Words to live by

A message from the children at Christian Mountain Children's Home





The choir from CMCH will be touring the US from July 25- August 12. They are really talented and have touched many people's hearts when they share their testimony. I encourage you to go listen to them if you get the chance. Check their schedule here.

DUCKLINGS!

Aren't they just so cuddly?

So when I heard Daniel tell Rebecca he was even more excited about his ducklings that were coming than his siblings--I felt somewhat that I'd failed somewhere as a MOM. I mean really, even a 7 year old should know people are more important than animals. I really appreciated Rebecca's viewpoint, "I love little kids." Well I knew the ducklings had better have a post!


They really have been fun. We mail ordered them and were called by the P.O. at 6 AM to come and pick them up! 2 Peking, 2 Black Cayuga, 2 Indian Runner--8 in all. Wait, 2+2+2 should not equal 8. Apparently they send a few extra just incase--the company guarantees live birds!

So Daniel and I have been having fun with our little flock. Jonathan should be thrilled when he gets home from camp tomorrow night. Annie gets home tomorrow too. Gee--we'll have almost as many people as we do ducklings :-)

Daniel and ducklings









Ducklings drinking

PICTURES!

I was up bright and early this morning sitting by the phone waiting for Annie's call! It was so fun to hear about the kids first hand from Annie and get her impression of what they were like and what they liked. As you can see from her post--
THEY ARE WONDERFUL!
(sorry the captions are a little weird. And I don't know why some of the pictures are so much smaller)

Annie and Kai-Wei


Annie and Su-Ya


Kai-Wei in his room, which he wanted to show to Annie


Su-Ya with the playdough ice cream cone she and Annie made.Yum, ice cream!A true member of our family!


Kai-Wei and his birthday cake. Notice how the candles make an "11" In China a child is one at birth. Poor Kai-Wei, both our birthday cards said 10!


So sweet!

I have the sweetest mei-mei and didi EVER!

ok, ok, maybe I'm just a tad bit biased, and you all think your own
children or siblings are entitled to that claim, but let me just say, I am so
HAPPY I got to meet Kai-Wei and Su-Ya and they are both adorable.

Kai-Wei was very shy when he first came in. I got tears in my eyes
as I saw him walking toward the door, but I tried to hold them back,
because I thought a little boy who is meeting his sister for the
first time after waiting for a family for years might feel scared if
he saw me crying- maybe he would think I was unhappy with him,
instead of realizing I was so happy and emotional, crying was the
best vent for my emotions. Anyway, I swallowed my tears, and went
over to say hello with a big smile on my face. He is so sweet. He
knew my birthday is in 10 days, so he made me a birthday card! It's
so pretty and cute. he drew lots of little cartoon animals on it,
and wrote me a nice happy birthday message all in Chinese
characters. :) He wanted to wait til his friends came down to open
the birthday present I brought. He looked so cute, focusing so hard
on opening the gifts, and he had to try about 5 times to blow out
the candles on his cake. He is nervous about learning English but
was patient with my Chinese. He talked to me a bit in Chinese, but
when his friend tried to, he told him "ta ting bu dong" (she doesn't
understand). He showed me his bedroom and the library, where he
showed me how he could count in English. We looked at the photo
album together that we made for him and he told me how he likes to
swim and knows how to roller skate, and I told him how we will teach
him to ice skate and take him fishing. I can't wait!

Su-Ya was also shy when she met me, but soon warmed up when we
started playing with the play-doh set I brought her together. She
made me a blue popsicle and we made a pink ice-cream cone with yellow
ice-cream together. She is silly and I'm sure will make us laugh all
the time when she comes home. She has the cutest laugh and her
smile lights up her face, but hides as soon as the camera comes
out. She held my hand as she gave me a tour of her foster family's
house. She still doesn't know I'm her sister, I was just introduced
as a friend, but I can't wait until I can tell her how much I love
her and she is home keeping me entertained with her giggles and
antics.

Wow, 6 months is going to seem like an eternity.

Pictures coming soon. . .

Excited, but not much to say!

