Happy Birthday!

Guess who turned 7 (or is it 8, according to Chinese calculations)?  None other than the amazing daredevil boy himself, Parker! This little guy is a real sweetheart, and this will be his last birthday with us at Eagles Wings, so he had an extra special beautiful cake...and he seemed quite pleased about that. All his friends were just happy there was an occasion for cake!

Happy Birthday, Parker! I KNOW your birthday wishes are going to come true this year!!

Our Eaglets Who Have Left the Nest

It has been an amazing year for adoptions here at Eagles Wings -- 12 so far, and we still have 3 more for sure this year, plus a few more families hoping, hoping, hoping to be allowed to come and meet their children before the end of December. Today I played this video for my manager team...they work so hard to take care of our kids and help prepare them for their families; they love to see how well the kids are doing. The first 3 older kids went to their families before this year but have recently sent photos so I included those as well.
I also want to say THANK YOU to all who support the work of Eagles Wings...many of these adoptions would not have happened without the advocacy we can do because of YOU. None of these kids would be as well prepared for their new life without the sponsors who allow us to do this work. THANK YOU!

If you are not currently a sponsor but want to be involved, please contact us either through this blog, on Facebook or at our website, www.eagleswingschina.org.  We welcome your participation!

One Less

Today I am happy and yet almost unbearably sad to say goodbye to a little boy I have known since I first saw him in the Jiaozuo orphanage in January 2009. He captured my heart and I soon obtained permission to bring him to Eagles Wings 2 where I was the House Mom at the time. 


He grieved for a day or two and then settled in to the routine of his new home, enjoying the lavish attention that he received from the staff and my daughters.

A little more than three years have passed and this boy captured the hearts of all who passed through Eagles Wings 2. His funny faces, jovial laugh and kind heart toward his housemates are only a few of the things that made him stand out. He has grown (and grown!), and now it's time to say good-bye. I know he will love his new family (lots of silly boys) and that he will be loved for the sweet little man he is. And I know he will always carry with him a piece of my heart. 

 

 

 

May God bless you and keep you always. Your smile will certainly brighten our memories for many years to come.

The Eaglet Has Flown!

It's Monday again, and around here in August that means ADOPTION DAY!  This sweetie has only been with us a little more than ten months, but she has completely stolen our hearts and gone from a shy, serious baby to a wild, crazy and always-laughing toddler. We couldn't love her more or be happier about the wonderful life ahead of her. May she never lose touch with the Eagles Wings that have lifted her this far. 

One photo was definitely not enough to celebrate this princess!

If It's Monday, This Must Be....Adoption Day!

Yes....Monday is Adoption Day here in Henan Province, and we are so blessed to have eaglets meeting their forever families every Monday for FIVE weeks in a row. So, it's One Less again....Happy Gotcha Day, Zane!  We have loved on this sweet boy for 29 of his 34 months, and his shy smile and love of hugs will be greatly missed. Somewhere out there is one very lucky family.

Donna
Director, Eagles Wings

Another Adoption Day!

Yes...one less eaglet in the nest today...she is starting her journey to fly to America. We never get tired of saying....ONE LESS!!

This little one has been in Eagles Wings since the beginning and is loved by many around the world.
God bless you and your beautiful family, Rebekah XiaLan! 

Cooling Off

Thanks to a post on FB or Pinterest or one of those places where I occasionally spend too much time...we built a fun-shower for the kids to cool off on hot days. It is easily portable so kids at our Eagles Wings 3&4 and 7&8 homes have been enjoying this as well as our XiWangLeYuan kids....I am sure the neighbors think we are crazy (or crazy smart!).

Our Town

Community Helpers Part II

On Monday the kids (and helpers) drew pictures of many kinds of buildings in our city...apartments, markets, hospitals, schools and restaurants. Today those pictures were turned into a 3-D city.

Bao the Builder

Community Helpers
This week's daycamp theme is Community Helpers. Zhang Ying has been reading books to the kids about firemen and doctors and other helpers. Lindsay has been leading crafts (and snacks) that tie into the theme. 
Today they learned what every good builder needs...a toolbelt!

