Saturday, May 29, 2010

Lovely Linda

We first saw this photo in 2005 when our friend Helen came across this little girl with major special needs, lying in an orphanage cot, banging her head against the side until it bled. At that time it was not usual for children with such needs to be placed with foster families. Helen worked hard to find a suitable foster family through Grace and Hope for Children. We worked hard to find a sponsor thro Hope4China who would be able to make the committment to pay for long term foster care plus extra to meet the child's special needs. This all came together and very soon, this little girl was taken out of the orpahange and placed with a wonderful foster mama.

Here are some  quote from some of her first reports.......

Foster mother also said Linda had almost got rid of her bad habit (bended knees and rocked) except in the morning when she woke up and foster mother didn’t pick her up at once.

Foster mother said one time she took Linda to take a bus. Linda reached out her hands to hold the handrail. How amazing! I didn’t know it’s consciously or unconsciously, Linda always had big brilliant smile when I called her name or just looked at her. Foster mother said Linda had been a happy girl since they had her.

We first met in 2005 at Nanning SWI where Hope4China had a party for all the children we sponsored there. She was so content and relaxed with her foster mama!
                                                                       2006
2007


Meeting her sponsor, all the way from the Isle of Skye 2009

                                                         What wonderful connections!!!!!!

                                      And now, with our new Hope for Special Children













                                           you can see that she is quite simply THRIVING!

Helen's great vision of how these precious children's lives could be improved, along with such faithful support from individual sponsors....and now from a Sunday School to a Rotary Club, continued support to enable Helen to continue this work...all just amazes me......


Here is a quote from her latest reports.........

Little Linda can crawl on hands and knees very well now. Every day, foster mother give her two to three times training at home. She can do 30 abdominal crunch? And kneeling last for 20 seconds. Holding onto furniture, she switch from sitting to kneeling, and switch from one leg to the other. She can reach the goals we make for her in a short time.

Little Linda makes fast progress. We made some goals for her in three monthes but she meets it only taking a week

Her progress is testament to the need for both Foster care and special Therapy for our special children in China


                                                     June 1st is Children's Day in China.

This weekend is a wonderful oppurtunity to have fun and take part to raise funds for and awareness of how much can be done to change a little life.
Thanks to all who are taking part in whatever way
Together we are changing the world :-)

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Cheering our marathon man by the beach

The next best thing to actually running a marathon (!) has got to be cheering on someone you know.

Today, we made it down to Edinburgh's beachside to cheer David Knowles as he took part in the Edinburgh marathon, enduring more than 4 hours of hard slog and sunshine to raise money for Hope 4 China's Children.

It was our pleasure to provide a long, cold beer on his return to his Edinburgh digs.

In a weekend of totally self-indulgent weather, spent happily in the company of friends - many of whom linked to China through their daughters - it is quite a sight to see the hundreds of runners struggling past and nearly every one of them is raising money for something they care about.

Anyway, here are some pics of the girls and the grown ups adding their support to David's effort.
Just a blur in the crowd - we nearly missed him!
Waiting to cheer
A triumphant return

... and deserved reward
The Cheer Squad
All the best, guest blogger Barb.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Hope4China Day - June 1st

Hope4China Children’s Day
June 1st 2010


Ist June is Children's Day in China...
so it seemed a good idea to our Team here to celebrate
Hope4China's Children Day on June 1st!

Then we thought how wonderful it would be to have a Celebration around the World
 to celebrate all the children in our families
and those who still wait for their families........
and to raise lots of money to help those children in desparate need.


Hope4China Friends have a variety of events planned on or around June 1st .....
.......from a simple coffee morning with friends,
Pampered Chef evening,
Jewellery party
Sponsored Walk
Barbeque
School events etc......

Please feel free to have an event, big or small, wherever you are in the world and contact us if you would like more info /leaflets etc

If you are not able to arrange/participate in an event, PLEASE join us in sending off a Sky Lantern

(Practice one below :-)






Many friends in the UK and China already have their Lanterns,
but we would LOVE our friends around the world to share with us.
How many countries could we represent between us?

So, if you can, please spare £5/ $8 for a Sky Lantern as we are trying to have....

 The Biggest Round the World ‘Lantern Flight’
on/around June 1st!


We can either :- 
1.Send the Lantern to you for you to set off yourself
                                   2.We can attach a personal message to a Sky Lantern and set it off for you.
                                    3.Or of course you can just set off your own and make your donation here :-)

You can donate via
the Paypal Button on the left of the Blog page
and let us know which you prefer?
greenshields_linda@yahoo.co.uk
sharon@brandnewday.uk.com   

Whichever way you choose we are encouraging everyone to get involved :-)
Please take photos and we can share after the event.
It would be such fun to see photos of Lanterns flying from China, UK, USA, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia ...
.......where else?????


Please join us, have some fun,
and make a BIG DIFFERENCE for the children in China

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wang Wang...giving Hope



                                                  First instalment of Hope
for our talented artist in Guangxi.

Thanks to all who have bought these products - she is so delighted to know that people like her work and that she has earned her own money.
Great to be part of the team around the world making a difference :-)