Well, I've left the blog to Annie recently--since her life has been SO MUCH more exciting than mine! Plus, she is a better writer!However, tonight as I sit and read through the adoption boards and blogs I am SO EXCITED to think that in just a FEW SHORT HOURS Annie will be meeting our children for the first time. It is a strange and awesome and weird and exciting feeling.

I must have given Annie a list of about 20 things she MUST DO--such as get an assessment of their size, personalities, name pronunciation and preference, likes and dislikes, pictures and more pictures etc. etc. etc. Poor Annie had to take notes to accommodate me. And then I have the nerve to tell her to be her natural sweet loving self and all will go well!

I'm really looking forward to hearing from Annie tomorrow and getting some stories and impressions on these 2 precious children it appears God is preparing us for.

Thanks for your prayers and good wishes! Debbie

A Busy Week

Hello everyone! It's hard to believe how much has happened in the past week. One week ago on Sunday, after a morning church service in English, I was on a train bound for Hualien, a beautiful city on the East coast of Taiwan. I was met at the train station by Yvonne's friend's son James and his cousin Tom. Tom's parents, the Chan family, hosted me in Hualien and made sure I had a wonderful time. That evening we went out for a delicious meal where I tried 2 kinds of Chinese dumplings, among other things, and enjoyed the night market/fair/performances that are going on on the street along the ocean in Hualien. On Monday we headed to Taroko National Park. The Taroko gorge is amazing- sheer cliffs that lead down to a river hundreds of meters below. We walked along the tunnel of 9 curves, which was built much earlier in the century before there was a lot of the technology we have today, in order to connect the east and west sides of the island. The views were stunning. Later we went wading in the river and tried to catch the fish taht were nibbling at our toes. On Tuesday James, his cousin Claire, and I went on a whale watching tour! We didn't see any whales, but we saw a bunch of dolphins! I was so excited. We even saw one do a flip in the air- it must want a job at sea world. I also heard some dolphins whistling, or whatever you call a dolphin's noise. We also spent some time admiring the coast and the mountains, and we visited a fish market where there were some rally cool creatures for sale. Tuesday evening I headed back to Taipei again. on Wednesday I went to Wu Lai with Yvonne's siter-in-law. It's a pretty, small town in the mountains outside of Taipei. Apparently it is well known for hot-springs. In the afternoon, we headed into downtown Taipei to shop at some trendy malls. My mind was pretty focused on Kai Wei and Su ya, so my favorite part of our shopping expedition was the toy store, where I narrowed down my options for gifts. We also went to Taipei 101, whcih currently holds the record for the world's tallest building. My plan to go to the observation deck was foiled as it was a grey, rainy day with almsot no visibility, so I have no amazing photos of the city. :( On Thursday I went with a classmate of Yvonne's to the Taipei zoo, where I really enjoyed eavesdropping. If you are ever just beginning to learn a new language, and want a rewarding experience, head to the zoo. You'll understand a lot. As in "where is it? Over there. It's sleeping. How cute! Teacher, he's upset. Hthrowing things at us. Come here and I'll give this to you." The monkeys there were so fun to watch. There were a bunch of baby monkeys climbing all over the place- I realized just exactly why we call kids little monkeys when they climb. There's just no better description. Friday I braved Yong He on my own in the morning, succesfully buying a phone card that could be used on the payphone outside and call the US, all in Chinese. I ate breakfast at a little restaurant, walked to the nearby department store and finally but gifts for Kai-Wei and Su-Ya, and even had about an hour to spend in the museum of world religions. It has some neat displays of religious objects and writings and scale models of famous places of worship. I liked it more than I expected to. In the afternoon, Connie (Yvonne's daughter) and I wandered the grounds of the Chiang Kai Shek memorial, where I think I finally managed to tie together some sort of hisorical understanding of WWII, the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and Chiang Kai Shek. We enjoyed the fish pond on the grounds where we saw some monster fish, a heron of some sort, and (our favorite) 9 turtles! Once we finally managed to find the MRT station near Chiang Kai Shek, we headed to Ximending, which is pretty much youth central. There are a lot of stores, and movie theaters, and people all in a sall amount of space. In the evenings, they shut down the road to cars, so you can walk in the streets. I couldn't believe how well lit it was- I couldn't even tell it was night time unless i looked up at the sky. Today we headed north towards Keelung, which is on the North coast. We got to drive along the coastline for awhile, which was amazing. It was very rocky and wavy. We spent a lot of time at the Juming museum in the afternoon. It is a indoor/outdoor museum with hundreds of statues. The artist is very creative, and some of them were very quirky- most of them are people, but they are all so different. He uses a lot of different mediums- stone, wood, bronze castings based on styrofoam carvings. I think his intent was to show the variety in humanity, and he did a good job of it.

