Hey friends!
It’s been too long since I last wrote. I’ve made it from Chengdu back to Beijing. My last few days in Chengdu were productive and relaxing (yes, believe it or not, both at the same time), with a few casual meetings and some newly acquired clarity. After a long night of rain, delayed flights, and borrowing phones from strangers, Sara picked me up at the Beijing airport at 3am on Saturday morning. That was (technically) yesterday. After resting up, the two of us and three other girls here at Shepherd’s Field went to the Great Wall for the day. It was such a blast. My calves are still sore from all the steps of varying slopes and sizes, but it was so worth the climb. There is a point where the refurbished wall ends for that particular tourist entrance, and a sign is posted that says, “No Admittance.” But it was clear from the beaten path beyond the sign that there must be something of interest still to come… so we ventured on. Turned out to be the best decision we made all day. We ended up on the very crest of one of the mountains, looking out over the valleys and surrounding mountains, standing among some fantastic Great Wall ruins. We felt like we were on top of the world. Today we went to Beijing for some shopping with our same group of wonderful girls. Got some great merchandise for HS (ask me about it when I get back!), a Mother’s Day gift for my mom (she’s the best, can’t slack on that just cuz I was gone!), and a few dirt cheap DVD’s for myself (or maybe not so few, shh). Tomorrow is my last full day here. Gonna hang out with some kiddos, visit the schoolhouse and sit in on a few classes, and get to work repacking my suitcases with all my new goodies. I leave on Tuesday… excited to see friends and family again, but excited to return to China again already. I pretty sure this wonderful horrible torn feeling will never go away.
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I just went for a run.
Now for those of you who know me well, you know I’ve just recently become a runner. I am still very much a beginner, and not fast or smooth by any means (I’m not even sure if “smooth” running is a thing). But I’ve been working up to it. And I’m starting to like it—starting. So when I was packing to come to China, I brought my running shoes, just in case I would have the chance to keep it up during the trip. I haven’t yet, until today. But this jog was definitely one of a kind. Please picture this with me: The streets are teeming with people; always, but especially at rush hour. Of course, I chose to hit the streets at 5. So here’s me, a foreigner, running and weaving through the crowds in this relatively “calm” neighborhood. And if that wasn’t enough of a scene already, of course the only sweats I brought are bright green pants and a purple sweatshirt. There wasn’t really anything I could do to blend into the background. It was a new experience for me, running in front of so many people in a culture where people don’t really just run for sport. It required confidence on a whole new level. All considered, I’m glad I did. It’s been a journey for me, spending this month here and picturing what life will be like here. I won’t be living out of a suitcase, I won’t have a monthly stash of dark chocolate to satisfy my sweet tooth cravings, I won’t have the comfort of seeing family and friends after a few short weeks, and I will have to face the fact that I can’t run through the neighborhood without people staring (yes, even with different color pants). Life will be very different than it is now. It’s a bittersweet picture… Nevertheless, I choose to find my confidence in Him, for he is a mighty fortress and a sacred refuge. Went to the orphanage this past weekend. It was a wonderful time! We had a bigger group of visitors this time, including our wonderful friends Cary and Diane and a few local college students. We brought lots of goodies, balloons, bubbles, coloring supplies, and facepaint. What a blast. The older kids were there this time, so we were able to do a few more organized activities, like soccer with the boys. We also played musical chairs (no CD players or ipod speakers, we just sang instead) with a bunch of the kids, young and old. It was very informal, with no winning or losing, just the mystery of when everyone will have to sit down. They loved it. Some of you know that last fall/winter HS worked with other orphan advocates to find families for two of the boys at this orphanage. They are turning 14 and aging out of the adoption system this summer. A family stepped forward and was able to apply to adopt BOTH of them. Amazing. So one of these precious boys was there when we visited this weekend. We took lots of pictures for his family-to-be, despite the fact that he doesn’t know he has been matched with an adoptive family yet (the boys won’t be told until their parents get their travel approval). Cary taught him some words in English and asked him if he liked studying English. “Not really,” he responded. Cary and I just looked at each other and said, “too bad” and laughed about it. Soon he will be learning lots of English with his new family. I’m sure he will find it’s worth it. I don’t know what more to say other than this: all these kids need families. It is so wonderful to spend time with them, and so heartbreaking to know that the rest of these kids are gonna grow up here with very few role models for living a healthy life. They have such limited access to the outside world, and nobody to help them learn about life as they grow up. And yet, despite it all, they find a way to smile for us when we come to visit. No crying or sad faces when we leave, simply a hope that we will return again soon. Sara returned to Beijing yesterday, but I am staying til Friday for a few extra meetings. So as of this morning I had all this free time til Friday that I didn’t know what I was going to do with. Well, of course my time has been filling up already. I was asked to escort a group of ladies tomorrow to the orph, and the director has already agreed. So I will be returning for a third and final time! So excited. Enjoy the pictures! Hey everyone! There are a few things to update you on. Some of it is hard to explain here but I'll do my best.
