You say Goodbye but I say Hello

As I sit here thinking tomorrow and the fact that this room will no longer be my home makes me sad. I am happy to be going home, but then again, whenever I think about leaving the kids or when they ask, are you going to America tomorrow in their broken Chinglish a knot starts to form in my throat. I have gotten to know the kids pretty well over the summer and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to meet the people I did and form the relationships I now have. This experience has been very informative for me and it has, I believe helped me grow in ways that I didn't really expect. I have gathered a lot of insight through it all and I would never trade this chance of a lifetime. I have been able to meet some really cool and interesting people from all over the world and been able to share my experiences with them and they with me. That is one of my favorite things about missions trips. 
Back to saying goodbye. Today I had my final class and that was sad, but fun as well and it was a great way to sum up my time here as the English teacher. I got to do some face painting, hangman, play dough and of course eating of candy, or (tong) in Mandarin. For dinner I got to take four of the kids out for dinner which was hilarious and  blast! Tomorrow (wednesday) will be my final official day here at SFCV and trust me I am not looking forward to getting in that taxi to Beijing. Before I leave however, I will be running around the campus making sure that I get to say goodbye to everyone as well as doing some last minute tasks and packing up the few straggling items in my room. This trip has gone by so fast, I still remember when I first got here and now I am watching new interns come and see them in the position I was once in. I am now the seasoned veteran now that I have to leave, figures, but I am glad to see the willing volunteers lining up to work at SFCV. I will miss this place a lot and I know that the kids will be on my mind often! So many of them have become my little buddies and I wish I could take them home with me. 
Another sad farewell, it that of saying goodbye to the staff and the other interns here. I have gotten to know these great servants over the summer and it will be weird not to see them everyday. Life here has been fun and interesting  and I don't know what I'm going to do with myself going back to a house with only four people in it, at least my brother is back from school so that fourth spot can be filled without me having to start counting the fish tanks and my cat. Aside from all of the silliness, I can honestly say that this this opportunity has blessed me in so many ways and I have learned so much about myself, and God's plan for me as well as my friends and the kids here. He is working in China and it has been an honor to have been even considered to be a part of the work which is being done. I can't wait to share more about my experiences with all those who want to hear about them. I have a lot of things to talk about! This has been a whirlwind of an adventure and I am glad I got to spend it with my lovely friends Melissa. Going through this with her has been so great and has brought us closer together and for that I am very glad. We have been friends for so long that our families have become one and we even have a last name to prove it. We are the Russlinskys and proud of it! Friends are great to have but as they say family sticks around even through the roughest of times and I am blessed to have Melissa as family and to have been in China, which is her heart land and see through her eyes this place which has become an intricate part of her life and who she is. I am excited to see what the future holds for the both of us and I will be glad to say that this trip to China has been influential and a simply unforgettable experience. With that I will end and say as the kids here say, "see you last time!"


This has been M&M Adventures-China Edition, this is Mari signing out China side. 

Feeding and washing the SFCV dogs :)

 I have no idea how but this summer, I was in charge of feeding the dogs at lunch and washing the dogs at least once a week.

Nope, I still have no idea.
Maybe it was because Philip asked me so nicely if I could have this role. So being the sucker that I am, I would help Philip put leftovers in the lunch bowls, give them to the dogs, wash the dishes, and then take it home. We would do this everyday Monday through Friday. Elizabeth and Joseph came along most of the days to call out for the dogs to come out for lunch.
When Philip left with his forever family, Joseph started feeding the dogs after his lunch. Hopefully he will keep up with it when I leave.

We also had the opportunity to wash the dogs. I remember the first week I was here, Elizabeth came up to me and said: " Dogs smell stinky. They need a shower!"
Whenever the kids would want to wash the dogs, I would have them come by the inn after school and then I would have some of the kids at least help with some parts of the showering process. It was a great activity to do with Elizabeth, Joseph, and Philip and I will never forget it. :)

Joseph giving the dogs their lunch!

Posted by Melissa

Taking one day at a time.

Do you ever have those days when you think to yourself, "This was such a fantastic day! Could it get any better than this?"
That's what I felt about Thursday July 5, 2012.
I had a great day with my therapy kids, awesome fellowship with my dad's church team, and I will never forget the memories I made walking home after eating lots of food at Hot Pot.
As I was about to get ready for bed, I glanced at my IPOD and noticed a text message from my mom.

