Last Day at Hope Foster Home

We had a great last day with the kids at Hope Foster Home. A new baby was brought in today, so we got to see the process that Joyce goes through in assessing their condition, etc. This adorable little boy has severe congenital heart diease and has just had surgery, but is not doing well. Hopefully, Joyce can nurse him back to health. We had a delicious Chinese lunch and then went to the Great Wall to ride the tobaggan slides down! We are preparing to leave China, with the hopes of continuing to help these orphans as much as possible. They are so precious and we know with the help of these foster homes, they can get the surgeries they need and one day find a forever family to love. Please watch our wesite www.amotherslovechina.com for new babies that need sponsors. We are hoping to find sponsors for all of them!

Our 2nd Day at Hope Healing Home

We had another great day at Hope Healing Home. The girls helped in the preschool again and we enjoyed bonding with the babies. It has been so amazing to see the pictures of these children when they first came to Hope and to watch them running around playing now, healthy and waiting to be adopted! For all they have been through, they are such happy children, largely due to the care they have received at Hope.

This evening, we were fortunate to meet with the staff of Bring Me Hope, another wonderful organization that AML supports. They are here in Beijing getting ready for their four weeks of camps that they run for orphans aged 8-17. The best weeks of their lives are spent at the camps they run for these kids! If you are interested in sponsoring any children for a week at camp, contact us for details.

Hope Healing Home

Today was another incredible day (and probably our favorite!), as we spent all day at Hope Healing Home outside Beijing. AML has been supporting Hope for the past few years by providing surgeries, equipment, strollers, and other needed items. Joyce and Robin Hill founded Hope Healing Home to care for special needs children and hopefully get them adopted into forever families. In fact, a few of the children will be adopted in the next few weeks.

What an incredible place! It is an honor for us to serve here by playing with the children (47 at Hope and 16 in foster care). Brittany, Jenny, and Mollie got right to work in the pre-school for a few hours and then it was time for a great lunch at the Hills house (next door). After lunch, it was back to playing with all of the children (ages 3 months to 5 yrs old).

Jenny was excited that Starbuck's Lido was selected as our meeting place for Hope's driver! Yes, the frappacinos taste almost exactly the same as in the US!!

Church in Beijing and Tourist Places

We had a great time at BICF (Beijing International Christian Fellowship) for church! It is held every Sunday in the 21st Century Theatre in Beijing. You must have a foreign passport to enter and there were Christians from over 70 countries there this morning! The worship band and the message were awesome -- and we even got communion!

After church, it was time to play tourists so we headed to see the Hutong neighborhoods on rickshaw bikes and also enjoyed some beautiful parks with lakes, boats, etc....We also went to Tian'anmen Square and the gardens surrounding the Forbidden City. Finally, we enjoyed an interesting meal at the Noodle Loft which consisted of noodle bowls with several different (and interesting!) sauces. The girls were adventurous and had fun trying everything (well, almost everything). Tomorrow we are off to Hope Healing Home......

There is also much celebrating around Beijing because it is the 10th Annivsary of Hong Kong being returned to Chinese rule. The picture above is one of many traditional Chinese dance groups who were performing outside our hotel.

Visit to The Great Wall

Today we were able to visit the Great Wall at Mutianyu, approximatley 60 miles north of Beijing. It was a cloudy and somewhat rainy day (and incredibly humid!), but we managed to take some great pictures and enjoy ourselves. The views are incredible -- even when much of it is blocked by the clouds!

Mutianyu is unique in that you take a gondola ride up to the Great Wall and then take a toboggan ride down the mountain back to the bottom! Unfortunately, the weather did not allow us to take the toboggan ride (which was a bummer.....).

After walking the wall for approximately an hour, we were pretty tired and slept most of the way back to the hotel. We then went to the Silk Market for some incredible bargains!

New Day Foster Home visit

Today was a special day, as we were able to visit New Day Foster Home outside Beijing. Karen and Byron Brenneman were gracious hosts and run an incredible facility for special needs orphans. AML donated baby pillows (thanks to Elizabeth Canter!), clothes, and other needed items for New Day. AML has provided surgeries, playground equipment, and nutritional programs for New Day as part of our mission to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these orphans.

Our favorite part of the trip was working with the children in the pre-school and the nursery and celebrating Debbie's birthday with everyone! Brittany, Jenny, Mollie, Debbie, and Jeff had so much fun making the children smile and learning about each child's medical situation. Hopefully, all of them will be adopted to loving forever families. Each of them is a gift from God and deserves all of the love and care possible -- and that is just what they receive at New Day!

Also shown is Seth, who recently received heart surgery from AML funding. He is doing very well and will hopefully be put up for adoption soon. The cute little girl with the blonde hair and the sunglasses is Bella, an albino who is going to be adopted soon. It was hard to leave the children as you become attached to them in a very short period of time!!!

Finally in China

As you can see we made it to China with all of our stuff. We sort of look like a modern version of the Beverly Hillbillies! These double strollers are much needed at the foster home, they are rather hard to find in China. We are on our way to New Day Foster Home to play with the children. We will post more pics later tonight. Happy Birthday to Debbie, she is 29 again!