A little Boy in China needs your prayers!

The first moment I met Judah, he captured my heart. With his big eyes and toothless smile, I instantly fell in love! I was actually having a rough day when I met him. I held him in my arms and cried one of those “having a really bad day cries.” He was my glass of wine for the day!!! They all are!

Judah was born with a congenital heart disease. While a Dr. was visiting, she discussed with the New Day doctor his condition. They both agreed that he most likely had a more severe heart disease than they were told. I remember listening to his heartbeat every morning. Even though I was just a student nurse, I could tell his heart was broken. It sounded different, and it was scary listening to it trying to beat. I would always think to myself that it was a miracle he was still alive!

After China, I have been receiving emails from the director of the foster home about Judah and the other children. First, it was the news that in China, they regrettably told them that surgery was too risky and would not improve his condition much. A second email from New Day stated that Mayo Clinic agreed that surgery wouldn’t be worth it in their opinion. A third email I received today read that John Hopkins also agreed that surgery would be too risky.

Please be praying for Judah! You have no idea what prayer can do!

A hospital in China told the director at the foster home that it would be better to just care for him until he dies!! I am standing with them for a miracle!!! That he will live a longer and happier life than anyone expected!!!

Stand with me!!

Love you,
Jovy

 

Lub Dub

I’m finally home!

I’ve been home for several weeks now. Two weeks of jet lag and several days of figuring out my financial status for this school year. Not fun! Can I just say I HATE THE VALIDATION PROCESS!!! This will be my fifth year of figuring out where my money will come from, and I am honestly sick and tired of it all! 5 years of school! But I am finally a SENIOR.  I have come to accept it and realize that God could not have done all the things he did and is going to do in my 5 years at ORU.

Along with jet lag and many frustrating calls to the financial aid office, my mind often wanders to my summer in China. I miss it, like always. This farewell was different. I said goodbye to a place I had come to know as home. In this home I found hope for the hopeless. I found restoration in a time of my life where my world felt like it had fell from under me. I found a people dedicated to something greater than themselves. I found life and more life. I don’t know when and if I will go back, but I will forever carry the people I have come to know and all the memories with me.

The children never fail to capture my heart. Every morning I would do a quick assessment on all the heart babies. I would arrive around 8, hang up my purse, and Victoria and Emily would greet me. The girls were my “assistants” (more like, they colored in little notebooks while I listened to their heart and lungs). After I listened to the older kids I would head upstairs to assess the 6 heart babies. Oh those little ones! It’s a miracle that each of them are alive and able to await surgery and adoption.

A normal heart makes what we call a “lub dub” sound when one listens through a stethoscope. It was a sound that became familiar and comforting to hear every morning. One day we went on a field trip to a science museum and the doctor did my rounds for me. I remember telling someone “I missed listening to their hearts today.”  I think I acquired the skill of distinguishing who’s heart it was with my eyes closed. Some hearts made a normal “lub dub” sound corrected by itself or through sugery, while others sounded broken. But each of their heart’s “lub dub” sounded different. Nathan’s heartbeat was always fast. Tristan’s heartbeat had a swish. Jamison’s heartbeat had a snap. All so different.

One heart that was unlike any I had heard, was the little heartbeat of Judah. First of all, Judah has the sweetest eyes that stole my heart the first moment I met him. His heart was so broken it was hard to count (at least for me it was). He was cyanotic (blue) and had problems breathing. When Judah arrived at New Day he was diagnosed with VSD. The doctor at New Day and a volunteer physician from Georgia agreed that his heart might be more complicated than VSD. A hospital visit confirmed that Judah did indeed not have VSD but a more complicated heart disease that could not be fixed in China. So little Judah will wait now. All they can do is pray and wait for his forever family to come.

Judah

While he waits my heart will beat for him.

My heart will beat for all of them. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to grow and learn and be in a place like New Day.

China will forever be where my heart is.

Love, Jovy

 

Prayers for the little ones please!

Little Liam and Claire are post-op tonight! Please be praying for their recovery and that there would be loving arms surrounding them until they get back to NDFH.

Thanks everyone!

Liam

PS: If you would like to hear about Claire’s miracle recovery go to Jacob and Carrie\’s blog (look for Claire update

 

One Day In Beijing

another day in the art distric of Beijing..a random building

Usually our Sundays are planned out for us. We tell Caroline what we would like to do and she informs our driver a couple of days in advance. Sometimes we get lucky and we get to enjoy our Sundays with Caroline, Jamie, or Sierra (Americans who live here and are AWESOME). But, for the first time EVER we were handed a Guidebook to the city and a sweet map of the city and Caroline said you decide what you want to do and tell the driver on Sunday! So exciting! I understand all it requires is knowing how to say “we want to go to” and point to the spot on the map or a picture in the guidebook, but it was still really sweet because our driver basically just drops us off at a meeting place and we’re off…on our own!

Here’s what we planned for the day on our way to church:

1. First we would eat at a really amazing Tex Mex restaurant called Pete’s Tex Mex (sometimes we just want a chicken sandwich and Sundays are the days to take advantage of the cities amazing places to eat).