Yesterday Sara and I had a second meeting with one NGO that is based here, and we came away from it feeling better than we had about any other meeting thus far. It was exciting! The possibilities are opening up for us, and we are excited to see forward movement in the near future. There are some things we and they have to look into, but please be asking that all the pieces will fall into place exactly as they should be. One thing we had to do for this NGO to look into our proposal further was write up a complete and very detailed plan, including job descriptions, methods of operation and (dun dun dun) a complete projected budget, all for the first two years of HS being open. We worked for four straight hours on that today... We were so focused we didn't even leave the room or think about eating til 8:30. We aren't done yet... But we have a good chunk done. Keep that in your thoughts. On another note, we spent our morning filming for our new and upcoming video. We can't wait to show you... I love that Sara and I BOTH get to be in it. Awesome. Tomorrow we go to the orphanage for our second and final time. We are bringing some things the kids asked us for--namely nail polish and chips--more face paint, and some activities. There will be more kids than last time since the school age kids will not be in school. We are excited to spend time with them. Also, we hope to connect with the director again. Thanks for all your encouragements! We couldn't appreciate you more. Let me just give you a little window into how our networking has gone so far:
We have met people from China, the U.S., Germany, Finland, Australia, Scotland, the UK, Holland, France, Thailand, and more. We have each received 29 business cards of the various people we have met. We have talked with community development people, disaster relief people, business owners, therapists, people doing His work, public health specialists, real estate agents, orphanage directors, adoptive parents, foster parents, and more. I think it's going well, don't you? We have experienced so much of China in these last three days!
Saturday: Renshou We took a bus to Sara’s home county (Renshou), about an hour and a half out of Chengdu by bus. First things first, we visited her mom. Sweet lady, Sara looks like her. We had some time before meeting her for dinner though, so Sara took me to the main attraction in her city: a temple on a mountain. We climbed some thousand stairs to get to the top. It was a beautiful view, we could see basically the whole city and surrounding foothills from there. And no doubt we were very proud of climbing that many stairs. Sunday: Renshou Countryside In honor of mother’s day, Sara, me, her mom and aunt and cousins and kids visited Sara’s grandmother in the countryside. It was unlike any experience I have ever had. We drove by taxi for 20 minutes through villages just out of the city, then had to get out and walk another 20 minutes just to get to her house. It was a beautiful walk into the foothills of Renshou, and I’m so amazed I got to see that part of China. Farms, brick houses, animals, hills, clouds, streams, paths… Beautiful. When we arrived, this little tiny lady met us, tan and wrinkled, barely any teeth, cutest little lady I’ve ever met! Although she had no idea we were coming (no phone, no internet), she made us all lunch. It was delicious. Eventually we walked back down out of the hills to Sara’s apartment and packed up to take the bus back to Chengdu. Monday: The Best ofW Chengdu Today we got to see “China’s National Treasure:” PANDAS. I had never seen Pandas before, and let me tell you: they are adorable. Sara and I were exclaiming over each and every one. We spent several hours at the Panda Reserve, looking at pandas, eating lunch by the lake, watching the black swans and other wildlife. From there, we went to Kuan Xiang Zi, an old part of Chengdu that has been turned into a little tourist neighborhood with shops and restaurants. The buildings were beautiful, such amazing sights and smells and sounds. Our favorite part of the afternoon was chasing “statue man” through the alley so we could get a picture of him. He even stopped and posed for us once we caught up to him. We are still laughing about that. It’s been a great long weekend. Now tomorrow we are back to meetings. Lunch with a Community Development Organization, and then coffee with an adoptive family living here in Chengdu. Week two is well under way! Orphanage day. Such mixed feelings. Excitement, love, sadness, anxiousness, more love, more sadness…
