Back in the UK

Hi everyone, we can't believe that we are back, the two weeks went so fast. We have taken a few days to get over the jet lag and deal with a funeral and this week it is back to work for both of us.
This is just a short blog to let you all know that we are back safely and do plan to summerise our feelings about our trip as soon as we get our heads around our amazing time in China.

CCAA visit

WOW, this has definately been our most fantastic day!!! Today we visited the CCAA (Chinese Centre of adoption Affairs) and got to see my papers in the matching room, being matched with our baby and got to see Shawns papers in the processing room. What a brilliant piece of the puzzle for our girls. It is was so exciting!!! (we both wanted to jump up and down and scream - but we didnt)We took some photos and it really was an answer to prayer to be able to go in as they no longer allow foreign visitors to have informal visits. So, after our guide asked ever so nicely and explained what we had been doing in China, we were taken on a quick impromptu tour. Definately one of the highlights of our time here.

We also went to see Tianamen square, the Temple of Heaven and the Lama Temple.
We went on a Rickshaw ride around some lakes and parks and as always end up with a panting pedal driver complaining bout my weight !!!!Shawn typing now as Juls is on the phone) So its back to the diet when I come home ; )
Tianemen Square was very sad and awe inspiring, to see where so many young intelectuals died and now we all wonder around the square as if what they did counted for nothing.
But on a more jolly note, the toilets never seem to cause a bit of a comotion between Juls and I as we struggle to balance and squat in a gracious centered posture above the toilet hole!!!

Anyway, we are off to Pack now, back home tomorrow at 4pm....

BORN meeting

Well, what a day!!! So, exciting. Yesterday we worked with some more of the blind children and we noticed one little boy who was very bouncy - we called him Tigger : ) - Well, tigger kept on bending down and touching his head to the floor and Shawn recognised this as him needing balance work. So, we took him and showed his Ayi how to do some specific balance work excersises with him, which he loved. He responded so beautifully to what we were doing, his Ayi was amazed as she had spent so much time trying to stop him from doing this, whereas actually his brain was telling his to take on this posture because his brain needed this stimulation...so, we did inversions with him (for all you non-Birthlight folk, this means turning the kid upside down in a very specific, controlled way). He stopped doing this after the excersise was done with him.

This morning we had a long drive into the city from Hebei province. We were told that Beijing is the size of Belgium. Beijing works on a series of ring roads and to drive from ring road 3 to 2 took us 45 minutes and it is only a distance of 3 km. We arrived at the OCDF Office and sorted out all the donations that we had brought over as we now had more of an idea of who needed what after working in the 4 different places. After this we went for lunch with Ross and had a rather interesting confusion with the menu. We ordered a variety of vegetables and beef and they brought the whole lot together - but it was fish!! So, this was sent out and then we ordered beef and carrots (to be on the safe side) and they brought....wait for this.... beef and pineapple!! It was so funny and Ross later explained that carrots is Bolo and pineapple is Lobo, ha, ha, it was nice anyway.

We then went off to the BORN (Beijing Orphan Resourse Network) meeting for Shawn to strutt her stuff about Neuro-developemental delays and reflexes and boy was she impressive!! She had the Orphanage heads so interested in what she was saying that they were actually leaning forwards onto the table and taking notes big time. No one said a word while she was speaking and then at the end we were bombarded with questions and it was so amazing as we were able to share what we had seen and learnt while doing our work in the varios foster homes.
Many of the heads of Orphanages wanted us to come back and train their staff, so that was very exciting too!!! One lady has adopted twins and she had some very specific questions to ask Shawn, who then took her out to do a one-to-one on what excersises she could do to help her sons.

We finished off with a bit of shopping at a Pearl market - what a lot of fun that was !!!!
Off to our hotel now we hope to blog again before we come home. Fingers crossed and lots of prayers that we can get to visit the CCAA tomorrow, as that is where our papers are being matched with our babies right now.

Then Friday we fly home and this amazing visit to China comes to an end.

