Lindkids in China

I mentioned in the Meat Market post that I was going to (in two to three days time) upload a seventeen minute video featuring our apartment complex. Well, that didn't happen in the time I was anticipating. I uploaded it four times before it failed in processing. The fifth time is a charm. :D It worked this last time.

This is a video of Weifeng Gardens with commentary by Emma and me. We tend to talk too fast or soft often, though, so I added subtitles to make it easier. Just for you. ;) Click the CC at the bottom right to enable subtitles. Select English - Lindkids in China subtitles, not English (automatic subtitles). The English (automatic subtitles) are VERY WRONG.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video file has a gazillion different pictures all grouped together, so I probably have an uncountable-zillion words in this video. That saves me a zillion lifetimes. :)

Sorry for the twelve-day wait.

(In reference to the name: Emma and I are LINDner KIDS. Lindkids.)

P.S. Some subtitles may be off by about two seconds - sorry about that. 

~Abby

The Meat Market

While I am waiting for a seventeen minute video to upload and process on Youtube (the uploading process should take somewhere around one thousand minutes, assuming it does upload) to post her, I will put this forty-eight second video taped by Baba (Rick) of a meat market where he goes to get us beef. It's available at Metro, but according to our family shopper (which, of course, would be Baba), the beef here is WAY BETTER, so I'll just go with his word for it.

Matthew relatively always tags along with Baba on his bike rides here, and Jenna has most recently decided to join him as well. Matthew is famous at the meat market. :D As I have never gone myself (1. because they always ride bikes and 2. because raw meat is disgusting), I can not describe that experience of being among all these lovely cows and pigs and such as well as Baba or Jenna could, you're only source of explanation concerning this place will be this video. Otherwise, I would fill you with five-hundred words of description.

The seventeen minute video I alluded to at the top should be up in two to three days. Hopefully.

~Abby

Update on our foster boy.

The little boy who has been with us since Weds. night is doing really well. His skin is starting to look much better, though he hates taking his medicine. He is now starting to trust us a little more. Usually when we picked him up he kept his arms wide open and now he is starting to hold onto us. When we first put him in his crib he just laid down, now when we put him down he starts crying and wants to be picked up. All of these things are really great signs. Please continue to pray for him (Zachary).







Rick

Our New Foster Child

This has been an exciting week for our family.

Two people (from a company we are working with) and I [Rick] left at six in the morning on Tuesday to fly to Gui Lin, in Hunan Province. The flight was a hour and forty-five minutes long. When we arrived in Guilin we had to find a long distance bus to get to the small village where we were heading. First off - a fifty minute taxi drive to get to the bus station. We got there at ten o'clock just to find out the next bus did not arrive until

Sightseeing 

1:30 pm.

Our sightseeing boat

So, we did a little sightseeing, had some lunch, and then boarded the bus. The bus ride was FOUR AND A HALF HOURS driving on some really poor roads and in rain. Eventually, we made it to the village and we were met by the lady who runs the orphanage. She took us to the orphanage to see the little boy.

Our long distance bus

Now I will explain about him. He has HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). His body is covered in a major rash and on one of his feet his toenails are all white (fungus). His body is so fragile and so, so skinny. We spent a little time with him and then they brought us to the hotel. To my surprise, it was a very nice hotel (granted it looked like the only hotel around). This small village has about 260,000 people. You may say that isn't small, but, in China, that is very small.

Signing the papers to bring him back to Xi'an

Next we had dinner with the President of the orphanage, the Vice President, the treasurer, and the lady who picked us up. They put on a nice spread for us, though I did not eat everything, as some of the items were  intestines, little fried fish with all the bones and some kind of meat that was crunchy with every bite.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to have a good rest. We were going to meet the officials at 7:30 to eat breakfast and, at eight, start all of the paperwork to bring the little boy back to Xi'an. One of the Chinese ladies I was with thought they wanted to get everything done asap just so we would not change our minds. (There was no way that would happen.) We finished up all the paperwork and headed back to the orphanage to pick him up.

The village we were in

When I held him it was so sad. He was burning up and had no energy to hold his own self up. They had told us he has never had any food to eat and only drinks a little milk powder. He was so good on our journey! First we had the four and a half hour ride back to the airport. Thankfully the government officials provided a ride for us in a very nice car, so no bus. Then, onto the plane.

His first night here (back in Xi'an) he did okay, although he did wake up a couple of times crying. Today he drank milk and ate a little oatmeal. He was checked out by a doctor who said his rash was some sort of fungus and they put him on antibiotics. His ears are also in bad shape with an infection of some kind. Friday he will be going to the hospital that has the authority to put him on the medication for HIV. In China all of his meds.  will be free. He is going to have a long journey, but I know that God is on his side and He is using us to love and provide a home for him. Please lift this little guy up for quick healing.

The officials

Rice paddies

The family mobile

The outside of the orphanage 

~Rick