Steven Curtis Chapman

We had the priviledge of going to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert this past weekend in Beijing. For those of you who don't know him, he is a contemporary Christian singer who we have been fans of for many years. He has adopted 3 little girls from China, and one of his daughters he adopted from PHF. Anyway, we were able to meet and talk with him after the concert, which was pretty neat. He helps support PHF financially as well. So, that was the highlight of our week. Other than that, we continue to stay busy with different things at the orphanage and continue to learn more of the language. Our tutor is going well. John seems to be learning chinese the fastest of all of us. However, I have heard the kids speaking quite a bit chinese these past few days. We continue to be famous everywhere we go, as everyone wants pictures of our little blond haired children whenever we go out.

We had fun celebrating Austin's 4th birthday today. We started out by decorating his room with balloons and streamers the night before his birthday after he was asleep so that he woke up to a decorated room. We haven't found any wrapping paper yet in China, so we had a fun little treasure hunt around the house for him to find his presents. He had a lot of fun with that-Alyson enjoyed helping him too. His favorite present was his new pet turtle. Both the kids were pretty excited about it. (picture of the turtle below).

We hope to send out our first newsletter in the next few weeks, telling you more about the orphanage and different things going on here as well as more detailed prayer requests. Until then, please continue to pray for our family and our work at PHF. Thank-you to all of you who have been keeping in touch through e-mail. It is so great to hear from our friends and family back in the USA.

Blessings,

John, Desiray
Alyson and Austin