Hi, hooray, here are some more photos - cant work out how to move themm for fear of upsetting the computer.
Photo 1 is Julia showing the two girls with Spina Bifida how to do some foot and leg excersizes and how to warm up their toes.
Photo 2 is the baby bath episode
Photo 3 is the Ayi with babies in the Tiger in the Tree hold - hooray - that was quite a victory for us.
Photo 4 - Shawn doing "If you're happy and you know it" with a little girl with poor vision

Bethel China

Shawn and I had both been feeling a little apprehensive about coming to Bethel house as it is a house for blind children and neither of us have had any experience with blind children before. So, how could we help these kids we wondered? We certainly dont have any specific expertise in this area that we could pass on, but Shawn knew that working on the balance mechanism would be a good place to start. So, we were taken on a tour of the three houses they have here housing blind kids taken from various Orphanages ranging in age from 8 months to 20 years old. A wonderful couple from France, in their late 20's, began this as a foster care program just two years ago. They started with three kids and they now have 3 houses and over 30 kids in their care and a waiting list of children. What they have achieved in such a short time is awe-inspiring stuff!! Shawn and I were both blown away with how well run these houses are. The carers are trained to a very high standard, the houses are all spotless and kids are well looked after. The girls all look so pretty with their hair done in pigtails and pretty clips. They have a schedule for all the different age children that include teaching, music, learning Braile, pottery, light therapy, arts and crafts and they have specialists coming in to help the kids with all sorts of things. Their aim for these kids is to learn how to become independant and they hope to teach them skills for employment such as piano tuning, computers, etc. They have formed a choir and they go and sing to raise money. This couple are both very musical and the children benefit from this immensly. Shawn and I was so in awe and so touched by the vision of this fantastic Godly couple, it has been a great day. They set out to reach kids who nobody else thought to reach out to and they are now the only foster home in the whole of China for blind children. Some orphanages are so desperate to pass on some of their kids that they lie and send ones who are not blind but delayed in other areas, so there were some kids there who were not blind. One little boy was so cute and looks like a little old man - just like yoda, and Shawn and I both fell in love with him straight away. He is adorable and we will post a photo of him as soon as we can. So, they got all the Ayi's (carers) together from all the houses and we showed them an excersise routine andthe children responded beautifully, except for a few who were just too delayed to cope with all the movement, so we had to slow the movements right down for them and do one to ones with these kids and their Ayis. It was a busy, long, fulfilling, uplifting, humbling, amazing day and we are both so glad that we came here. At the end of today we were given a little performance by the choir and it was goose bump stuff!!! Boy can those kids belt out a good tune and even thought they cant see, their facial expressions were so beautiful, you just wanted to reach out and touch them. It was like heaven on earth and they were the angels. How many parralell worlds are there like this one going on each day that we are not even aware of? There are some beautiful people in the world doing amazing work with very little recognition. We feel priviledged to be a part of it in just a small, small way. Check out their website www.bethelchina.org More from us tomorrow, cant believe we will be home on friday... miss you all....

Sunday and Church in China

Hi, we have had some feedback from some people to say that they are struggling to post comment on the blog. Feel free to send any encouragements - because that is of course what you all want to send : ) to my yahoo e-mail address as we are checking it often. This morning was church in China, something we never thought we would experience and it was great. It is amazing how much more global thinking the church is here. Maybe it is because this is an International church so they cater to so many differnt cultures, but it was a great experience anyway. We had an amazing day yesterday as we were taken to visit the children at two foster care homes - what a humbling, heart warming experience. Here is a childless couple, and they are given 5 special needs children to look after, love and raise whilst all their needs are met by China Care. A brilliant system and such an act of love from the parents. The first home we went into was just mind blowing, the dad took the kids out every morning for a run and some PE and the hard work he put into the kids just shone through. The kids all looked healthy and happy and boy were they fit - one little boy could do some fantastic push-ups. Shawn showed the parents how to do some balance excersizes for the kids, and the parents were so keen, the dad was taking notes, while the mum was on the floor joining in so that she was 100% sure how they needed to be done. Then we took the mum into the room to chat to her about one girl about 11 years old, who had a form of mental delay. As the mum explained this girls story to us, she sobbed. This poor child had been through so much - found at a dumpsite, obviously hugely traumatised and most likely physically abused, she was making slow progress, even though she was now safely within a loving family. Mum told us she would often take her food and go and eat alone somewhere and that she couldnt dress herself, and she wouldnt speak. The foster mother felt responsible as if she was giving the girl poor care and we had to encourage her and tell her she was doing an amazing job. We showed the mum some gentle touch therapy, but otherwise we felt that Mum was doing everything she could and more for this child. The mum showed us how she had even embroided a cross onto the front of all the little girls clothes to help her know what was the front. The next house also had a set of parents looking after 5 kids. The dad seemed to have some form of dissability as he walked with crutches. Two little girls had spina bifida and the mum was concerned about their feet and their calves as their muscles were begining to atrophy because they wore callipers all day. When we questioned them why all day, Mum said that the dr had told them not to take them off, so they didnt - not even to bath and clean the feet. As a result the feet were like prunes from being so sweaty, very smelly and full of calluses from being confined in the callipers all day. So, we got the socks off and sat the girls on the floor and showed them how to massage their feet and get the blood flowing, as their feet were so cold. We suggested to Mum to give the feet a good soak in a bath at least every day and to use an oil or lotion while massaging the feet. We also showed the girls how to flex their feet and roll their ankles and then we thought it would be a good idea for them to do the hip sequence that we do with the babies on each other. They thought this was a great idea and had a fun time peddaling each othes legs,etc. Shawn then suggested that the girls had some time rolling on the floor, with extended arms, while not wearing their callipers, and this was when we saw them come alive. They both had amazing mobility considering that they had no leg movement at all. Dad then said that this would become part of their morning excersises and he would even join in!!! We then went on to a hotel in downtown Beijing, close to BICF (Beijing International Christian Fellowship), ready to go to church with a member of staff from OCDF who attends there. How exciting to go to Church in China. We bravely headed off on our own to go and find some shops and ended up in a really local little shopping area, such a cultural experience!! We bought a few gifts and keep sakes and bumped into a young Chinese girl who was reading Bible stories - when we told her we were Christians too she gave us an extra discount and quickly made two new friends!! Breakfast was the best we have had so far, a tailor made omlett table, beautiful array of Chinese foods and funny filled dumpling things which Shawn happily tried, while I observed from a safe distance while happily munching on my watermelon!! Had a great day today with Ross as our guide, our wish was his command. We are now at a place called Bethel House, a house for blind children and we start work tomorrow at 9am, so we will blog again soon.

