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!