1.5 We had a quick detour at a DVD shop (if you know what I mean). I got your Seven Pounds Mel!!!

2. a quick trip to Jenny Lou’s (a western grocery store where we can find granola bars and cereal and cheese and real orange juice!!!)

3. To Tienanmen Square and H&M

The food was AMAZING as always! The DVD store always is satisfying!!! And I finally bought gum at Jenny Lou’s! The real fun was figuring out how to get around Tienanmen Square and how to find H&M (I have only been to both once and one other time at night). So I got to test my sense of direction! I was quite surprised and very proud of  how we managed to find everything! It was A LOT of walking and Chinese people asking to take pictures with us (or of us when they think we’re not looking).

Well today was a China memory I will never forget. I hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time!! We recently had 3 new interns come to ND. I was with them today instead of my roomies. I am not sure if this person wants to publicly share this story so I will change her name. We will call her Maria. Maria had Mexican food for the first time in a long time! After Pete’s she wasn’t feeling so well. Maria managed to get through the Chinese paparazzi at Tienanmen and the 3 mile walk to H&M.  But she couldn’t hold it any longer. Oh if you only had to go at the nice western potties at Pete’s. I walked with her to find a toilet and warned her that it was a public squatty and to take a deep breath before she got in (I used it once and it did not smell pleasant). We found it and unfortunately there was a line. She decided to use the handicap bathroom in the back. BAD IDEA!!

I followed her to the door (outside of the bathroom) and a foul smell hit my face as I asked if she was okay. She came out saying “I can’t breathe”! And we both started laughing!!! She very bravely asked me to hold her purse because she was “going in.” What a brave heart! How can I describe to you how the bathroom smelled. It’s not like the shady gas stations you go into on road trips in America. And it was not as bad as the squatty I used. I can’t really describe it. Like I said, it was foul. It smelled like a cat died and its feces had been laying there for several days, maybe weeks. But brave Maria covered her nose with her dress and did her business. I was very proud of Maria. O man we laughed uncontrollably. It made my week!

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

they love to take pictures with us!! This is not Maria!

at Tienanmen Square

 

Jet lag…

I have not blogged in a while.

I have been feeling “jet lagged.” “But, you’ve been here a month and six days,” you ask. Oh I know, it’s true! I got over my jet lag in just a couple of days. I say this to mean I spiritually feel “jet lagged.” Along with the hot weather, which made me physically tired, I also felt spiritually tired for the past week and a half.  Then my mind just kept filling up with fear, doubt, worries, shame, and all the negative things you could think of.  I let it consume me for a while. It was getting hot, I got more tired. My passion was not as strong, I doubted this all.  So much going on in that little brain of mine!

I understand it is normal to have not so good days (or weeks) especially living and working in a foreign country where:

-90% of the time you do not understand what people are saying to you!

-The people have  habits that are quite different from the ones you are used to. (e.g. hawking and spiting on the streets)

-The food is quite interesting (e.g. chicken feet).

-The roads are not so organized (e.g. there are rules, but I don’t understand how it works. It looks like madness to me)

-You can get lost in translation (not so fun)

-People push and shove and cut in lines (I always say sorry, but then I realize they don’t care!).

It is all so different living in a foreign country. Most of the time I do not mind it and I find myself really intrigued by how different America is. I love learning about other cultures and why they do what they do, how they react to certain things, how they think, how they view the world. It fascinates me (then again, I have not lived here for longer than a month, though I do feel I am past the romantic phase of being in a new place). So I do not think that my “jet lag” is a result of my being in culture shock.  I really felt like I was giving in to all the lies in my head.

I have a stronger admiration for people who push through this phase of their life, in their home or in a foreign country. It is beautiful! Whether it’s pushing through culture shock or seasons where all the fears and doubts try to consume their minds. I find it amazing to see the strength that men and women have and how when they do trust in things they cannot see and push through it, in the end so many lives are impacted by their faith. If the Chinese couple who first started the New Day magnet business would  have given up when business was not doing well, New Day would have never existed. Hundreds of lives have been saved, physically and spiritually through New Day. When I think of New Day, I see God’s hand all over it! It truly is a beautiful place. A little heaven on earth. Through the love, hard work, and many many prayers of the staff and volunteers, God’s kingdom has truly come to this small village in the outskirts of Beijing.

Do not worry my fellow blog followers, I have learned that pushing through is a choice. I am not always going to FEEL happy and energetic, motivated or passionate. I choose this day and every day to seek Him. I choose today to be happy, to be at peace, to trust things that I cannot see. Oh what an adventure I am on!

It’s so worth it in the end!

Love, Jovy

PS. I will definitely make up for the lack of stories and pictures!!

 

Girls Just Wanna Have fun!

The English school at New Day  had a costume party on Friday!

Guess what we dressed up as? I’ll give you some hints:

-bright blue and purple eyeshaddow.

-pink lipstick

-hideously applied blush

-big bangs and side ponytails tied with a scrunchy

-over-sized t-shirts tied with a hairtie to the side.

-tights

-Converse (special Quingyundian edition)

and

-Tacky bright-colored jewlery

Yes ladies and gentlemen we were dressed up like the 1980’s!!

