A special day! by Tiffany

We were blessed to get to spend a wonderful day with friends helping out someone in need.  We were told about a farmer in a town about an hour away from our city whose family is currently going through a really tough time.  He and his wife have a new baby, the wife just had a serious surgery and the farmer's father is ill.  He has a mountainside full of oranges, but they are becoming ripe quicker than he is able to pick and sell them.  We were able to go with many people to pick the oranges for him and then pay him for what we took.  It was a blessing for us all!  Here are some pictures from beautiful area.  However, the pictures do not do it justice.  Everywhere you looked, all around was dotted with orange! 

 

                                                             Early morning bus ride!

A beautiful walk to the farmer's spot on the mountain.

 

The Farmer and his 3 month old daughter.

 I just love the way the take advantage of every little bit of space!

 

                                  Ayden & Hannah

Brinson

A new friend I made on our outing!  Just about every time I turned around, there he was, right at my side and courageously using every bit of English he could muster!  Before leaving he had picked me a bouquet of flowers!

 

                 3 of our students & friends!                            
                                                                                       Hannah & her dear friend Rader

                                               Do you see all the oranges?

Doing the laundry

                                        Now you don't see one of these everyday!

                                                   Making orange wine

                                                      Stacking firewood

Latest Adoption News - by Tiffany

We are matched!  We recently received the wonderful news that our paperwork has been matched with Huihuang’s paperwork (the child we mentioned on our last post) and China has agreed to process everything in order to finalize the adoption!  This is such a big step in the whole process and such an exciting one!  After much thought and prayer, our family has decided to name him Elishama Alan and call him Eli.  Elishama means “God hears”.   Being deaf and having been abandoned at the age of two, I am sure there have been many times in his little life when he has felt as though he were not heard.  It is our desire to teach him and show him that God hears him – He always has and He always will!  We chose the name Alan after my Dad, Edward Alan. 

Praise be to God, Eli is currently in a wonderful foster care center in China named Harmony House where he is now receiving much love and teaching!  Eli is about to be 7 years old and he is around Ayden’s shoulder in height.  The people at Harmony House have told us that Eli is eager to learn and quite smart!  We are putting together a box to send to him and they said that if we include some English materials they will begin to work with him on those.  Apparently he is still very new to signing, but from my understanding they have tried to communicate to him that he now has a forever family and he seems excited and as though he understands!  Harmony House has actually invited us to come visit him on our Winter Break from teaching so we are going to do our best to make that trip in January!  If all goes according to schedule, everything should be finalized and we should be allowed to travel to pick him up somewhere between April 15 and June 15! 

We just wanted to share this update with you all.  Thank you for being so prayerful with us about this whole journey.  Please join us in thanking God for His prompting, provision and power to bring this all about!  For His willingness to work with and through us in spite of our weaknesses and His promise to be with us through it all and give us the ability to do, through His Spirit, what our faith prompts us to do. He is good!