I was talking to my son-in-law yesterday and he told me that everyone had been asking when I was going to post another blog update… sorry for the delays. I have been so busy living life I have not had time to write about it. But I do promise to do better going forward.
I am missing a post from November about my trip to Nanxun… a water town that is about 1 ½ hours from Shanghai. Fortunately I made notes about the trip and do not have to rely solely on memory about what the pictures are telling me. The worst part of getting older is that the memory, which I took great pride in once upon a time… is no longer something I can trust. But I will get back to that partially finished posting.
I still need to tell you about our trip back home in January for Jason and Dennell’s wedding… our new great grandson, Caleb, and the new news of our little grandson, born on Momma’s birthday, Michael Jayden.
And I went on a mission trip to Thailand… amazing experience. God is working in Thailand and I am so privileged to have been a small part of the mission trip. I did a layover in Seoul and spent a couple of days there before meeting up with the rest of the team going to Chiang Mai City, Thailand. It was in the northern part of the country. But I will hold all that for blog coming soon with loads of pictures!
I have gotten more involved in the activities and ministries here in Shanghai. Our church has a Women’s ministry called Women of Joy. There are a number of branches to this ministry and I am particularly partial to the James 1:27 Project. We are an outreach to Women and Orphans. We visit a government run orphanage every week and the volunteering at Healing Home also comes under that umbrella. I will tell you about the orphanage….
The Orphanage
This is an orphanage in Puxi, run by the government, that is primarily for children that have mental and physical defects… which translates to the throw away children. It was difficult the first couple of times I went… I blinked back tears the whole time I was there. These are children that are defective in the eyes of a culture that feels it is cheaper to throw away something not perfect. It is tragic. There are only two Ayi’s (pronounced I E) to care for a room full of cribs and children. Some of the kids are down syndrome, some are deaf or blind, and some are suffering from more serious medical issues.
These children are beautiful souls and they light up with something as simple as a stroke of their precious little faces. Some are unresponsive, but we continue to hold and caress them hoping for some sign that we are bringing some measure of comfort or joy to them. Others are reaching out for our attention.
There are older children on other floors, however we have never been to those floors. I am not sure if we are actually allowed to visit those kids. They are older and perhaps a bit more difficult to handle… but that is pure speculation on my part.
The rooms are lined with rows of cribs and little wooden chairs. Some of the children are tied to their beds or chairs. I am not completely certain as to whether this is for their protection or they are tied to keep them in one place. Either way it is difficult to see a child tied in place, particularly when they do not seem to have enough muscle to be very mobile.
We help feed some of the kids their lunch. They are on a rigid schedule and promptly at 10:15am the food arrives and the children know it.
Yesterday I took photos of our visit.
This is the group that went yesterday. From back left: Sonu (India), Lynn (US - Michigan), Ann D (UK), Ginger (US), Amanda (UK), Amanda’s Mom visiting from UK, Ann Clark (US – Georgia), Jenny (US –Colorado), Kay. Bottom: Egle (Germany?), Paulyn (Singapore), Adrie (South Africa). These are the most wonderful women.
There is a group of Swedish people that come the same time as we do… this is a little blind boy enjoying the sunshine in the small play area on the roof.
Just a little insight into the orphanage visits. The tears are now replaced with a hope that we can bring a little human comfort and joy to these precious little souls.
I only wish there were more we could do to bring more to the lives of these babies. Just to note… these kids are from about 8-9 months to 5 years old. The little boy in the plaid jacket is 5 years old. Of all the children in the two rooms we visit, only about 6-8 of the kids can actually stand or walk. I am sure some of that is because they do not get the opportunity to exercise their legs to get them strong enough to bear their weigh and others are simply not capable of walking or crawling… many cannot even sit up.
Healing Home
From the orphanage, it is back to Pudong. I go to the Healing Home to work with the clef palate babies in the SMART program in the afternoon. We are teaching the toddlers sign language, read to them, and sing songs. We are working with them to help them make sounds so that they can develop language skills.
Sometimes it feels like we are making no progress and then one day you walk in and they greet you with some sign language that you have been teaching them… it is so terrific to see them communicating. They are the lucky ones as they are placed in forever homes when they leave the Healing Home. I only have an old picture of time at Healing Home which I am pretty sure I posted already, but here they are again.
These are just a couple of the many ministries that the Women of Joy participate and support. I just love being a part of these wonderful opportunities to serve.
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