Eagles Wings 5

From Linda: Eagles’ Wings 5 is for tiny or weaker babies or babies recovering from surgeries.  There are now 8 babies there.  This tiny little fellow arrived this past week from an orphanage several hours away from our town.  This orphanage  came to inspect all our homes before they let us have any of their children. Now we have four children from there, and they are very pleased with our care. 

This baby was born with eyes that did not form properly.  His name means “shining cloud”. The lady from the orphanage was a very kind person, and when she handed him to me, I knew he was meant to be in Eagles’ Wings where he will be loved and well cared for.   

At present, both JennAi, whose vision has made Eagles Wings 5 possible, and her friend, Liz, a nurse from Australia, are volunteering in Eagles Wings 5. We had trouble measuring the weight of our babies accurately as we couldn’t afford a good digital baby scale, and most of our ayis are village women who struggled to measure the length of babies as they kept wriggling (the babies not the ayis J). Now Liz has taught all the ayis how to measure head and chest circumference as well as body length, and, Kirsty, a friend of Eagles Wings in Beijing, donated two good quality baby scales. "Ask and it shall be given". We are so thankful for everyone who plays a part in this work!

In the meantime, Donna, our recently arrived “In China Director”, and one of the ayis from Eagles Wings 2, where five of our seven vision impaired children live, are going to Beijing next week to attend a conference on the education and raising of vision impaired children.

School of Hope and Happiness

From Linda: "Here you see our children finishing up from “fruit snack” and getting ready for combined class time.  This is when they sing and play word games and they end the session with small group activities suited to all levels of ability and age.  These children are soaking up learning like little sponges and they can’t wait to get to school each day.  We have 3 classes… kindergarten, advanced class and special needs class for slow learners. Thanks to all of your praying and loving, you have made a wonderful contribution towards happy childhoods for all our students."

This place is SUCH a blessing for all the kids who are not able to attend regular school. Without it they would have limited access to any education.  The kids LOVE school. When I was there two of "my" kids with severe mobility issues were tutored at home rather than taken across town to the orphanage (where the school was at that time). The tutoring was okay, but they missed out on so much of the school atmosphere and other activities. So I put together a plan to help them gain mobility and asked that they be included. You would have thought I had hung the moon! Those two little faces were so happy and excited to be GOING to school! The little boy who was five at the time could hardly sleep for two days beforehand, and kept checking with me to make sure I hadn't forgotten.  :) What JOY just to have the chance to go to school. We are so glad to be able to provide this experience to most of our eaglets.
If you are a teacher or have a heart for teaching, would you consider spending your summer holidays teaching and training our teachers in China? You would really make a difference. Can you provide a donation to help support our school? We rely on individual donations to keep the school running. We also need to provide a mini-school for our cognitively impaired children who benefit so much from the activities but need greater support for their many physical challenges.

With a thankful heart,
Donna
Director, Eagles Wings