Sara and I left very early this morning to drive out to the orphanage. It was pouring rain, a complete downpour, and of course we forgot our umbrella. But we didn’t let that stop us. When we got there, a young boy came running out and immediately started pulling on our arms, dragging with all his might to who knows where. He was non-verbal and we are still not even sure if he could hear/understand us when we talked to him. We found the office and dropped off some donations that we brought of snacks and toothbrushes and toothpaste (thanks to Tonka Smiles of Minnetonka, MN!), then went on to find the kids. Since our last visit, they have moved to a new building. It is beautiful, and very big, with shiny floors and clean walls. But the precious kids are all the same—same smiles, same eyes, same wonderment at anyone who will come and visit them. We came bearing gifts, coloring books and crayons, chalk (who cares that it was raining, they just used it inside), lots of stickers, bubbles, and snacks. The first five minutes were a mad rush for the goodies—that was fine, we were prepared. We encouraged the older ones to share the stickers around with all of children, no matter if they could walk or talk or even see. We showed them how the bubbles worked... that was a big hit. These new long bubble wands they make now makes it easy for the kids to blow or wave the wand to produce bubbles. Brilliant! One down syndrome boy dedicated his morning to coloring the entire Spiderman book, another girl insisted on being held by either Sara or I every moment, and yet another boy made sure that all the kids in the room experienced the bubble blowing at least once (he was so sweet). There are so many stories from the day. But the sweetest part was meeting with the director. We took her to lunch and Sara talked with her (in Chinese) in detail about HS and what we want to do. Essentially Sara summed it up like this: “It’s a done deal, she wants to work with us. She said, ‘We need you.’ I asked if we could advocate for her kids even before we open HS, she said yes. She even said she would get us a list of names of the ones whose adoption papers are ready.” As you can imagine, Sara and I definitely had a few moments of freaking out right then. I was able to talk with her a little bit in Chinese, and she seemed impressed by that which was also awesome. All in all, we think she likes us. And that makes us very happy! After lunch, we returned to the orphanage. We brought ice cream and decided to break out the facepaint. They loved that—what kid doesn’t? I can’t tell you how many butterflies and flowers I painted on their hands this afternoon… I lost count. They began bringing me fresh water for my paintbrush every five minutes just so I would keep going. It got to the point where they were washing it off their hands so they could get new ones. A few broke out of the butterflies and flowers trend and asked for a snake, or a tiger, or a bunny. The boy who claimed the Spiderman coloring book asked for Spiderman. They are precious. It really just comes down to this: they need families. No matter what kind of help and resources and facility they have, we know that children are intended to be part of a family. These kids have such little exposure to the world; they barely even know what they are missing out on. We are going back next Saturday with a few other friends we know in Chengdu. When Sara asked a few of the kids what they wanted us to bring them, the resounding conclusion was: CHIPS! …I think we can manage that. Today we got back on our feet. It was a pretty self explanatory day. We spent two wonderful hours with a couple who has been doing work here for 22years. They have lots of experience with orphanages, and they know several of the kids we know. So we were very excited to talk with them.
Directly following we chatted with the CEO of Maxxelli real estate. He shared some advice on good business sense, and helped us to think creatively about our goals. He encouraged us to think outside the box--easier said than done. On our taxi ride home Sara said, "We have to think outside the box. So we have this box... Now, what do we do with it?" Tomorrow we are going to the orphanage! It's gonna be a great day... With an early start. We hope to take the director to lunch, and we have gifts for all the staff. We'll try to have some pictures to show from the day, so be sure to check back tomorrow! It's hard to believe that I have only been in China for one week--and only five of those days in Chengdu! So much has happened. I just want to send out a thank you to all of you who read these updates and are supporting Sara and I through it all. You have no idea how much I appreciate your thoughts and encouragements.
