And so we have, in Dr. Suess fashion...
Gangs All Here!
And so we have, in Dr. Suess fashion...
Tristan
We're 'Outta Here
From February 14 through February 21, all non-essential staff are on vacation! We won't be updating our blog or website during this time.
Poem written by ND staff
Here is the translation of the poem.
All the instruments play
To celebrate the festival with great joy
We gather together for this special moment
Happy
Stand on the platform
Perform for everyone
What are we going to perform?
Three and a half sentences
Three and a half sentences
Don't laugh if it is not funny
Whether it is funny or not
Don't run away
There is a story known by many people in the world
A foreigner mom with Chinese orphans
True love for orphans
It's her (Karen)
Saving children's lives from the edge of death
Pray with faith and not fear
Miracles happens all the time
True God
All the children are cute in New Day Foster Home
Each of them is precious
There is joy and happiness flowing from them
Ha ha ha
Owen and Ethan are handsome
Annie is smart
Khloe's nick name is beauty
All is true
Tristan has white skin and big eyes
Jamison is good at music
Timothy and Joshua are quiet
They all behave well
Claire went through a tough time in life
Staying in the hospital for half a year; ending up with a miracle
Being happy and positive with washing lungs daily
Not easy
Victoria is smart and obedient
Everyone says she is beautiful
She is a cook, secretary and a nanny in the home
She is great
Little Judson's life was critical
Olympic express road was prepared for him
A great miracle manifest
He was brought back
Evan was malnourished
Hopeless eyes broke our hearts
Gain 2.7 kg in seven days
Awesome
Reagan's heart closed in her three years of life
No communication with others
Laugh with joy and smiles on her face now
With confidence
Elizabeth and Hannah two big girls
Fostered in a foreign family
Speak in English, amazes everyone
Can't understand
Princess Melody in the Healing Home
Arrogant for her beauty
With no hair came back from surgery
No way
A lot of amazing stories in New Day Foster Home
No time to talk about them all
Next year this time
Tell you more
My time at New Day
Happy Spring Festival!
It's Spring Festival, China's biggest holiday. And we celebrated the way everyone does... by making tons of jiaozi and eating until we were stuffed.
Like any good holiday, we spent it with our closest friends and family. The children had a wonderful time. Be sure to check out the pictures from the event on our scrapbook page!
Dance with the Stars
Nathan Update
Prayers Needed
We received an email from Nathan's parents this morning. They said:
Two Saturdays ago we took Nathan to the ER room. He had come down with a stomach flu. He was discharged on Sunday since they said that the virus just needed to run its course; he did not do well with his recovery, and on Friday and Saturday he was still not doing well, just wanting to sleep. We took him to the ER room again yesterday, and during the night while Kelly stayed with him, he started to have some seizures. They did a CT scan and found an abcess on his brain. They are going to perform emergency surgery now. The doctors are not sure if they can help Nathan.
We received this email update a few hours later:
Thank you so much! So many people are praying and we are so grateful. His surgery went okay. They relieved a lot pressure in his brain/head. The abcess was the size of an orange. Apparently, bacteria in his blood did not have a chance to get filtered out in either his lungs, liver or spleen (which is what happens to people with healthy hearts) and it traveled up to his brain and caused an infection. There was no way to know that this was happening to him until he had a seizure.
We are so thankful that the seizure took place while we were at the hospital and not while we were at home which we were told was a miracle. Apparently, this usually happens at home. He was in a position to get immediate help, praise God. Right now he is on antibiotics until they know the nature of the infection, probably by Wednesday at the latest. At that point they will know which antibiotics to use to treat him (right now he is taking antibiotics for everything he could possibly have). They said this therapy will go on for months (although he will most likely not be in the hospital for months). Within the next couple weeks they will monitor whether the infection returns, as sometimes it is very aggressive.
Unfortunately, this will postpone his heart surgery which we expected to take place this month. We are hopeful. This morning the doctors painted a grim picture. But this afternoon they were more optimistic. They said we will just take it day-by-day.
We're so thankful that Nathan pulled through the surgery and that doctors have a clear treatment plan. However, we know that the next few weeks are going to be difficult for Nathan and his family and ask that you keep them lifted up in prayer.
Our Big Helper
In a recent care package from a sponsor, we received a whole bunch of new socks, and we thought it'd be cute to let the kids try on some of their favorites. Ganlu caught this video of Khloe trying to help Tristan with his socks, bending Tristan in all sorts of shapes and directions to accomplish her goal. Annie even decides to help out a little. Tristan goes along with it, but not entirely peacefully.
At one point, Khloe gets a little irritated with his antics. "You've pulled it off! You're not wearing socks!" she tells him, with the huffy voice of an exasperated big sister. We especially like the part where he decides to show her that pulling off a sock isn't the only "pulling" he can do. Her pig-tails are just too tempting for Tristan...