!) as Lee’s brother is getting married and then his best friend’s wedding is the next day (also turns out to be cup final day!). We will hopefully see many of you as we will be back for a couple of weeks and then we promise we will stay away for a year or so! We had initially committed to working at Hope Foster Home for 1 year with a possibility of extending that time and we feel it is right to stay for at least another year, thankfully Robin and Joyce feel the same way,  meaning we will certainly be here until Summer 2007.

 

Thank you for your continuing love, prayers, support, encouragement, and all that you do for us. We know we are truly blessed through you all.

 

Love Lee and Becky xx