Zach

Sean

Shannon

Wendy

Whitney

Jamie

Barry

A Miracle Called Timmy

I started to post this on the Eagles Wings China FB page, but it got too long. This week our profile picture is of a fantabulous little guy whose "code name" is Timmy. After I posted his photo I realized very few people know his story. 

Long before I knew him, Timmy had a bilateral cleft lip which was repaired. But Timmy lived for 7 years with an open palate...I didn't even know it was still open until I had been here 6 months. I tried to get a team to close it in April '11. They said he was too old (at 6!) to ever be able to learn to speak properly and from his erratic and uncooperative behavior as well his almost non-existent language, they judged him to be brain damaged so what was the point. GRRR! And this was an Australian group, not Chinese! I was shocked and angry and frustrated and just so sad. I can't imagine how *I* would behave if I was 6 years old and could not communicate with the people around me. I knew Timmy was in the process of giving up -- why should he care about behaving when no one seemed to care about listening to him? My heart was broken.

Later in 2011 we made some changes in Timmy's home and gave some very focused training to his caregivers, helping them understand what it might feel like to have no one understand you. God bless them, they GOT it! We worked really hard on *hearing* what Timmy meant and not what he could actually verbalize...and guess what? Timmy's behavior improved! Not overnight, not always, not 100%, but so much that everyone who worked with him saw the difference and knew, they KNEW, that there was a boy inside who wanted to be heard, to be loved and to become a part of the world around him.
So...this year another cleft mission came to our area, this time Love Without Boundaries. I asked them to give Timmy a chance. And they did!  I was nervous and excited, just hoping that Timmy's behavior would not fall apart under the stress of a hospital stay. Our Floor Manager for his home went with him. She had really stepped up to work specifically with him, bond with him and make sure everyone else was patient with him. He had grown to trust her as well. Timmy was accepted for surgery.
Imagine the doctors' surprise when on the operating table they did not find just an open palate but a displaced voice box, a much more complex surgery than they were prepared for, but also the missing link in why Timmy had not been able to develop even basic language despite his cleft palate! Rather than close his palate and move on, the wonderful, God-sent physicians told the Chinese doctors assisting that they were going to learn something new today!!  So they tackled repositioning his voice box so Timmy would be able to speak. We are truly indebted to these skilled and caring surgeons who took the time to change this child's life.
After returning to Eagles Wings and a few weeks of resting his voice, Timmy began the long process of learning to speak. Interestingly, he really didn't even know the words for many things; his total language process had been derailed by his inability to communicate. So he spent many days just asking for everything to be named and then practicing the words. He works with one of our therapists several times a week to learn more words and practice saying them. His speech is not very clear and will probably never be perfect, but with patience and perseverance, Timmy can communicate with his friends and his ayis, and most importantly he knows that someone (many someones!) care about what he has to say.

Last week when Timmy was at Bring Me Hope camp, one of the volunteers there had been with Timmy at camp three years ago. She recognized his struggles and had been praying for him for three years. Imagine her surprise, amazement and pure DELIGHT when she saw Timmy this year, cooperating, participating and COMMUNICATING like all the other kids. She cried tears of joy. God is good...all the time. Jas 5:16

Timmy is in need of sponsorship. If you would like to help, please see the Sponsorship and Donations tabs above. To let us know about your sponsorship, fill out the SPONSORSHIP FORM.

Donna
Director, Eagles Wings

School's Out!

Well, yes, school has been out for a month, but I wanted to share with you some of the fun projects that our Eagles Wings 7 girls and Eagles Wings 8 boys have been doing to enjoy their summer break.

The first week of our mini-day camp was about farm animals. The kids colored and completed a farm scene and also created a stuffed animal (cat? pig?) from scratch. Tracing, cutting and sewing are things that don't come easily to some of our kids, but they persevered and everyone made something!

Bring Me Hope

Hopefully you have seen the fantastic video that Bring Me Hope did of our happy campers. Here are a few more photos to revisit those special days.

Gee our kids had a wonderful time! They were all crying on the bus when it was time to leave. And that's how camp should be. Thank you so much to all the wonderful volunteers who give of their time and their treasure just to come give our kids a memorable week. I'd say they were VERY successful!

Bring Me Hope -- THANK YOU!!!

Let Them Eat Cake!

