Family Day at ELG (Cooper's school)

The day after the aquarium trip we were invited to go to Cooper's school for family day.
For a refresher, Cooper attends The Essential Learning Group (ELG) which is the only, the ONLY, school for special needs kids in Shanghai. And there are about 23 million people here...
The school has about 45 kids or so from ages 2-18. Their needs range from autism to blindness to kids that have obvious issues but no diagnosis.
Cooper has 4 other boys in his class. MyMy and DiDi are both 3 and are Chinese. Shaveer is 3 and from India and Luca is 4 and from Texas! Coop is the only one with an actual diagnosis of anything but all have speech and fine motor delays of varying degrees. They are all such sweet boys!
Anywho, so on this Saturday we were invited to come meet other families who attend the school, eat some grilled food, plant from flowers in the school's garden and just hang out for a bit.
Sophie had never been to his school and Ben hadn't met some of his therapists so we were really looking forward to going!

Of course, Sophie and Coop spent a lot of time on the playground equipment they have.

Sophie getting her "tattoo". She was mesmerised...

Coop's new trick- climbing UP the slide. Great for fine and gross motor, BAD for when you're at an actual playground with kids who want to go DOWN the slide.

Their sandbox- Coop has finally stopped eatting sand! Yay!! We think he ate so much of it in Cebu that he figured out that it wasn't a great idea...

Soph showing of her new tat- butterflies and flowers! What else could a girl need?

She loved it and was SO sad when it came off in the bath that night. :)

They also had a bouncy castle thing that Coop did NOT like, at first.

However, when sissy helped him out, he loved it! They bounced together for a long while and then he was able to really enjoy it by himself. Such a good big sis. :)

This is DiDi and Coop's main "teacher", Femke (go Dutch!).

Sophie helping out one of the founders, Shari Rosen, plant some flowers. They were fast friends. Shari and her husband, Monte, founded ELG with another friend 6 yrs ago. All are from the US and are planning to stay for good bc they know the need for this school is so great. Amazing people!

The morning went quickly and we headed home just in time for nap.
Afterwards we decided to give the new outdoor pool a try since it opened that day.
We arrived to discover that the pool was being closed due to dirty water.
See, half the pool has a sand bottom that merges onto an artifical beach and the other half is a normal pool. The problem they were having that day was that the sand was making the water cloudy and they couldn't see the bottom. A bit of a problem if someone's in the middle of drowning. :)
So, in to the indoor pool we went.
On the left is the shallow pool where Soph can touch. On the right is the hottub. The pool was really cold that day so the hottub was pretty popular. :)

Coop is very floatable in all this gear. It takes this much to keep him floating! He's getting so big...

Coop and Daddy having fun in the shallow pool...

The day was full and fun. It's so great to have the warm weather back and get outside and enjoy          everything. We're looking forward to many more weekends like this one!                                            

I'll post their birthday celebrations soon. Much was celebrated, although our family and friends at      home were dearly missed as well.                                                                                                           

As for an update on my church issue- So, after talking with a fellow Christian friend here, Kristin, I    realized that the reason I'm struggling with our church here is bc it's a seeker-church. Each sermon is about giving your life to Christ and how to do that. All very important stuff and it's great they are leading others to Christ.                                                                                                   

However, it leaves the believer feeling unfed. I spend each Sunday saying, yes, I have given my life   to Christ so, I need more now!                                                                                                                

So, I need prayer to find something from this church to feed what is hungry in my soul. I have been    feeling distant from God here and I don't like it at all. Not that my faith is wavering at all, I'm just       feeling like I am far from Him and that He is far from me. Any prayers or advice for how we can        reconnect are greatly welcomed!!                                

To bed I must go!!! 3 posts in one night- not too shabby. :)