It read: Attention-Stephen Shaffer (my cousin) is not breathing. Start praying. Paramedics are working on it.

When my mom said that the paramedics were working on starting up his heart, I had utter peace that everything was going to be fine until my mom wanted me to log on to Skype.

I had never seen my mom wail as loud as she did that night. She begged me to wake up my dad even though he was sound asleep. (Back story for this: See my dad's team had been quite busy that day and so he went to bed right away) I don't know how but by the grace of God, my dad woke up to me saying " Mom's on Skype crying and Stephen stopped breathing. Come up please!"

Then started the longest, most difficult Skype time I have ever experienced. My mom was trying to get a hold of my cousin's family to see if there was any new news. There was even a time in the beginning of our Skype time when my mom read a text saying: Stephen may not be with us anymore. When you experience a tragic accident in your family, everything flashes before your eyes. I remember at one point of the time, I was just lying on the ground as my dad was trying to comfort my mom through Skype and Mari was on the couch praying. I lay on our dirty apartment floor thinking, This is not happening to me. Are you kidding Lord? This is so not happening right now. At the end of that Skype date, they told us Stephen had experienced a cardiac arrest and was in a coma. I then went to bed wondering what was happening to my cousin just across the sea.

The next morning, I was completely numb. We all handle grief in our own different ways don't we? While I was lying around in my apartment, skipping my therapy time, and gluing myself onto Facebook to see any updates about my cousin, my dad needed to be in action so he ended up playing with the kids around SFCV. I couldn't possibly handle the idea of playing with the kids while across the ocean my cousin was fighting to stay alive!

As I was sitting on the couch trying to figure out if the night before had really happened, my friend came walking in to tell me this:
" Do you want to hear more bad news today?
"What?"
"Melanie passed away this morning."


This was a tribute I made to her the day of her passing. During my time here at SFCV, I saw her every afternoon and I couldn't believe I would never see her in the blue little wheelchair again:

Wish I had taken a picture with you this year and the fun times we had together in therapy. I will never forget the last day we had where you would scoot around in your little blue wheelchair and I would make you eat smarties by placing the

smarties on your elbow and having you eat them. Even though you were here on this earth for only 2 1/2 years, you were such an inspiration to me to never give up and keep on trying. Love you Melanie. See you in Heaven.

I could tell you a big fat lie that I was OK and moved on through the day with a big smile on my face. But I didn't, I had my friends distract me the whole day with watching TV shows as a way of getting me out of the reality that my cousin was fighting for his life and one of my therapy kids just passed away. But to be honest, it didn't really help as much.

Later into the night, Mari, our other friend, and I decided to have a prayer time for what had been going on through the day. And I realized how much I had been bottling up all these emotions....
I realized that I wasn't giving all of this over to God. Yes, I would be praying throughout the day saying: " Jesus, heal my cousin." But was I earnestly praying for him or just being anxious about the situation?

Luckily, a couple weeks later, God performed an amazing miracle and healed my cousin. He is now currently back to work after a month from having his cardiac arrest! Can't you believe it?

God used this situation in my life to help me understand how much I needed to trust in him even when I was thousand miles away. I am suppose to grab hold of God because He is the rock in which I stand.

I want to leave you with these verses: Romans 8:28-29. God showed me this to remind myself that He is in Control! Thank goodness I can rely on him!!

Posted by Mel

When it Rains, it Pours

Being a native Oregonian, I have always loved the rain. It is the perfect state for weather to be in because in the summer it keeps things from being too hot and in the winter it keeps things from being too cold. I also just love the gloomy sky and the self reflective mood that it puts me in. So because of my love for the rain it was no surprise to me that at the sight of it here in smoggy, humid, hot China that I would be thrilled. Everyday it rains brings me joy. I never thought I would be so happy at the sight of wearing pants in the summertime. It has been raining a lot here this summer, even more than it has back home in Oregon.
Although I am glad to see the rain, not many people share this feeling with me. One reason is because the rain here is a bit harder than in Oregon and in larger amounts which makes life difficult for a place with no drainage system. In Beijing as I'm sure many of you heard back in the states, there was massive flooding in the city and over 100 people died as a result of the flooding and other causes connected with it. Back here at SFCV, we had some flooding problems of our own as our laundry room flooded and a storage room which was filled with 10 new refrigerators had almost 2ft. of water in it. Along with that the river across the street rose to ground level and filled the streets with large puddles of water. We were all fine here thankfully and now things have been able to dry out for the most part, even though we have still had some rainy days here and there.
The greatest part about the rain here in China and the part I as an Oregonian do not understand is that when it rains all scheduled events cease. You would think it is like acid rain here the way the they break out the umbrellas for one drop of rain. Or how school gets cancelled if the rain is too hard, and most sickness here is blamed on the rain. If these people lived in Oregon they wouldn't get anything done. Just another one of those cultural things that I will never understand but am content in just going with it.
Posted by Mari

