A very special birthday!

Last week, Yirui celebrated her 23rd birthday, in the company of family, friends and faculty. After the past several months, this was a very special occasion for all. An authentic Chinese birthday cake (from a St. Louis bakery delivered to Columbia's Hong Kong Market) was among the many international dishes and treats brought by guests.

Happy birthday, Yirui, and many more!

Upcoming fund raising events for the fall:

We've organized a few more fund raising events for Yirui this semester. Hopefully these events will get us to our goal and then we can all celebrate (and relax).

October 24 - Shakespeare's pizza benefit day
November 6 - Benefit concert (details to be announced!) to be held at Missouri United Methodist Church in downtown Columbia. This will be an fun filled evening of international and local musicians and performers. Come join us!
November 20 - benefit evening at Deja Vu Comedy Club

A special thanks to the Heidelberg Restaurant and the MU Graduate and Professional Council, who sponsored a benefit evening for Yirui earlier this week. Turnout was great and we hope you all enjoyed the food!

Yirui is no longer an inpatient!

Last Friday, Yirui checked out of inpatient rehab, after making great progress during the past several weeks. This week she began the outpatient phase of her rehabilitation, which will probably last for a few months. Everyone is thrilled to finally see her out of the hospital (after more than two months) and begin to get back to a normal life.

Great job, Yirui! And a special thanks to all her wonderful doctors and care providers who have helped so much on her path toward recovery.

Another milestone reached in fund raising

Thanks to many supporters (and much hard work), our campaign has successfully raised enough funds to cover the very expensive inpatient part of Yirui's medical expenses. That means the rest of our job will be much easier - funds for a few months of outpatient rehab therapy and other minor medical expenses. We are still trying to get firm numbers for these projected expenses, but we expect to need less $10,000 to complete our campaign. In fact, another $6,000 or $7,000 may be enough.

This is great news for us all. With just a little more work, we can reach this goal and continue Yirui on her amazing journey of recovery. Our friends and supporters continue to grow, as Columbia Friends of China and the Mid-Missouri Chinese Association are both helping spread the news.

And, best of all, Yirui will soon leave inpatient rehab, a major step toward resuming her normal life and studies at MU.