AND WE ARE DONE!!

Thank you so much!
Thanks to a flurry of generous donors over the past few days, we have reached our target and can officially close out a very successful holiday fundraiser for our eaglets. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate your generosity and caring for our kids. I just wish every single person who donated could be here for our Christmas party...it would be the best gift you could ever receive.

Now the REAL fun begins. Our Aussie volunteer, Jo, is doing her research (also known as making a list and checking it twice), which will be followed by several BIG shopping days. She'll be busy wrapping and wrapping right up until it's time for her to leave us.

Again, I want to say thank you to Jim "Bodie" Joseph for his kind offer of his wildlife calendars as a thank you gift and the Girl Scouts of Troop 651 for their hard work in packing and mailing them off. Your calendars should be arriving in your mailbox in the next couple of weeks.  Enjoy...and think of all the little eagles who are having a special holiday thanks to you.

With a VERY thankful heart,
Donna
Director,  Eagles Wings

WE NEED SOME CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!

Our HOLIDAY MAGIC is coming slowly, but we don't have a lot of time.  I know there are more than 60 people who have a heart for the kids at Eagles Wings and want to help make their Christmas merry and bright!

Merry is not very hard to come by around here...our kids are some of the happiest I know. And no, they don't need gifts to find a reason to laugh and smile. But our dream is to give each child a little something extra in their lives, something unexpected to let them know how SPECIAL they are. We don't celebrate Halloween and the Easter Bunny doesn't come to China, but because the message of Christmas is central to our reason for being here, we try to make that Christmas joy come to life for all our eaglets.

But as I said before, we need help. We don't take                                          our holiday festivities from the operating budget. This is a volunteer effort, from fundraising to buying and wrapping. We need at least 60 donations, and we have 60 beautiful calendars waiting as a thank you! What a great way to kick off your own holiday shopping!

See the HOLIDAY MAGIC tab above for all the details (and a peek at the calendar) or click the "Add to Cart" button to the right to donate right now!

Thank you soooooooo much.

Donna
Director, Eagles Wings
Holiday Magic Volunteer
Mom 

HOLIDAY MAGIC!

While we haven't seen any signs of Christmas here yet, I bet the stores are starting to fill up with holiday decorations and reminders that Christmas is right around the corner.  And so it's time to get our holiday fundraiser underway...quickly!  It takes a lot of time to shop for and wrap 60 individual gifts. And it also takes a lot of supporters who will provide the funds we need to make this time of year extra special for every child here at Eagles Wings.

Please take a minute to look at our HOLIDAY MAGIC page, and then make a donation to provide a gift and special holiday dinner for one, two or more eaglets this year.

THANK YOU....from the bottom of our hearts!

Donna
Director, Eagles Wings

Video of October 1st celebration

Here's the first video. Lots more to come. The quality of the sound isn't great, so please forgive. I hope you catch the spirit!

This video is of our primary school staff (teachers, school manager and English volunteer) playing a singing game. They were awesome, and it was a lot of fun. I am so proud of what our teachers have accomplished this year. The school is really a fun, happy place to be, and I hope this video captures a bit of that.

(If you have trouble viewing the video, I have been told it helps to download it to your computer and then play it.)

Donna
Director, Eagles Wings

First of October...

is a MAJOR holiday here. Most people get 7 days off of work...SWEET! Oh, not me.

To celebrate and show our patriotism, our COAT primary school, Xi Wang Le Yuan, had a 1st of October celebration and invited our house managers, volunteers and me to come hear them sing songs, dance and recite. Even their teachers played a singing game!

Here are a few photos. More photos and videos to come!

 

 

With a thankful heart,
Donna
Director, Eagles Wings

I Know It Has Been Forever....

But I hope you will forgive me when you see these faces!  I had a chance to drop by Eagles Wings 5 today and just couldn't resist taking photos until my camera batteries died. (They always seem to give out in Eagles Wings 5...I wonder why!)

 Here are our littlest eaglets sitting at their new "big kid" table waiting for their afternoon fruit snack. (And please don't worry about those serious expressions...I am not sure whether my foreign hair and nose or the sight of the camera is the true culprit, but there usually are lots of smiles and giggles).

Our newest eaglet!

Our littlest eaglet.

This little guy is actually not an eaglet, though I tried to bring him home with me. But I promised his mommy I would try to get a photo. Happy Birthday! Sorry about the serious expression. :(

Some people think I am crazy to come so far to do this job....I think I'd be crazy not to!

Donna

Director, Eagles Wings

Field Trip!

On our way out of town (to the US for passports, visas and a family visit), we spent a few days in Beijing. My daughters and I did the same thing the last time we left Eagles Wings for the US, and we took Hong Wei, our oldest boy with us for some sightseeing. I can tell you there was a LOT of whining from the other big kids who didn't get to go! But I promised them their chance would come, and Hong Wei was only chosen because he was the oldest (eldest?). So true to my word, this time we took the two girls who live with us...YuanYuan and Liu Er. They were SO SO SO excited for the couple weeks before hand, it was fun to see their excitement for the big trip. They turned out to be great travelers and we had an awesome time. Our two Australian volunteers, Andrew and Noela, also came along to see the sights and help me keep track of the five girls!   I'll let the photos tell most of the story. :)

Yuan Yuan on the train

Andrew and Lindsay

Liu Er and Noela

Eating

And more eating

Liu Er and Yuan Yuan meet the Great Wall!

Liu Er keeping the sun off

Kristen and Liu Er doing a photo shoot. YuanYuan was the photographer!

With a thankful heart,
Donna
Director, Eagles Wings