Paul Simon

 Life has been interesting here at the Inn for new reasons as of late because we got a temporary new roommate. His name is Paul Simon and he is the cutest little kitten! One of our friends found him outside being attacked by the dogs and so because I am a cat lover, I took him in and gave him a bath. As I was showering him with a lather of tea tree filled soap I noticed that it had tons of fleas on it and so later My roommates and I spent the afternoon bathing the cat and picking off all of the fleas. It was pretty nasty, there was one point were I almost threw the cat because there were so many fleas crawling around. After a few lice treatments and a good brushing we had the fleas off of the little guy and he joined us in our room and at night we kept him in his makeshift bed...aka a bird cage. Even though he was super cute, we couldn't keep him, which honestly wasn't too sad for me as he was a talker and wouldn't be quiet unless he was being held a certain way. It was fun while it lasted, he was a sweet cat that is why I named him Paul Simon because if he were a human he would  have written a love ballad just like his names sake. So now I say so long to him because cats may come and cats may go and never change your point of view. Here are some more pictures of the little dude.

My Boys!

It was bound to happen. The time when your mind rationalizes the packing of a child in your suitcase. This moment has come to me before and will probably happen again. I have come to love these kids over the course of a little over a month that I have been here and I can't bear the thought of leaving them. I will miss them a lot. I have enjoyed the time I've had with them and I will surely remember this summer for years to come.
As you can imagine, there are a few kids here that I have been able to form extra special bonds with and these are the ones that I will be packing in my suitcases, good thing I brought two!
First is Luke. He is a precious little 5 year old who has stolen my heart. He is the cutest little thing. I though he was Filipino the first time I saw him and he had an Aztec Indian hair cut until they buzzed it off. He has one of those wind up laughs that comes out when you tickle him or spin him around in circles. We have fun dancing together and playing karate kids together. I have been teaching him the basic Mr. Miyagi moves. We always start and finish our battles with an Asian bow.

Next is Eric. Eric is in my Primary class and he is 7 years old. He is smarter than he will let on and is a little charmer. He is one of the craziest, dramatic yet sweetest boy here. He has his moments of terror like any little boy would, but he can turn right around and be holding hands with the two younger girls in his house while escorting them home. It's no wonder why the girls are all little princesses here, the boys even if they are just 1year older than them, all act like big brothers to them and give them kisses and such. It is so precious. I think that is one good thing that orphanages can provide is a good family dynamic among the kids themselves. They take care of each other. Eric's English is pretty good and he enjoys art time as well.
There is however a catch with these two boys however. As much as I'd love to beg my parents to reconsider the amount of children they have ;) these two boys cannot be adopted by foreign families because they were dropped off at their orphanages and have no papers and therefore cannot be adopted unless they are adopted by a Chinese family. I would love to have these two boys become apart of someones family if not mine, so please pray that they will be able to find a good family here in China, or that the government might reanalyze their policies. :) I know it is going to be hard for Eric in the next few months as pretty much all of the kids in his class and around his age are matched and are going to be going home to America with their new families.
I love these boys and I am glad to have been able to spend my summer with them!
Here are some pictures of the boys and I.

 Eric being Chinese Bruno Mars at BBQ.

 Luke at VBS with the Panda team.

 Eric and I making our usual faces for the camera.

 Hands up and ready to Ninja fight, don't let the cute face fool you he is deadly!!
Posted by Mari

M&M sandwich!

One day, Philip wanted to take a picture with Mari and I. Right before we were about to take the picture, I (Melissa) looked over at her to motion a kissy picture. Here are the results:

We then decided to do it to Joseph. :)

 And then after seeing Joseph's reaction, Eric wanted a turn as well. :)

We definitely have had precious memories with these wonderful kids. Please continue to pray for us as we finish our last week here. We are both dreading saying goodbye to our kids.
Thanks!