What could have been more appropriate for the day-before-Bastille Day than CAKE! We were actually celebrating George's 6th birthday, and it was a fun way to finish up our first week of daycamp. No one was more surprised than George as he didn't realize it was his birthday until we brought out the cake. "Wo?", he said. Obviously, he knew just what to do once the candles were lit!

Happy Birthday, George, from your friends at Eagles Wings and all the people around the world who love you. May the year ahead be filled with love, happiness and many delightful surprises.

Here It Is!! DayCamp Part 1

This is the video of our day camp for kids under 10 (mostly) which we conducted at our COAT School. There were 27 children participating, divided into two groups based on age and abilities. The theme for this week was Farms and Farm Animals. Each day there was a story and songs with a farm or animal theme, followed by crafts, games and snacks. The main objective was to have FUN, but in addition we tried to give the kids the chance to use scissors, paints, crayons, glue and lots of fun textures to work on small motor and sensory skills. Everyone had a blast, and it will be tough to keep up this level of fun all summer long, but we will try. A very, very special thanks to my daughter, Lindsay, who came up with most of the ideas, put together the plans and materials and then went and ran the program every afternoon. She did GREAT!

Sorry for the length but just too many cute photos to leave any out.

Guess What!

Yup, you guessed it ---- ONE LESS AGAIN!!


We are all teary to say good-bye to this sweet little pumpkin. He really became his own person in the last six months, growing from the tiny, shy and quiet baby that we met nearly two years ago to one of the sweetest, happiest little guys we have known. We love him dearly and for that reason we REJOICE that he now has a mama and baba of his very own. We hope we will be able to see him in the future as he was adopted domestically by a family about an hour away.

May God bless you and keep you, sweet boy!

Craft Project of the Week

Do you like videos? I hope so because I wasn't sure how I was going to weed through all the great photos from this week's craft project and just share a few. Soooooo I put a bunch in a little video. No music, no frills, and it isn't very long. This craft project was led by my daughter, Lindsay (aka TianTian to the kids). The artists are the five and older kids at our COAT School of Hope and Happiness. I hope you enjoy it and also get to know a few of our kids a little better! 

A Fun Day in Our Neighborhood

Baking cookies at Eagles Wings 7 and 8 --

 Ice cream with the "big boys" at Eagles Wings 5 --

And playing "keep away" with the iPod with the girls at Eagles Wings 5.

I hope your Saturday was as much fun as ours!!

Five More!

Yes! We have been very busy this week, and now the inn is full with 62 children living and being loved at Eagles Wings. 
I am very excited to introduce our five newest eaglets.

 This is 5 year old June, isn't she as bright as a shiny penny? She came from a very difficult living situation, but even there her smile was infectious. June has some muscle weakness which we will be addressing with lots of play and exercise. She was able to climb the five flights up to her new home in Eagles Wings 2 so I am guessing there is nothing this little love can't do. Wouldn't you like to be a part of helping June thrive?

Chantelle is also five years old and a friend of June's. Her muscles aren't quite ready to climb all those stairs so she is living at Eagles Wings 6. Given her determined spirit, I know that with great nutrition and lots of practice she will be walking in no time. Chantelle needs a sponsor to help. Maybe you?

Meet Jaden! He is a very happy and alert four month old boy. Jaden has spina bifida and club feet. He needs to have these treated with casting as soon as possible to ensure he will be ready to learn to walk. We are prepared to get him all the treatment he needs, but to do that Jaden needs some sponsors to help. 








Jonathan is just six weeks old. Obviously he has a pretty severe cleft which we will have repaired as soon as he gains enough weight to have the surgery. Feeding is difficult for babies like Jonathan, but our Eagles Wings 5 staff will work hard to make sure he gets all the nutrition he needs and a lot of love as well. 

Alex is our tiniest baby. He is also six weeks old but a preemie with a minor heart defect. He is sooo cute, but will need a lot of special care to grow strong and thrive. He will get all he needs at Eagles Wings 5 and hopefully we will soon be reporting great gains for Alex.










Please see our support page to find out how you can help us give each of these special kids everything he or she needs. Eagles Wings is here only because of individuals like you who believe every child deserves a chance to soar.


Donna
Director, Eagles Wings