I can honestly say that the Chinese know how to have fun! We partied like it was 1983! It was AWESOME! We danced like if no one was watching us (although many were). Once again it was AWESOME!

The girls

O and the older girls from the foster home were able to come!!! We dug through the dress up box and found really sweet costumes. They looked wonderful in their mermaid, ballerina princess, and baker outfits.

Nessa, Me, Sophie, and Elva

I love these girls!!!!

Donna, Carrie, and Elva just wanna have fun!!

Carrie looked legit!!

Our Converse shoes (special Quingyundian edition) that we got in the village supermarket for 25 yuan (about $4).

check out more pics on facebook!!

loving my summer in China,

Jovy

 

Wordless Wednesday…

 

Just us girls…

Victoria and I (Emily took this picture)

Today reminded me of a Visa commercials. My visa commercial would sound like this:

Ticket to China: $1,180

Tourist Visa for China: $160

Housing in China: $540

Experiencing moments like today: priceless!

Today in China we celebrated what some people call “The Dragon Boat Festival.” I read all about it in a magazine Sarah showed me, but it is all failing to come to my memory right now! For the festival all of the kids, staff, and interns of the foster home celebrated with a feast at lunchtime. It was great. We feasted with sweet and sour chicken, (amazing, my favorite) sticky rice, egg plant, and cake. It was also a sad day as it was Linda’s (their physical therapist) last day! Saying goodbye in China is one of the hardest things to do. I don’t know why!?

Well after the festivities the nannies had their break while the kids napped like usual. The three older girls, Victoria, Sophie, and Emily don’t nap. Usually some of the team members from ORU teach the girls English but today they had the day off! I decided to stay and teach them Ballet! Emily LOVES to dance and they were all so excited. We put on music by a violinist and the girls found ballet costumes and we danced! It was lovely!

After a while of dancing we put on a movie!! I brought pillows to lay on the floor and the girls joined me! Victoria fell asleep on me and Emily practiced her photography skills!!

Words can’t describe moments like these! The children all have a routine everyday that the nannies are very good at following. Routine is good! But if you think of the children’s life if they were to have a family, most don’t have a routine like the foster home. Sometimes families will go out grocery shopping, visit friends and family, go to church, and some days they just lay there watching a moive in the comforting arms of the ones who love them. I love lazy days with my friends and family! There is something so comforting about it!!

Anyway all to say these moments are priceless. When I think of the many things that most people would find fun and exciting, I say there’s no place I’d rather be!

Emily and Sophie!

Victoria

                                                                                                   

just us girls (victoria was knocked out)

admiring themselves in the mirror

 

Noah…

I finally got to see baby Noah again…I definitely cried when I did!! Look how big he is….

Noah and his foster mom!!!

 

This little piggy went to market…

*Please forgive me for my lack of blog posts!!!! China apparently blocks not only youtube, but wordpress.com as well as other blogs. Almost one week later I finally figured out how to hide my IP address and ladies and gentlemen, here is my first blog in China!!!!

Well let’s just say my journey to China started off a little rusty. I spent the night in Chicago in a SWEET hotel. Hung out with an old friend and boarded the plane to China Thursday!! Nothing really eventful happened on my 13 hour plane ride into Beijing other than I had some GI issues if you know what I mean. The ride seemed short, but when I landed..well it seemed like someone just didn’t want me to get to New Day. To make a long story short here’s what happened in a form of a list: haha

1. Because of SARS China is really cracking down on preventing the Swine flu from getting in. Right when we landed there were men and women in biohazzard suits checking our temperatures.

2. I PASSED the temperature check..phew. Even if we know we don’t have the Swine flu it is kind of nerve wrecking when someone in a biohazzard suit comes to check your temperature.

3. Then…a man several rows in front of me was reported to have an elevated temperature…oh no!!!!

4. After a sitting for a while not knowing what they were going to do, they decided to choose certain people in close proximity to be taken off the plane and sent to the doctor. (Lots of praying going on at this moment)

5. Because of God’s grace and favor they stopped picking victims 2 rows in front of me!!! No swine flu for me!!!

6. I got off the plane after about an hour of sitting and waiting…went through customs with no problem. Got my bags. Exchanged my money. Now to meet my driver.

7. Well the email sent to me said to meet him at starbucks. Easy so i thought! In China there are more than one airports, I was in the new one. I remembered the starbucks ony being in the old. So I took all my luggages (count them again..3) And took a bus that took 15 minutes to get to the old airport!

8. No driver at Starbucks.

9. The luggage man followed me…more like took me..everywhere to find internet because I lost New Day’s contact number.

10. I FINALLY got a hold of Caroline at New Day and learned that there WAS a Starbucks at the new airport..haha. Oh well. I was proud of how I managed to get to the old airport by myself!!!

11. My driver met me at Starbucks (in the old one). I think he didn’t understand why I was there. I attempted to tell him what happned with my very little Chinese. I think he got it!!!

So one day and 3 hours later I was at New Day!!!

Finally… where my heart longed to be!!!!!!!