Where else would I be?

Do you ever find yourself complaining about everything?

...................But not just complaining about one specific area but complaining throughout the whole day?


Recently I have caught myself grunting about living and working in China, saying statements such as:

"Why can't Tyler (autistic boy) realize it is ok to pet our dog Stevie?"
"Can't Vincent just for once not cry during a therapy session?"
"Ugh, Macy did not just not just slobber all over my arm?"
"Why do I not speak Chinese and have the therapy aides make fun of me for using it?"

As you can see, I realize how much these negative comments can take over the reason I am here. I get so focused on the negativity that I forgot that these complaints are actually reasons I love being here:

 I love the opportunity of playing with Tyler for thirty minutes. It is such a great session to be able to just let him be independent in his world while trying to pull him into our world.

Even though Vincent can be a handful to work with since he is irritable, I love the moments where he will surprise me in therapy. Like just the other day, he was trying to scoot himself to a toy. Oh and when he smiles, it totally brightens my day. :)

I love the opportunity to work with Macy. She has a tendency to hit herself when she feels scared or nervous. For several of our therapy sessions, I have taken off her arm bands and just held her close to have her resist hitting her face. Our therapy session on Friday, she fell asleep in my arms. It was quite adorable and I totally wish someone took a picture of it!!

And for the language part, it is an area where I have been trusting the Lord in. He definitely has shown me I need to be learning this language. One of my good friends though has been spending time with me to learn some keys phrases to help with therapy. Love you Sara! One day I will be fluent in Chinese but as of right now, I need to just take it one phrase at a time.

God has brought me here for reasons I still don't know yet. Yes, I can complain about it and wish I was in the comfort of America. But where is the adventure in that? The Lord wants me here for the summer and the truth of the matter is this:

There is no place I would rather be but here.
Melissa

Not the same as last year

Hello again! Melissa, here. As many of you know, this is my second time here at SFCV. Last year, I came as a ESL intern and spent most of my time with the school children. I made lots of new friends and G sure opened me up to what passions He has given me in my life.
As I prepared myself for this coming trip, I wanted everything just to be the way I wanted it to be. To be honest, I didn't really desire to be pushed on this trip and just wanted to have it be a relaxing time doing therapy with the kids.


Ok....you can stop laughing now. I already have. :)

This trip has been hard to be brutally honest. The Father has definitely pushed me in areas I didn't necessarily want to work on.

-He has shown me a lack in proper therapy for special need orphans in general. Not in that the Ayis aren't doing their job right but some of the orphans can be too challenging for them and they don't have the right training for it.
-He has shown me to keep trusting in Him since after all He is the Creator of the Universe.
-He has shown me the need for me to learn the language especially if the Father desires for me to live in China.
-He has also shown me the need to have faith in EVERYTHING I do.

I can go on and on but what all this rambling comes down to is this: This trip is not the same as last year and it never will be!!! Why do I think it is though? Why do I compare this SFCV internship with my last one?
I have also realized in the midst of this on how important it is to focus on each day at a time: to not be  caught up in the perfect schedule but letting G to bend it as He wishes. :)


Please keep M&M in your pr*yers as we finish up our last three weeks at SFCV. Thank you all for your support. We love you all!

These verses popped up in my head as I was typing this post :
 Joshua 1:9-^"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” 

