Strengths and Weaknesses

After all the cajoling to post on the blog, dh has found that blogger is blocked in China. We knew this was a possibility, but since we had no trouble on our last trip we were hopeful he would be able to post this time as well. It looks as though I will just have to do my best to update from here.

Thankfully, dh is a technical kind of guy and he is able to upload his pictures and videos so we can see them each evening. Technology is definitely one of his strengths. It is amazing how quickly we can see their trip. It is also amazing to talk to them each day with video and yet we are half a world away.

Photography and video recording are not one of his strengths. While we were sleeping dh and Banana visited the foster home in which Joseph has spent most of his life. Dh took 3 pictures of it. He was trying to take more video, but had a few snafus. I think he was turning off the record button when he thought he was turning it on. As a result there is very little good video of the home. There is more video of his taxi ride then of the foster home. There are just some things you need Mom for... this is one of them.

Dh said the home was amazing. Somehow I knew it would be from the pictures on the Internet. It is run by an Australian couple whose hearts went out to these orphans in China. Many, many of the children they care for do not survive. Still they keep the home in fantastic condition. They started with only three children and now have four buildings full of orphans.

Here is an excerpt of a message dh sent last night:

Good news and bad news about the visit to the Hope Home. Good news -- the visit was absolutely +wonderful+. The children are well-cared for and the facility is spotless. You can tell they love the children in their care. Robin took us on a tour. He told us that many special needs children are considered too sick to recover. The Hope Home takes in some of these children. Of those that come to the home, 40% survive. It's really amazing work they do.

Another good piece of news -- they had a special scrap book put together for Joseph which they gave to us! It's wonderful and has many new pictures from his time there. I can't wait for you to see it.

Now the bad news -- I looked at the pictures and the video. I realize that my video skills are horrible and I'd starve as a photographer. I thought I'd take more video of the home to give you a better idea of what we were seeing. I see maybe one or two seconds of good video in the whole thing. In a couple cases, I accidentally left the camera running. I guess I'll just need to apologize to Joseph 20 years from now.

Perhaps we can blame the fact that there is no picture of Joseph's crib, but there is a picture of the Lambourghini car shop on being overtired. The ten minute footage of a Chinese cab ride is unexplainable :)

Please continue to pray for the travelers. Banana is taking some time to adjust to the time change. Apparently after not sleeping on the long plane ride, she is now trying to sleep the day away. Here's hoping she's getting a good night's sleep right now.