Windows and Fences

Friends,
Once we were there, the Skiles showed us several things they wanted us to fix up and wash while we were there.

First Mr. Helgesen washed the backboards of their basketball hoops. The children were often out on the court in the evenings and we were excited to be able to fix up the posts for them. In the evenings and on the weekend, the dads played basketball with some of the older boys and girls.

The Skiles also asked the dads to repair a broken fence that had gotten run into by a car. The dads got it fixed but it took some time to paint because it rained so much.

(the almost finished project)

We were also asked to clean the windows of the orphanage. Out of about 600 windows we finished roughly half. The children were very excited when we told them that we were working on cleaning the windows. Each night they would ask if we had cleaned their windows yet.



Thanks for reading!

~Annah

The Apartment

Friends,
While in Taiwan we stayed at an apartment that Mr. and Mrs. Skiles rent. It was a very nice apartment within walking distance of the orphanage. We are so very thankful that they allowed us to stay there during out visit.

 (the kitchen)

 (the living room...really liked those chairs)

 (the girls bedroom, the red mat is the Taiwan-style bed)

 (this was the dad's bathroom, Chloe has to stoop in it and the dad's are at least 6" taller)

Many times we came across signs on our walk to the orphanage, that had been translated into English, but had lost something in the translation. For example...

(see the orange sign)

More coming later!

~Annah

Beginning of Our Journey

Friends,
I wanted to start posting some pictures of our trip. We will start at the beginning and work through the trip, using pictures taken by all the girls.

On Monday, September 27th the team left from Denver International Airport for Seattle, Tokyo, and eventually Taipei. We were blessed in our going out by the presence of several family members of people in the team.

Once in Seattle we got breakfast and boarded a plane for Tokyo. We were on the plane for what felt like forever.

As we flew into Tokyo we were greeting by these amazing proofs of God's creative abilities and amazing power.

 (Mt. Fuji)





The Tokyo airport is very pretty. They have decorated inside with tasteful arrangements or displays and with large picture windows.



Finally, after 27 hours of travel, we landed at the Taipei airport. Thankfully all our luggage had also kept up with us and we were able to pick up all the suitcases right away.

We were starting our trip to Taiwan on Wednesday the 29th, although we still can't figure out where we lost Tuesday...........

One day younger,

~Annah