Sunday, November 29, 2009

Sunday Snapshot: Chayah

Chayah Elizabeth Enduo, 7 years old


For being seven, Chayah is tiny. She wears mostly size 5's in clothes and a size 11 shoe. She is much smaller than little sister, Sarah. Her hands and wrists are so tiny that I'm afraid they will break. She just has extremely tiny bones.


She is silly. Extremely silly. This little girl loves to laugh and to make everyone around her laugh. She is always saying "tickle, tickle, tickle" and giggling.


Gum must be her absolute favorite "food", if it can be called that. Her favorite is fruit flavored gum because mint is too "spicy" for her. Although her other favorite thing to eat is rice with very hot sauce on it, in which case she loves the spicy taste. Silly girl.



Home for less than a year, she has picked up English very quickly and everyone who meets her is surprised when they hear she only came home this past January. Now in Kindergarten, she is learning very quickly. She sings the alphabet song around the house with Sarah and is even learning to read!

Chayah means life restored in Hebrew. We chose this name for her because of her diagnosis of NF1, Neurofibromatosis, as well as her leg which was broken. Since coming home, Chayah has had surgery and her lower leg has been 'rodded'. She walks so much better than when she came home; finally able to walk easily and has the hope of learning to run. Having Chayah in our lives is such a blessing. I am so thankful that God led us to her through a miraculous story of finding her file, but that story is for another day. For now, I am just so incredibly blessed to have my Chayah as my little sister.

Ni Hao Y'all

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Live United

There's my Sarah and my Chayah, along with their teacher and their Kindergarten class, all dressed up in United Way's "Live United" shirts. This picture is featured on a billboard in our city! Such a sweet picture! And I still can't believe that it is up on along the highway for everyone to see as they drive by! My sisters are so cute :)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving from our Pilgrims!





Sunday, November 22, 2009

Chayah's Shriners Visit






Last Monday Chayah had her Shriners appointment. And it went really well! We found out that her leg is healing wonderfully (something we were concerned about) and that it all seems to be doing great! The doctor encouraged us to touch her leg- although she still screams if you get near it, but he assured us the screams are not from pain, as she happily let all the doctors nurses and therapists examine her foot and leg. She had also been hesitant to walk what we call "open leg", which is when her leg brace is not locked and she is able to bend her knee. Well, we were afraid she just couldn't do it yet, or perhaps that it hurt, but she ran and walked all around open leg for the doctor! She was really good at showing off! They had a physical therapist there and he gave us "homework" a paper of therapies and exercises to encourage Chayah to use certain muscles in her leg, such as pretending to walk on a tight-rope with feet heel to toe and hands out and marching and criss-cross leg. The brace/prosthetics man re-did Chayah's brace and took out the "lock" and also made another shoe for her (adding about 3 inches in height to the bottom of one). She had x-rays taken and layed perfectly still for them and got stickers and a beanie baby when she was done! Everyone commented on how cute and SMART she was! She had a fun time in the appointment when Dr. Smith started drawing on the chalkboard with her! He kept spelling her name up-side down, which she found hilarious! The highlight however of the trip was after the appointment was done, in the bathroom getting ready to walk out and out popped her tooth! She was SO excited! We had been waiting for it to come out all day! On the drive home we ended the trip with a stop to Panda Express where Chayah got her favorite of noodles and orange chicken!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Shriners and Sleepovers




Tomorrow Chayah has an appointment at Shriners. They will be looking at her leg as well as making her another pair of shoes. The hospital does not want anyone under the age of 18 who is not the patient there, so right now Sarah is at her very first sleepover! She is having a fun time with big sister Rachael and her husband David! We said bye as they were leaving to go out for pizza! Sarah could not be more excited about her special time with Rachael. She gave us all hugs, but assured us she is gonna be fine! She was definitely anxious to start her fun time!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Sister Time

I was watching the girls the other day and so as a fun, sister evening, we decided that popcorn and watching Barbie Fairytopia were both required. Definitely a classic Sarah Lu time with her all-time favorite food (and also a favorite of Chayah's) and of course, none other than a Barbie movie, which are Sarah Lu's absolute favorite movies. Ever. Pretty awesome sister time!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Orphan Sunday HOPE

Today, November 8th, is Orphan Sunday. Steven Curtis Chapman, Show Hope, and Cry of the Orphan put on an awesome Orphan Sunday special this evening. We watched it through a live webcast and I loved it! No matter how many times I hear the statistics on orphans worldwide, each time it still strikes me. There are 143 million orphans around the world today. Before, Sarah and Chayah were apart of that number. Today, they watched the broadcast with us, in our arms and cuddling on the couch watching the TV. They even jumped up and danced along with the adorable and excellent Children of the World Choir. Chayah sang along and excitedly said, "This is my favorite song!" when Steven Curtis Chapman sang Hillsong's "Mighty to Save". With speakers and music, it was just an awesome show!




Also, I just finished making a video to the song "Orphans of God" by Avalon.. For those of you who have followed for awhile, you may remember that I posted another one to this song a while back, this is the updated version to that one.. also, I made this one to specially feature Our Creator's HOPE: Helping with Orphan Placement Expenses.
Here's the video: