A Visit With Faith

Hi! I'm Faith. I live with a foster family so I don't come to the foster home everyday, but today my foster mom brought me and my foster brother, Ryan, for a visit!

One of my favorite toys are balls, and this green one is my favorite.

Tom looks pretty interested in my ball, and I'll show it to him, but I don't want to share it.

This is Ryan, he may be as big as me, but he is my little brother.

Ryan is learning to walk, but he still needs to hold onto a grown ups hands.

Mom thinks I should throw the ball, but I'd rather just hold it.

When we go back outside Ryan gets to visit with some of his friends.

Ok mom, I think we had a good visit and it's time to go home. See you next time!

A Special Visitor And A New Kid

Here at New Day Foster Home we regularly welcome visitors who come as short-term volunteers. This month though, we had the privilege of welcoming a very special volunteer; a New Day graduate, visiting China with her parents.  Meet twelve-year-old Janai, adopted in 2007, pictured standing underneath a photograph of herself as a toddler, still on display in our playroom!

Janai's mom explained that they had arranged the trip to help Janai begin to discover where she had come from and learn about her life before she joined their family;  "Janai has said to us that she feels like she knows other people better than she knows herself; she needed to come and see people that knew her before I knew her".

Janai lived at New Day for three-and-a-half years, and even though it's been such a long time since she left, she is fondly remembered by many of the staff.  The first morning  here, as soon as Amy (Foster Home Manager) walked into the room and saw her, she exclaimed "Ai Xin!" (Janai's Chinese name) and rushed over to give her a hug.

We asked Janai what it was like to have 'strangers' recognizing her, and she said that it was "kinda weird, it was cool seeing my picture and it's cool that they recognize me".  The nannies remembered her lively and crazy personality, and were able to tell some stories about the mischief that she used to get up to here.

Janai was excellent with the little ones in the playroom.  Freddy took a real liking to her, and she formed a special bond with Rosie.

It's beautiful to see what a tender and compassionate young lady mischievous little Ai Xin has grown into.  Janai said that she really liked playing with the kids, and wished that they were spending the whole of their time in China at New Day (they were heading off to visit her birth city next).

Speaking of 'kids', Janai was given a special task while she was here...picking a name for a new arrival!

Our nanny goat, Bella (far left, the dad, Zeke, is on the right), gave birth to the cutest little kid last weekend.  Janai named her 'Smore', which we think suits her perfectly!

Smore took a liking to Janai too!

Gan Lu has been taking lots of cute pictures of the little ones meeting Smore, but we thought you might like to see Tom meeting her (under the watchful eye of mama Bella!).

We're so glad that Janai was able to visit, and to know how loved she was here.  We hope that it has given her a valuable insight into the early years of her life, and we're sure that she will go on to do great things in the years that are to come.

Talia and Tom

What does Talia think of Tom, our friendly backyard dog?

He's soft when you pet him...

...and he's pretty good for leaning on too!

His fur smells of...dog.

His tail is pretty funny...

...in fact, his tail is very funny.

It's HILARIOUS!

Maybe his tail is delicious?

No, just really funny.

Just look at it wagging back and forth!

Check out this video of Talia and the ever-patient Tom.  She really is fascinated by his tail!

Like Dog, Like Kids?

It was a chilly October day, yet the sun was shining brightly and our dog Tom had found the perfect spot to take a nap. Brendan watched him intently, calling out, "Wake up, wake up!" in his little voice. 

Eventually, he had gathered a crowd. Jonathan, Rebecca, Rachel and Isaac joined Brendan in his attempts to wake Tom. After enough bothering (including a moment where Rachel walked over to pat Tom and got scared away when he awoke suddenly), Tom got up and walked off.

What did clever little Brendan do next? Why, he took advantage of the empty napping spot, of course! 

Brendan must be a leader, because not seconds after he had laid himself down to check out Tom's comfortable spot, the other kids were joining in!

If only you could have heard their giggles... they were having such a fun time!

...our kids are just the best, aren't they?

Feeding the Goat

You've met our dog, Tom, right? He's Rachel's very best friend.

If you have a minute, she would like to introduce you to her other good friend, Jerry. 

Jerry is our goat, and in case you didn't catch it, New Day Foster Home's animals are named Tom and Jerry. Funny, right?

Our gardener was trimming some branches from the trees in our backyard playground and brought Jerry out to snack on the leaves. 

Wendy and Colton, Meilin and Joel were taking a break from class and came out for a natural sciences lesson! Did you know that goats love leaves, Wendy?

Jerry isn't always the nicest pet to have around, so he spends most of his time in his pen. However, sometimes we have really great opportunities to introduce the children to Jerry, and to how goats live, so we bring him out and he is always a hit!

As well as Tom and Jerry, we also have a collection of rabbits that the children love to watch. It's so much fun to teach the children about the big outdoors!

Tom and the Twins

Somehow Tom got the memo that the twins were in for check-ups, and being the smart dog that he is, he knew that they would be getting a piece of candy afterwards for being good. Because the twins are always good.

He went straight for Mary's candy, but she thought that he wanted to play with her!

She reached out her hand and tried to pet his nose.

Notice Abby's facial expression below?

"Mama, he tried to take my candy!" Mary whined. But that didn't keep her from trying to make friends.

Mary and Abby are not afraid of animals!

...and Tom thanks them for that with lots of kisses.

You're Not My Dog!

Seth's foster family has a dog called "Daidai," and although Seth doesn't always enjoy Daidai's attention, he feels very protective and possessive of his dog. When Seth came by the other day, Tom, the foster home's dog, caught his eye.

"Daidai!" Seth called, and then he walked after Tom.

Tom didn't pay Seth any attention, and was busy sniffing bikes. Seth kept after him, "Daidai!"

He called louder, "Daidai!"

But Tom continued to ignore poor little Seth. And so Seth, rather frustrated at his unsuccessful attempts to play with the dog he thought must be the same as his own, turned on his heel and left.

You can just see his reaction in his face, "That's not my dog!"

The next time that Seth comes in, he'll have to bring Daidai along with him! It doesn't get much better than a boy and his dog!