Where he leads me I will go.......: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

1st birthdays and Jello fun!!

July 24,2013

What a fun week it has been! Last week we gave the kids jello for snack because we were working on the letter “J”. It was so funny watching the kids reactions when they first touched and tasted the jello. Some were not big fans but for the most part the kids LOVED it and finally got the hang of picking it up. Callie, Stephanie and I had lots of fun de-sticking all the kiddos and the classroom! 

Hayes was not sure about the Jello at first but the spoon made everything better!

Liam just went for it!

Marisol thought Jello was yummy!

Our class also celebrated a 1st birthday! Ted is the youngest “student” in class and turned 1 on Thursday! So, what does every 1 year old need??? Of course a cupcake with chocolate icing! In honor of Ted’s birthday all 5 classes got cupcakes for snack. I think the ayi’s thought we were crazy for giving them cupcakes but all but one of the kids was a big fan. Lots of chocolate hands and faces and they were so adorable!!!!

David thought his cupcake was yummy!

Zachary had the best Chocolate face!

Ted the Birthday boy!!!

1st Birthday cupcake

Yummy!!!

Since, I had made cupcakes we decided to take some into the village for the kids. We went during the dance lessons (which Callie, Stephanie, and a couple of the nurses have been going too.) We also brought paint, bubbles and chalk. Most of the kids that come to the park during this time are the children of ayi’s at New Hope. The kids had so much fun making handprint butterflies and flowers. They also LOVED the cupcakes and some of them told us they had never had chocolate before. It was fun serving some of the local children around as well.

Dancing in the park

Lots and lots of artwork

With 2 of the kids YaYa and Frank

YaYa's mom is one of the Ayi's at New Hope

We painted lots of hands

Stephanie and I are heading down to Maria’s Big House of Hope tomorrow and spending a couple of days down there. It will be fun to take her to another wonderful place and spend time with the babies and staff down there. 

~Stephanie

** More pictures on my Facebook of swimming with the kids**

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Back at New Hope

July 14,2013

This week has been fun getting back into the swing of preschool classes and life here at New Hope. When I arrived back to NH, I was walking back down the hall towards my room, I pass two of the nurseries and when the kids saw me they all started yelling “Stephanie” and “We love you.”! It was great to see all their smiling faces again, and know that I would have a couple more weeks to kiss their sweet cheeks and create more memories in preschool class. Before I left I started making ABC artwork books for my older classes. It has been so much fun working through the alphabet and putting together these books that will hopefully one day make it to each of the kids “forever families”.

One of the other big things I have planned to work on in class over these next couple of weeks is putting together something special for each of the children's nannies. I have taken “school pictures” and have those all printed out, now all that is left is to have each of the kids paint or color a picture for their nannies. These ladies are wonderful and care for the kids as if they were their own. I wanted to be able to give them something to keep as a memory when the kids move on for their adoptions.

One of the other volunteer’s here right now and my roommate is also named Stephanie. She did such a wonderful job taking over the preschool class for me while I was away. It has also been wonderful having an extra set of hands in the classroom during art projects. She put together this great video that shows you a bit of what my life is like this summer. Here is the linkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Tw9djzsWU

This week we have several different volunteer’s arriving for various amounts of time and the weather looks like it is going to be rain free....hoping that means we will be able to go to the pool a couple more times! They have been asking when we were going to go back to the “water”.

I have attached some pictures from class this week! I hope you enjoy looking at their sweet faces as much as I do!

Harry loves to sit and read books!

Love kissing those chubby cheeks!

Someone found himself in the mirror!

We took the morning class out on a nice walk around the village.

Paul is a very serious about his coloring

You just have to love this face!

~Stephanie

Hope Foster Home (Shunyi, Beijing)

www.youtube.com

New Hope Foundation Summer 2013 Shunyi Beijing, China www.hopefosterhome.com

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Sweet faces

This post is just some b&w pictures I have taken since I have been here. I hope you enjoy looking at these sweet faces! <3

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Korea

I have to first start off by saying a HUGE thank you to the whole Harris family. They made this visa run the best it could have been. It was great catching up with them and getting a little slice of home that I miss so much. I was able to share about New Hope and show off pictures of the cuties that live there. Because this was Andrew’s (their oldest) last 2 weeks in Korea before he leaves for school we were able to do some fun sightseeing. I have attached at the bottom lots of pictures from our adventures out and about and captioned them with where they were taken. I have learned that Korean’s LOVE to shop and you can find a store to shop in just about anywhere you look. One of our crazy ventures out was to the fish market. Lets just say that it smells rather fishy there and when you leave the smell follows you home. It was cool to see all the types of fish they have for sale there and they will just pull the one out of the tank you want and cut it up right there in front of you. You can even buy stingray, giant crabs and octopus legs! As Ms. Christy Harris says “it is the zoo that you eat!” We were also able to visit the Korean War Museum, which was neat to see the Korean side of some of the wars. It also had me thinking about all of the Irizarry boys at home! How much they would have loved every bit of it. One of my favorite places was the flower market. It was crazy the amount of flowers and all the different kinds the different stands had. You could get any kind of flower you could have thought of and all the accessory’s to make a beautiful banquet. They even had a whole section that was filled with bright and colorful fake flowers that from a distance you would have never guessed. Some of my favorite times over the last 2 weeks were just hanging out with the Harris family at the pool, watching movies, and eating yummy home cooked, real American food (like taco bell!) and going to ZUMBA.

I am so excited to get back to New Hope and see all those sweet faces again and get ready to celebrate 2 special birthday’s this month!!!! Right before I left for my Korea trip Joyce Hill the founder of New Hope went into a coma that she then had recovered from and was sent home. The day after I left they went back the hospital for a follow up and while waiting for test results Joyce went into a coma worse then the first time. At one point it was not looking good at all. Through lots of prayers and the Joyce’s amazing strength she was just moved this weekend out of ICU and the doctor’s believe she will make a full recovery. This is such an amazing answer to prayers. Here just 2 weeks ago they thought they had lost her and all the family begin arriving to say their goodbyes. Joyce still has a long road to a full recovery but I am positive with the amazing prayer warriors all around the world that she will be able to pull through this. You can find the latest updates of Joyce on the New Hope page http://www.hopefosterhome.com/

I just want to thank the amazing Harris family again for their support over these last 2 weeks. Also, I would like to thank all of you for praying for me during my trip.

~Stephanie