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baby bath time

Hi all, we skipped a day yesterday as we had a really long day and we were shattered by the time we got to the computer. Our morning began with a mini film crew and a translator joining us as we visited the three homes that China care run, to go through the excersise session with the carers. The carers work on a shift basis, and China Care wanted to make sure that all the carers on the different shifts got to see the excersises that we were teaching. Each house has a house mother and she works a 12 hour shift, so repeating what we had shown her yesterday was important. The carers were a little more reserved with the camera around and a slightly more formal approach to the teaching, but what we found in each house was that after Shawn and I had gone through a session once, slowly but surely the carers would come and sit close by one of us and start copying what they had seen, hoping that we would show them again and acknowledge what they had learnt. This is an amazing culture and it is incredible to watch them and wonder what they think about all we are showing them. The language difference is also quite a barier, and you end up relying so much on body language. We had a fantastic translator called Ci Ci who is so bubbly and enthusiastic that it rubbs off on the carers and they started asking us questions and in the end we had them all lined up holding their babies int he Tiger in the Tree hold - a real Kodak moment!!

In the second house we went to we noticed that one little baby girl, about 3 weeks old, was indredibly tight fisted, so much so that I could not open her hands to do any hand massage. The carers seem to think that the little babies are not able to join in with the baby excersises as they are too small, so the babies spend most of their time swaddled and held. We tried to explain that they would also benefit from these excersises, done in a gentle, slow manner. We showed them using her as a demo and she was very stiff, poor little thing. Gretchen, a member of staff here, suggested that we show the carers how to bath her, as she seemed to have an unknown skin condition and they were only dry bathing her. Her hands, from being closed all the time, and never cleaned, smelled rancid, the skin was peeling off and she cried when we opened her hands. Shawn was very excited to see reflexes in action. All the studying she had done about reflexes and here they could be seen clearly. This baby had a very strong Palmer Grasp reflex and we took a little walk around some sleeping babies where Shawn could show me this reflex in all its different phases depending on the age of the baby and how much of the reflex the baby had retained or worked through already. FACINATING STUFF!! Shawn felt that this little baby possible had some indication of mild CP, so they will just need to keep an eye on her developement.

So, a baby bath was found and we put some baby oil in it to help soften her skin and showed the carers how to use the water as a therapy almost, allowing her to float while supporting her head and washing her ever so softly, without hurting her skin. We had 4 carers watching us and their only concern was about getting her ears wet, which we reassured would be ok as babies are born from water and going back into water would notharm her, but benefit her greatly.

Shawn and I both realised together that this was as close as we would come to bathing such a small Chinese baby, as we will only get our girls when they are much older and so it was quite an emotional thing, undressing, dressing and bathing her.

We were then taken kite shopping to a kite market. WOW what a colourful experience, so many beautiful different kites. They were so keen to sell them to us, that they would happily give us a flying demonstration on any kite we pointed too. We cant say much more about this as it is a secret, ha, ha. Shawn saw her first lady breast feeding a toddler while we were there. Oh and pregnant women are a rare sight, we have only seen one so far.

Well, babies are a calling...... till next time.....
(PS no photos this time, the lead has gone walk abouts.)