I have a couple of prayer requests to share.
Tomorrow I will be speaking at a church to a small group about our family's adoption and adoption in general. Pray that God would guide my words and move people's hearts to consider how they will care for orphans in their distress (James 1:27). I'm very excited about this opportunity, because I truly believe God has a heart of great love and compassion for orphans and he wants his people to model that love here on earth. Culturally, adoption is not a very accepted practice in Taiwan, but I hope that God will begin to change hearts here as he has in the US in the past decades.

On Monday I will be meeting my new brother and sister for the first time. I will meet Kai-Wei at the orphanage in the morning and Su-Ya at her foster family's in the afternoon. Pray that my heart will be filled with such love for these 2 that they will sense it and feel peace. Pray that meeting me will help Kai-Wei to be secure in his new family and future. Su-Ya does not know about the adoption yet, so I will not be introdcued as her sister. Pray that it won't be an awkward meeting. Little children can be perceptive, so just pray that God's assurance would rest on her and she wouldn't feel uncomfortable, and that once she is told about the adoption, taht having met me will make it easier for her. I could also use your prayers that I wouldn't be too nervous. I'm so excited to meet them, but I also realize that I am the first live impression of our family that they get, so I sure hope it's a good one.

Blessings to all of you!
~Annie

Saying Goodbye is hard

The day before yesterday, I left Christian Mountain Children's home. It was sad to say goodbye. I love the kids there. The night before I left they had a goodbye party for me. Each house sang a song or read me a letter they had written. It was so sweet. A new group of volunteers from a university in Taipei had just arrived the night before, so fortunatley one of them translated some of what the kids said to me, and also translated what I said to the kids.

Here are some pics. Can you tell why I'll miss them?


The orphanage had hundreds of mangos which some adults were packing. Two of the little girls pulled me over to watch. I finally asked to help, and the girls joined in. If assembly lines hadn't already been invented, Sunny would invent them. She started handing me wrappers and mangos, then I would put the wrapper on the mango and place it with the finished ones as she handed me the new ones. This is Lisa and Suzy helping out.


I was walking back to "my" girl's house (I spent 2 nights sleeping there) when I peeked in the window at the other girls dorm. All the choir members got giant new suitcases for their upcoming tour and the girls realized they were big enough to fit a person in. I went in to join the fun. We had a fun photo shoot and a lot of giggles.


When I got to "my" dorm, the girls there had found another use for the suitcases. They had come wrapped in large plastic bags, which they had sack races in, then they started sitting in the bags. I was worried they were going to suffocate themselves, until I noticed they had already managed to put holes in all the bags. Good thing since I had no idea how to say "putting bags over your heads is not safe" in Mandarin. :)


There's a rope bridge that leads from the orphanage, across the river to the preschool. Years ago it was the only bridge they had. Now they also have a beautiful red bridge that cars can cross on. I went down with some children and house mothers to the park area near the bridge and the kids had a lot of fun climbing on the suspension wires.


A group of us went to the hotsprings, where we alternated between playing in the cold water, relaxing in the warm water, singing karoke, and eating sausages on sticks and chicken feet. I wasn't brave enough for chicken feet or karaoke.


I brought play-doh to play with with the kids, and I was surprised when the big boys noticed me walking by with it and wanted to play. Josh really enjoyed it.