2011 in review

Happy New Year to all of our friends! WordPress put together this nifty year in review post, and I thought I’d take a few moments to share it.

I also want to point you in the direction of my blog, where you can read about an opportunity to help me support a little boy named Heath over in China who has had heart surgery and cleft surgery. I’m in training for the Los Angeles Marathon and would love your support as I run this race for Heath. (Could I also perhaps entice you to check out my blog because there’s a new picture of our entire family on the most recent post?)

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Happy New Year from the Witzers!

H.O.M.E.

After 25 hours of travel by crazy taxi, plane, & van, we are home sweet home! Check out the pictures…

We had to get up at 4:15 Thursday AM to catch our ride to the Hong Kong airport, so Vicky had everything ready to go on Wednesday evening, including the important documents!

All ready to go!

It turned out that we could’ve slept for another hour since our taxi driver was an hour late. However, he made up for lost time by weaving in & out of morning traffic at about 100MPH, no joke!! Vicky & Amanda were praying hard. We still had time to get breakfast at the airport- it usually takes 3-4 hours to get to HK from where we were… it only took us 2 hours 10 minutes.

Flight #CO98 getting ready to take us home

Our gate…

…& all the kids under it. Some were more awake than others.

Levi all ready for his first plane ride ever. Sarah & Shane all ready for their third. 15 hours- away we go!

Hong Kong from above

Carson was thrilled to welcome us all home

Welcome HOME, Levi!

Jen, Dad & Emili left us some treats for our return. Thanks guys!

Sarah, Shane & Cody are very happy to be back home with Elvis. Levi loves him too.

And after all the excitement, jet-lag has hit hard!

Jet-lag… oh so fun!

 Thanks so much, EVERYBODY, for your comments of encouragement & all of your prayers. You made this adventure even more fun by keeping up to date with us and rooting us on along the way. Hats off to Vicky & Barry for bringing home another family member, & hats off to God for pushing all the paperwork through in only 7 short months! We’re so happy to have Levi as part of our family now and look forward to getting to know him more and more. For now, please keep praying for him as he adjusts to the USA suburban life, learns English, and gels with our crazy family. 

Also, keep House of Welcome in your prayers, & read the post before this one about how you can help them

Until next time,

The Witzers

House of Welcome needs our help

After our 24 hours of travels, the whole family is Stateside! Before we wrap up this blog, we wanted to do one last post about New Life in India. They need our help- please read this post to see how you can help them!

The 35 kids & 6 staff members moved into House of Welcome last weekend. We received an email from Simion saying that they already know that they need more space and are hoping to build a bigger hall at the front of the room.

House of Welcome is only one part of New Life Movement. The ministry, which was founded by Simion and Puspita in 2007, also does church-planting and pasturing around the region.

Currently House of Welcome is run on a completely voluntary basis by:

T. Vanaja Rao, the teacher

Keshore Banik (the middle) & his wife Sushila Banik, the cooks; Ashish Kumor & Ghiu Jickhariya (on outside), who are also the church-planters of New Life

Simion, Puspita, & Sneha

Sneha

Please pray for these guys! They all live at the house, and they have the hearts and perseverance that it takes to care for 35 children. What they need most is encouragement, prayers for protection, and funds to keep doing what they do. Would you consider taking Simion’s email address and committing to pray through his updates and send notes of encouragement?

These are the faces of House of Welcome at the moment:

As Simion preaches around the region, he sometimes runs into children who ask to be taken back to his home because they have no family. Out of faith and grace, Simion usually takes the child with him back to House of Welcome, and that’s how many of the children come to be at the house. Not all of the children at HoW are orphaned, however. Some are at HoW because their biological parent or parents feel they are unable to care for them due to extreme poverty, illness, death, or lack of work, and have asked Simion to care for their child for them.

“And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.” -Jesus

It’s important to know that Simion is very meticulous about the details of running a ministry and children’s home! He was eager to have us sign and date financial reports that he had already emailed to us, and he showed us the paperwork and medical reports for each child, also giving us copies to take home. He showed us the applications and background checks of the volunteers as well. All of this calmed any worries we might’ve had from only communicating online up until that point!

Vicky signing financial reports

We sat down with Simion and Puspita and went over the budget of caring for the children. We have estimated that it would take about $25 a month to sponsor one child at House of Welcome. This money would go directly to the child for his or her living expenses. During this Christmas season, would you consider giving the gift of sponsorship to a child at New Life?

If you feel led to take one of these children under your wing and nurture them through prayer and sponsorship, please contact Vicky at witzerland@msn.com or Amanda at afawn.witz@gmail.com We will be happy to match you with one of these beautiful children!

