Our new kids...they need you

Red Thread Charities needs you to give to the max.  Your donation of $50 will help so many children.  Our group has started with a new orphanage 2 hours away from Hangzhou.  They really need us.  The children aren't smiling yet.  The staff doesn't think they are able to smile.  We proved them wrong on our initial trip when we were able to get the children who don't smile to laugh.  Belly laugh!  Please give.  And consider a trip with us if you are a pediatric therapist!  The children are waiting.  This is what your donation will be used for:  

• ·      Therapy balls
• ·      Reverse walkers
• ·      Cleft Lip and Palate nursers
• ·      Finger cots for oral motor use
• ·      Beautiful board books written in Mandarin
• ·      Cause/ Effect toys
• ·      Musical toys
• ·      Headphones for music therapy
• ·      Sensory brushes
• ·      Therapy putty
• ·      And the list goes on…

Give here at www.redthreadcharities.org/  I feel so strongly about this that I will send you a small Chinese prize if you donate and send me an email.  It might be a silk purse, a cute chinese notebook, a small porcelain tea set... wonderful little things that Cheryl and I went crazy shopping for!  Any amount is wonderful and I would be honored if you sent me an email telling me that you donated.  Let me, Jane Steinmetz,  know at bamboobaby5@mac.com and I would love to send you a sweet prize guaranteed to be made in China.  This little guy is a waiting child but he is happy and living the good life thanks to RTC.  If he is not adopted he will go to work somewhere in China.  He won't go to college but he will still be a happy guy thanks to RTC.  At some point we have to say goodbye.  He needs a family to help him be the little man he can be!  Is it you?   All of our adoptive families have never looked back.      

Beethoven's Minuet in G

Our 10 year old daughter Quin nearly always accompanies us when we go to work at the orphanages in China.  This morning back at home in Wisconsin, she had a very astute observation that I would like to share with you.
Quin takes piano lessons and her teacher has assigned her to learn Beethoven's Minuet in G.  She wanted her to familiarize herself with the music before the next lesson.  I googled a version on You Tube for her to listen to.  When she heard the music, she started to laugh and said, "I wonder why she wants me to learn a chinese children's song!"  I was confused and she explained...  "This is the song they play every morning for the children at Hangzhou!"  Of course!  This melody is so familiar to me that it went right over my head but Quin's only experience hearing it was when she watched the children being taken for walks every single morning at the orphanage in Hangzhou!  I told Quin what valuable information that is for parents who have just adopted a child from Hangzhou.  Playing this same music for a child is a way perhaps, to ease the transition during the adoption process, or comfort a child who has just had surgery.  I also explained to her that it might have the opposite affect and cause anxiety.  But I do know for sure that when those kids hear this song with their new families from the US, or Europe they won't be hearing a classical piece written by a famous german composer.  They'll be hearing this sweet chinese children's song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f00pkoMnYPc