Today marks 90 days since I left home. 90 days is the longest I've ever been in China in one trip. From here on out, it's all uncharted territory. This is my new home, and I won't be leaving for quite a while. To mark this big day, I am excited to tell you all about the new apartment that I just moved into! It is the new Hope Station home, and my new home as well. Over the past few weeks, it's been painted, cleaned, and prepped with new furniture. Here are a couple pictures! The next few months will see even more improvements on the space as we start purchasing cribs and beds for kiddos, therapy equipment, and kid friendly supplies. In fact, there is a Boy Scouts of America troop here in Chengdu (crazy, right?) that has dedicated several hours of time cleaning the new space and building play equipment for our future kids. By the end of the month, they'll have raised money for a new small indoor play set and built two new sensory tables. Thank you, Boy Scouts of America! In other news, I've been spending this week in the neighboring country of Mongolia. In addition to having to exit and re-enter China for visa purposes, I'm visiting a friend here who runs her own foster home for children that have no where else to go. She's been doing foster care for 20 years, and learning from her is an honor and a privilege. If all things go well with getting my visa through the Chinese embassy here, I will return to China with a one year work visa through our partnering Chinese nonprofit in Chengdu. This is a much better option than the common tourist visa, under which I would have to leave and re-enter the country every 90 days. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for this process. And of course, this wouldn't be a good blog post without some kiddo snapshots! I've picked a few of my favorites from the past few weeks. Enjoy. Little Leo was adopted this past week! We didn't even know about until we arrived at the orph one morning and saw him leaving in the arms of his newfound Chinese adoptive family. We are so happy for him. We enjoyed taking a group of Chinese families from a local English-immersion school to play with the kids at the orphanage one morning. They were eager to engage with the kids, and excited to keep in contact with Hope Station.
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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
August 2019
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