Thanks, and Merry Christmas!

Love,
Vicky, Amanda, & all at New Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We are his hands, we are his feet."

Cody in China

My darling youngest brother, Cody, has been especially charming and comedic on this trip. Making the Chinese Customs personnel smile was only the beginning- all of the hotel workers here love him, and he is the first member of our family that Levi warmed up to. If you’ve met Cody, you know that alongside that charming smile, there is a sneaky, energetic, and hilarious personality. Everyone who met him here commented on his energetic nature.

Cody has been a source of love and laughter for us on this trip. Among his hijinks:

 

Cody and Levi drawing together

He performed lots of "experiments" with water, mouthwash, mom's expensive shampoo, and toothpaste. He broke one of the hotel glasses in the process.

"Jesus is more powerful than that statue- it was just made by other people!"- upon being explained the purpose of this statue

 

Cody quote: “Hey guys, look! I’m Edward Scizzorhands, except with chopsticks!”

 

This painter let Cody try his hand- quite literally- at painting a picture

Cody completely focused in on his painting- a sort of concentration we don't often see from him.

The finished product!

 

He managed to reset the safe in Mom and Dad’s room with a combination he could not remember. We had to call housekeeping to open the safe. This required Dad to sign paperwork.

 

Every time we passed this particular statue, Cody would run up to it and smack it repeatedly on the bum.

 

He secretly set the alarm clock for an odd hour of the night and successfully woke everyone in the room up- two nights in a row. We now remember to check the alarm clock every night before going to bed.

 

Cody hopes to be a chef one day, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the chefs make noodles and prepare food when we were out to lunch one day.

More of that concentration we don't often see from him

Would any of you like to borrow Cody for your next international trip?

a compilation of pictures

We’ve had plenty of happy and funny moments on this trip that haven’t had a place in any of our other posts, so here is a compilation. Enjoy!

Mom and Dad with our guide, Ying, the night before Dad went home.

Dad and two of his boys

Panda overload!!

Pandas and kids

A funny kangaroo at the Safari Park

The Canton Tower is the highest structure in the world. We actually drove right by the base of it- ironically, the day after we watched a show on the National Geographic Channel about how it was built

We took all the kids down this crowded shopping street at prime time on a Saturday afternoon. They were a bit overwhelmed. So were we.

The street shown outside in this picture is called “Up and Down Number Nine Street.”

Some of the orphanage staff hamming for the camera. They all thought this picture was hilarious.

We will do an entire post on Timmy in the near future. He is a talented, happy, bright little boy who needs a loving family.

Director Yu and our parents with a gift she gave them.

Mom and Cody sleeping during part of a 4 hour van ride.

Mom made a friend at the Qing Ping Market

Cody and our guide, Ying

There are statues like this all over Shamian Island

This puzzle took up a lot of our downtime this trip. Levi has a great eye for putting the hard parts together.

Lots of American and British candy goodness!

For $20 you can get your laundry washed and ironed and it comes back nice and neatly like this!

We also found The Beatles!

I found a piece of Kentucky in Guangzhou- Fayette County and all!

“French fries are hard to eat with chopsticks.” – said just before this picture was taken

Amanda took this picture of Jeremy and I Skyping. We all played Farkle and Yahtzee 16 hours away from each other.

We needed at least one picture of the two of us during this trip.

Taken just after the US Consulate appointment. Everything is now in order for Levi to become an American citizen as soon as he passes through customs in the States!

We got especially loopy last night, as we’ve been in a hotel for a bit too long now and are ready for home. Levi got to witness the kids having a push ups contest, Mom reenacting The Lion King in a game of charades, Shane breaking out in tap dance and Cody in break dancing, Cody making plenty of farting noises with his armpits, and Amanda spontaneously singing Lady Gaga- only to have Levi burst out laughing at her.

This trip has been wonderful, and now it’s coming to a close. I am leaving for Los Angeles today at 5pm, and everyone else leaves for Pennsylvania tomorrow in the early hours of the morning. The blog will continue to be updated for a little while after the trip- I know we all have more to say. So keep looking out for more posts!

Safari Park!

This is the story of a group of Americans, in China, at a zoo.

The Witzers were part of that group, & Shane was stoked!

First we all hopped on a train & saw some of the safari on wheels. This “Safari on Wheels” included a Giant Anteater…

…a baby zebra…

…rhinos…

…lions, & more.

But we preferred seeing the rest on foot, while eating lollipops.

On foot we saw lots of baby animals, including wee tigers.

We also marveled at tiny, scarlet-colored birds…

…& large, white pelicans.