Speaking of encouragement, yesterday was full of it. After having two super crazy days of information overload, we needed a day to breathe and process. The only thing we had scheduled was lunch with Cary, our friend who lives in Chengdu and has helped and encouraged us from the very beginning of HS. Spending time with her was exactly what the doctor ordered. She is one of those wonderful people who can sympathize with your every emotion, and come alongside you with spirit driven words for every circumstance. We talked and laughed and then ventured out to walk the streets a bit. The area where Cary lives is such a beautiful area, full of trees and shade and bright store fronts. As we walked, we told her our ideas about getting a house IN the city close to the hospitals (which is usually difficult since most houses are outside of the city). She was actually able to show us a few properties with beautiful tall houses, fenced in, little yards and balconies where the children could be outside, all right within her neighborhood. China is progressing in many ways, and real estate is apparently one of them! Sara and I got so excited, knowing that our dream isn't so beyond our reach. It was such a big deal to see the properties even just from the outside, so that we could have something in our heads to picture as we move forward. Eventually we parted ways with Cary. We ended up at Starbucks, for coffee and air-conditioning. We took some time to relax and chat and process a few things, make some phone calls, send some emails, and then decided to venture out to IKEA... yes, IKEA! There is an IKEA in Chengdu, right next to a new mall with H&M, Subway, Zara, Sephora, and several other western/international stores. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and dreaming about HS's first home. It was a fantastic day, and helped us to get back on our feet and keep going with the rest of the trip. Today we are going to meet some people who have been doing work with the orphanage, it sounds like it will be a really great connection for us. After that, we are going to the Regal Hotel to meet Peter, CEO of Maxxelli Real Estate, a Rotary Club member we met the other night. He has some ideas for us, and we are excited to hear from him. Back to work! Yesterday was a big day for us.
We had the pleasure of finally meeting Linda, an expat here in Chengdu who seems to know all the right people. She has been involved with countless non-profits and has an uncanny ability to promote and advocate projects. During our lunch meeting with her, we were able to discuss some very practical things, including the purchase of a house and fundraising among expats and corporations directly in Chengdu. It was a very good conversation and Sara and I are so thankful for her input and effort on behalf of HS. To be honest though, it was also a reality check moment for me... We were able to talk about timeline and what the next year will look like for us. Granted, I talk about this almost every day in the states with Guidance Team and supporters and potential agencies. But being here, sitting in Chengdu having lunch with the sound of taxis and Sichuan speak all around me, just made it all the more real. I had to take a mental pause to wrap my mind around the idea of moving here... And not only moving here, but potentially within the next 12-18 months. WOW. Linda had arranged for us to speak at the Chengdu Rotary Club meeting in the evening, so after lunch Sara and I put together some resources for the Club members and then dressed appropriately. On our way out, Sara delivered my favorite quote of the day: "I already love this job - we get to dress up!" It was 5pm so we walked to a little print shop to print 10 brochures and 12 handouts, giving us plenty of time to get to the meeting by 6:30. Of course, our errand went China style: it took the entire hour to print those 22 pieces of paper. By the time we walked out of the print shop to catch a taxi we were a bit frantic. Rushing around in the humidity and heat with our dresses and heels on, we waved and waved for a taxi. It was rush hour. Taxis were everywhere. But they were all full. Finally, after 25 minutes of waving and calling, we were able to catch a taxi that was dropping someone else off. By this time it was 6:25 and we had just 5 minutes to get all the way across town in rush hour. We nervously texted Linda to apologize and let her know we might be a little late. As it turns out, there was no need for that--Father was looking out for us and gave us a crazy fast driver (scary, but necessary). He got us there by 6:32, before Linda even arrived herself! The Rotary Meeting was unlike anything Sara and I had ever done. Sitting there with several powerful and distinguished businessmen, eating a four-course meal in that Crowne Plaza meeting room, I was totally a fish out of water. Nevertheless, Sara and I mustered up all the confidence we could and presented HS, sharing about what we are doing and what we hope to do soon. They had lots of questions for us. It was another reality check moment. How are you gonna pay for this? Who is backing you? How are you qualified to carry out such a major endeavor? How are you getting permission from officials to open your home? They gave us a lot of things to think about. They were very kind, and several of them asked us afterward to keep them updated as we grow and develop. One of them is the owner of Maxxelli real estate, and he told us he had some ideas for a house for us, and that he'd be interested in meeting with us again before we leave the city. So lots of good things came out of the evening, but not all in the way we expected. Just as the day before, it was a lot to take in all at once. Today we are having lunch with our friend Cary to talk about going to the orphanage sometime this weekend. The rest of the day we will be taking time to process and discuss all that we have learned in the last few days. Whew. Stay tuned! |
A note from Rebekah...If you've ever wondered what it would be like to start a nonprofit from the ground up, to open a home for ORPHANS with special needs in Asia, you've come to the right place. Archives
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