Art Time

Every Monday and Thursday, I have art time with the Primary class which are the oldest kids at SFCV. This is my favorite time of the week!! I get to have fun getting paint all over myself and the kids enjoy it too! I have always loved getting my hands dirty and the look of paint blotches on my hands and  paint under my fingernails is a very satisfying feeling for me. The kids have been having fun creating wonderful works of art while also putting some of the paint on the canvas too. So far they have made marble paintings, color wheels, sponge paintings and ink trees. It is always interesting as I do projects with different groups of kids to see what creative ideas they come up with and how they intemperate the idea of the project I assign. Some of the concepts that i have tried to convey have become lost in translation and so some of the projects we have attempted have become just another painting, but luckily art is subjective and everyone interprets it differently so if they miss the concept completely that's ok as long as they have fun I am glad! Not everyone may agree with me, but I think that art is very important for developing well rounded people in any arena. I think you are never too old to have fun doing art and so I love it when the staff helpers get in on the action and do the art projects along with the kids. When creativity is silenced nothing can be accomplished whether you are a businessman, a banker or a doctor, artistic thinking is always useful. Because of that, it is my mission to instill this way of thinking in the minds of all the kids i work with so that in turn, our society can continue to become more innovative. You may be laughing now that I traced innovation back to elementary art class, but I think that this is a relevant thought, and I think it is evident in everyday life that art is important! Besides, who doesn't love art? Even if you are "bad" at art, you still can't deny that slapping paint on a canvas does not bring joy to your heart. I am so glad that I have been able to do art with the kids and I have been trying to incorporate it into their English lessons as well because I know that English grammar can be boring. I  enjoy the challenge of trying to make my projects go with what they have been learning in class just so they can get more practice using the English vocabulary. It also helps class a bit more bearable. That is my schpeel on the importance of art, and if you are an unsatisfied parent in the public school system I would love you talk to the school district and give them some testimonials so that your art program will not be cut! :) Art is creating beauty in this dark world and I count it an honor to help facilitate that an day. You may think that I am using strong language about this topic, but I think that art is very important and to suppress creativity would make this a very dull world, and I am not interested in living on that planet.
Posted By Mari

P.S. no one told me you have to resize the pictures before you upload them, so that is why they are so huge. :) technology is not my forte. Just click on the photo and it will display them in a smaller size.

Vincent my buddy

Vincent is one of the little boys I see from 9:00am-9:30am Mon-Fri. He has severe skin allergies which may be the cause of why he is developmentally-delayed.(I'm not an expert on this but this is what I think)  He is almost three years old but he is at the developmental stage of a 6 month old.

As of right now, I try to do as much tummy time as he allows me. Sometimes he likes it and will be on it for fifteen minutes. But today, he would do tummy time at all so I just ended up holding him.

Vincent doesn't get a lot of attention from people as he is in a house full of adorable baby girls. He can sometimes be irritable when you move him in different positions. (For example: tummy time)

I must say I never payed that much attention to him last year so I am so glad I see him every day. He is starting to recognize me now and hates it when our therapy sessions are over.

Oh and by the way, Vincent has a forever family too. :)

When trust is the issue, the leap of faith is hard.

As many of you know, one of the reasons I came here to China was so that I could discover what the future holds for me and what my purpose in life is. A tall order, I know. However, this was a reason non the less. I have only been here for a week and my mind is already on a rampage in attempting to reach self discovery. The whirlwind of thought has been plaguing with ideas of what I am supposed to be doing in life. I am still at a bit of a loss though, this loss which I have let become the bane of my existence for the past, well like 3 years! I have a problem with patience when it comes to things concerning my future. I am getting to the point where I am going to have to decide what to do with my life as far as school and I am still completely in the dark as to what that will be. I know that G has a plan for me, but waiting for that to be revealed is a whole nother issue in itself. I would really appreciate if you could lift up this burning question to the Father to give me clarity to know how I should proceed. I know that the His power is so much stronger and His will is already written for me and I just need to trust in that plan. Please pr'y that I will be patient and wait for His perfect timing and that it will be obvious to me where I should follow Him. I have been so blessed to have great friends here who have already given me council. Sometimes I struggle with pr'er and so I ask that you would help me in this area to help calm my anxieties and just give my future to G and let Him take care of it as He has promised to do time and time again. Melissa and I were looking up schools today and different majors and after talking through a number of different options, I just had to tell her what my dream job was, which was really nothing we had mentioned. I have an idea of what I want to do, but I haven't found a way academically to achieve that dream. I know that if it is meant to be than it will happen and I live by that phrase, but it is still hard to trust and wait. As I mentioned before and as you probably can see if you read this whole post, a very large chunk of my brain is being dedicated to the thought of my future. I need to live in the present and give the future back to G. Please pr'y that I can do that and that G will show me the way! Also pr'y that I will be willing to take a leap of faith and not be afraid of failure as I have become accustomed to doing. I want to make myself available just until the point of discomfort, than I dig my heels into the ground never to be moved again. I have turned myself into human concrete which no jack hammer could loosen. I feel like I am preventing my own progress and keeping myself at a standstill for fear that if I proceed something bad will happen. My fear isn't even rational for the most part, the very fact that I can't see the future and can't anticipate my next move is what is bogging me down from moving forward and making progress. I have always lived in a state of safety and no risk. The statuesque has always been kept for me and I have never really had to stretch myself. Well, I am done hindering myself from progress and I am finished with being safe. I need a challenge but I also need to tools to survive the battle, which I know I already have I just need to use them. My armors on and I'm all ready to go, I just need to know where and how and trust that when I run out  my fight will not be in vain nor will it be half hearted.