Levi liked the underwater turtles.

He also liked the white tigers.

All of us loved the giraffes.

Vicky splashed out & bought some leaves to feed the giraffes, & everything turned into a giraffe-feeding frenzy!

After a little while, Shane finally got to feed a giraffe.

He was totally stoked!

Rebekah was excited to finally feed one as well, & pet its nose!

After the giraffes, we fed ourselves. (Sarah & Amanda enjoying chicken on a stick)

And after we fed ourselves, we fed some bananas to elephants! This guy was ready.

But we ate quickly, to finally make our way to the Giant Pandas.

…who were also feeding themselves.

We were all incredibly happy to see real Giant Pandas…

…but “Amanda Panda” was maybe the most happy =]

This guy was definitely alive & breathing, we promise.

a very special Birthday

December 5, 2011 marks Levi’s 14th birthday. For this birthday, God has given him the gift of family, and we have been given the gift of another brother and son. This has been a very happy day for all of us!

Happy Birthday, Levi! With lots of love, from your family.

Lotus Mountain

Today we took a trip to Lotus Mountain. It was an hour and a half drive from Guangzhou down towards the South China Sea. This attraction serves mostly as a place of worship for Buddhists, mostly due to the large female Buddha in the center, but all we took away from it was the beauty of the area and the refreshing air- it was so good to get away from the crowded city life! Sarah, Shane, and Cody had a great time running and running and running. Being cooped up in a hotel room for the past few days has not done them well, and this was an outing we ALL needed! We handed Levi Amanda’s camera for the day, and he enjoyed taking many, many pictures. While pictures do not do the area near the justice it is due, we hope that they provide a good representation, at the least.

“Welcome to Lotus Mountain”

The Kwan-Yin Bodhisattva Statue behind the lion. It is the highest gold-foiled bronze statue in the world.

Cody remarked that “Jesus is way more powerful than ‘that man-made statue.’”

Shane and Sarah ringing the bell.

View to the South China Sea

Letting out their crazy energy!

Turtles on the turtle

Levi sneaking up on a lone duck

Lily pads!

with our guide for the day, Molly

China!

Today, we are going to the Lotus Mountain. It is a peaceful park where we can relax.

It is also Levi’s 14th birthday! We sang Happy Birthday to him in Chinese at breakfast! He smiled, I think he liked it.

The events that we did in China are so fun! Yesterday we went to a Safari Park, we went to a music store, we went to a market. At the market, which is called Qing Ping Market, there were puppies in a little fence, I got to hold my favorite one. I have a picture of it as my homepage on my iPod. He is so playful!

I am having a great time in China! I don’t won’t to leave yet, this week!

Welcome to House of Welcome

Hello friends! So China life is pretty uneventful at the minute. The past 2 days have really just been at the hotel, except for a couple excursions outside to eat some grub and take some walks. We’ve eaten dinner in the presence of Lady GaGa, James Dean, and Jude Law’s sparkling blue eyes for the past 2 nights at an “American” Bar & Grill called “Lucy’s”. Tonight it was Levi’s choice to go back- perhaps he prefers the American setting?

All that to say, we’re going to travel back to India for a post or two.

Our last Indian post was about the dedication of New Life’s new building, “House of Welcome”. Let me give you a tour of the new place:

Walk through the wooden gate off of the road & you will be facing the front of House of Welcome

Take off your shoes…

…& enter the front porch

You’ll be in the hallway, & if you look to your right, you will see some new windows that let in light & air, dust & bugs.

You’ll also see the entrance to the main room, & a random picture of my mom & I that Simion downloaded from Facebook!

At the very end of the hallway, enter Simion’s office/eating room/staff sleeping room.

To the left of the office, you’ll enter the main room where the kids study, eat, sing, & sleep

You can see the neighbors backyards from the window of the main room

Here’s a view of the roof & a window in the main room

Off of the main room there is a bathroom that all of the children and staff share.

At the very left end of the hallway, there is the storage room/Simion & Puspita’s bedroom.

More of the storage room

And at the very, very left end of the hall, enter the kitchen

Finally, here is the well outside the house

We were so happy to finally be there & be able to represent all of you who gave to make this building possible

The house is well planned out with the possibility of an addition sometime in the future, which will include staff quarters. The staff are currently sleeping in the office area.

Although House of Welcome is in an area that the locals consider a “slum”, it is a much more peaceful environment than where the former house was. There are views of mountains in the distance, and lots of trees and vegetation. The house itself may not be up to Western standards, but it is comfortable and well-built in comparison to most living quarters in India. We could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the throughout the House of Welcome!