A Mission

Recently, a news station in I think New Zealand, ran a story about the woman and the mission home that Rugrat was cared for in. As much as she loves the children she cares for, this woman has a special connection with Rugrat.

Rugrat was one of the first as I understand it that she personally collected from the orphanage and brought into the home while director. Rugrat was initially believed to be blind. Linda's own family raised funds to sponsor her (and made up the remainder). Her nephew is blind and helped to guide her as she broke through the mindset of the nannies.

Because they believed her blind, they felt that there was no need to teach her to do things for herself and had only given her bottles. As a result, she would not accept solid foods and could not use a spoon, etc. She was hypersensitive to textures and touch. Linda went through an extensive and time consuming process to teach her to act and respond like any other child would to such things.

When they say she has a passion for this, its true. All profits from the books she writes go to it. She speaks about it constantly. She posts about it. She even sells the puppies her dogs have to fund it. She truly lives and breathes this mission.

I thought it was a well done piece.

Breakthrough Day Video

This happened the afternoon of the day after we received Emily. It doesn't seem like much but it was major!

This was the first time we heard her laugh. This was the first time she really played with us. It was the first time that we knew she was a normal little girl. And when we realized just how scared and freaked out and shut down she had been the day before. I posted about this day here. You can hear in our voices just how amazed and... giddy we were at her behavior.

Gotcha Day Video

I finally took a moment to download our camcorder video from the adoption trip. This is kind of long but it is of our first moments with Emily. I didn't realize at the time how noisy it was in there so you can't really hear what we're saying but it does have our interaction with the two ladies (one of whom I think was her own nanny -- you can see her getting one last kiss and one last hug, etc.) who delivered her.

Don't know if she'll see it, but a big, big thank you to Kristen for taping it for us. You can see, she really hung in there for us.

Chinese Christmas

To Bring Emily home, we left on the 22nd from Arkansas (where our children will be staying with their aunt and uncle. We arrived in Beijing after a 12 hour flight from Seattle. It was around 10:00 at night here as well as the 23rd. Amazingly, we met in Seattle a couple from Mount Pleasant, SC (about a 20 min. drive from us) who were not only using our agency but in our group. So we had instant friends to hang out with and as the trip is going on, we have found ourselves in their company more and more. We crashed and then got up today to go to Forbidden City. It was fuh--reezing!!! My nose was numb after we were there for a bit and everyone was wrapped up like a mummy.And it wasn't enough. We did get a few pictures. The one with our guide, Forrest, is at Forbidden City.

Then, we went to Tian'an Men Square and a silk factory. That was pretty interesting but still very cold. Lunch was served family style to our three tables. That was a lot of fun and very relaxing. All along, I have expected that Chinese food would not be the same here as what we know in the states. But guess what -- it pretty much is. And we got to spend time with both our Mount Pleasant friends and two other families. Afterwards, we went to the old city, Hutong, where we rode in rickshaws throughout the city and got to visit a middle class family and see what her house was like. 300 square meters -- whoa!

Part of our rickshaw adventure including being slammed in the back by the one behind us. I felt like I was in a parade. Only two people could fit in each one so there were several of them.

Tomorrow we should spend our Christmas on the Great Wall and later see an acrobatics show. Then it's off to Henan province where we'll meet the little girl who's picture inspired this journey. Please keep us in your prayers.