ChinaBird

Yes, this is real 😍 Ever feel yourself loosing focus on what's truly important in life, with family/kids, at work/school or spiritually? I think it happens to all of us sometimes. We so easily get pulled out to sea by the tides of life, and before we know it we're struggling to stay afloat. Every now and a again feel this way. Despite having a very rewarding job surrounded by an awesome team and kids, sometimes things get tense and I find myself frantically trying to not let life drown me out. A few weeks back, I headed out of Beijing for yet another Visa Trip. Before I left, I was feeling quite drained and exhausted from trying to stay "afloat". I love the "forced" vacation part of it, but frequent travel (every 60 days) can become tiresome and a little annoying as the expenses add up. Instead of heading down to Hong Kong, like I normally do, I ventured out and went somewhere new: Thailand. Pork Pad Thai! Let me start by saying, if Thailand i...

Hey All... I know, I know I've been MIA for a while :( Mico, my Guest Relations partner in peparations! This girl is awesome! You know that feeling you get as a student this time of year? The semester is coming to an end, you're working hard on projects and papers, and beginning to study for finals, stressed out of your mind....? Remember that feeling? Feeling like you had so much work that needed to be done, but all you really had the energy for was a nap? But what pushes you through those hard and difficult times is the realization that IT'S COMING....SUMMER IS COMING! haha! Well, I have to admit, I've been feeling that way a lot lately. The pressure is on, There's so much going on, there's is a lot of work still to be done, but summer is coming...interns are coming...volunteers are coming...teams are coming to help us as we care for these awesome kids. It's awesome to know and I have to keep reminding myself that this craziness is just a season....

Hey Friends! So tired from sprinting to the train A few weeks back 12 of our kids had traveled down to Zhengzhou for camp in Henan Province.  2 days after I had arrived back in China I had the opportunity to travel via train to pick them up and escort them home. It was a big task, but we packed up bags and bags of snacks and headed out early to get our kiddos. Our train to Zhengzhou departed from one of the bullet train stations in Beijing, thus we headed for the city only to get stuck in horrendous traffic. In fear that we'd miss our train due to traffic, we decided to hop on the subway to the train terminal. I usually tend to exaggerate stories a little, but I kid you not, when I say that we were RUNNING through the subway and train station...yes, running, to be more literal we were SPRINTING! Haha As uncomfortable, intense and insane as it was, we made our train to Zhengzhou with 10 minutes to spare! Zhengzhou! Arriving in a new city in China is always exciting for...

Hello Friends, remember me? It's Naomi! I know it's been over a month since my last post, but if I'm being brutally honest, life has been intense and crazy busy. So sorry to keep you all waiting, but alas I'm back and blogging. Here's what's been happening in the last few weeks: The C4L team, plus a few others In early June a lovely group of volunteers came to SFCV with the Joni and Friends Cause4Life internship program (the organization and program through which I first came to SFCV). This group of 7 women were incredibly awesome! Not only did they come to love on our kids, but they also helped me my performing clinical and therapeutic evaluations for some of our therapy kids. I was and am SO blessed by their service and recommendations. It was such a sweet and unique experience to work along side them. Having been a cause4life-er myself it was cool to see the impact they left at SFCV through their simple acts of kindness and service, and to see the ...