March and April in Shenyang

May 20, 2013

Dear Friends,

Two more very busy months!  It was business as “usual” with the little kids at the orphanage, doing life along the same lines as before: valued foreign volunteers making their usual appearance during the week to work with the kids and mostly Chinese or Korean groups visiting on the weekends.  The massage lady comes Monday through Friday and is showing progress with the kids.  Our co-laborer, Alice, continues to make good progress with her language study as well as with her work with the kids! 

The three boys are busy readying themselves to take their final exams in the various schools where they find themselves.  The biggest effort is concentrated on YongEn (Sam) who will be going on to high school, the location to be determined by his final scores! 

The end of March, just before ‘they” turned off the heat in the whole city, Migyeong took the sensible precaution to “cut and run” to the States for our annual trip there.  After much prayer and consideration, the decision was made to GO, even though both of us were very stressed out, accomplish what HAD to be accomplished and return together in about three weeks time!  This meant that many of our friends that had been included on our previous itineraries were not on this one and that I couldn’t spend all the time I wanted to with my friend, Keith!  This didn’t make us happy at all!

After a stop in California to see Migyeong’s sister and some other friends, mostly new to us, we moved on to Austin, Texas to visit with my brother, Keith and my church family.  From Austin, we went on to Orlando to take part in the second reunion with the ex-orphans: MingGe, WenXi and JiaHao!  It had been a year of growth for all three of them.  MingGe had received surgery and was more beautiful than ever!  She is doing well in school and all of the other areas of her life.  WenXi also had surgery this year to address his scoliosis with the insertion of rods down both sides of his spine.  Just for variety sake, he also had surgery in the month preceding the trip to Florida to take care of the bone in one of his legs that he snapped while putting his socks on!  An audible CRACK sent him and Leann to the hospital during a blizzard!  A titanium rod later and they were still able to make the look forwarded to trip!  God is definitely GOOD! ALL THE TIME!

Just before the trip last year, JiaHao had undergone surgery to correct his hips which were diagnosed with double hip dysplasia.  It was still a remarkable surprise to see him RUN to give Migyeong a hug when he first spied her at a Disney park after a year!  I understand that there wasn’t a dry eye to be found anywhere at that point!  We are praying that ZhiLei and his new family might join this sterling bunch!

When we returned to SY after travelling for about 24 hours in all, the wear and tear hit us and we slept for what seemed like several days!  During that time, the three boys were invited to take part in a church camp at the church they attend every Sunday.  They were so excited because it involved staying overnight for a couple of nights!  We just had to see this for ourselves!  There were many activities for them to join in with the other youth from the church and a good time was had by all!  It was even reported that Liang Liang was found actually dancing!  These boys have formed wonderful new friendships that I believe will last the rest of their lives!  So much better than being confined to the institution forever!

Prayer requests:  We would covet your prayers that ZhiLei would be able to realize his dream of finding a real family to live with, preferable in the States in 2013.  He is six years old and has believed for a family for almost two of those years.  Please think about it!  You will be SO blessed by this little guy!

We would also be pleased if you would pray for our caregivers and children at the orphanage along with Wu Laoshi and the three boys.  Their jobs are not easy and we appreciate them very much.  Without their faithful service, we would be unable to continue this work.  Of course, that is also the truth about YOUR faithful prayers, encouragement and financial support!  We realize that the “work” is actually His work that He has trusted us with and He, too, is faithful to stand by us with His very necessary help and encouragement. 

Love,
Migyeong and Elaine

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