Posted by Mari

The start of the therapy intern.....

I (Melissa) just finished week one at SFCV. For me though, it feels like I finished week ten

 I definitely hit the ground running, reuniting with my primary and Kindergarten students, laughing with old and new intern friends, and staying in my same exact room and bed. (Note to self, when living at SFCV, always take the top bunk cause it is right next to the air condition.)

As I have told you before, I am the therapy intern for the summer. The typical phrase I heard  for the first couple of days was this:

"Ma-li-ssa, you teach English?"
" No, I am not."
" Then what are you doing here?"


No lie, I probably heard that twenty times since I have been here.

 But as I think about it more, I ask myself what am I doing here? What possible experience could I possibly give to these precious orphans? I have just finished my first year of the Occupational therapy assistant program which really is not enough.
I must truthfully tell you all, I definitely have felt overwhelmed these past couple of days. Dr. Ana (doctor at SFCV and my supervisor) keeps telling me that she is so glad I am here because of their need to better their therapy program. There is so much need for therapy in the kids that I have been googling links for OT therapeutic ideas, reading through my textbooks, emailing super awesome occupational therapists about different children, and figuring out with Dr. Ana what schedule we should base therapy on for the children.

 For being here for only a week now, I see the need for therapy.

I have also seen the good side of therapy here as well. There are two therapy aides currently at SFCV. They have told me their names but I keep forgetting them. We all work as a team and it it great to see their love for helping these precious ones.

Yes, I am the therapy intern, broken and pr@ying to G@d to hold my hand through these decisions about how to best treat each orphan through Occupational therapy.

When I am weak, HE is strong!

Melissa

Mari's First Days at SFCV

It is my third day at SFCV has been an interesting stay. My first impression of China was that it looked a bit like a mixture of the Philippines and Kazakhstan with massive amounts of smog! I was in a car today and the air conditioner was blowing out what looked like smoke, but it was smog. China will now be known as the land of the orange sun to me now because of it.
The kids here are great. I have had the chance to hang out with them a couple times and talk with them. I really like everyone here. My roommates are great as well. I have met a lot of cool people from all over the states which I think is one of the best parts of traveling abroad!
This Monday I will start classes with the kids and hopefully start doing art projects with the kids. I am excited to start teaching, I have been thinking out what to go over with the kids. It is fun because I can use some of my experience from taking Russian. The kids are at a similar level with their English as I am with Russian so it helps me understand where they are coming from. So it's going well so far here in SFCV!

From Mari

And so it begins for Melissa....

I'm leaving for China.
I'M leaving for China.
I'M LEAVING FOR CHINA.
         
  Nope, I'm not believing it either. :)

It seems crazy for me to think I will be headed back to my China home, back into the arms of those amazing, adorable orphans, back to the smog filled city, and back to where G wants me to be for the summer.
I have literally been having dreams about it daily for more than a week now, waking up with vivid images of my China family surrounding me. To think my dreams will become a reality very soon in a matter of days-hours, really.

This time I am flying without a ticket. I know....I sound insane, right?

The stand-by ticket was a bargain and my mom says it will also be a faith building experience :). I only need one seat so I am asking for you to PLEASE PR@Y I can make it on the flight!! My first attempt will be this Friday night Delta flight #129 at 8:30pm out of Seattle.

One seat....only one seat. Shouldn't be hard, right?

As much as I want to be there though (like I wish I was there right now), I know G wants me there at His perfect time. Please also pr@y that I will get on the flight because G wants me in China at that specific time.

For those of you who are wondering, I am fully supported and THANKFUL for all of your generous contributions. It's just humbling and I feel so grateful for you all.

And so it begins, this summer journey of being an Occupational Therapy intern at SFCV. I don't know what this summer will bring but I am excited to see how G's name will be glorified.
 *ROM. 8:28*

*Please also pr@y that Mari will have a safe flight as well to Beijing on the 19th! :)*
No worries...she has an actual ticket!