Chenzhou - Day 2 and Pictures!

Well, last night was interesting…

The beds are hard. As usual. But I hardly noticed because I was so tired.

Last night we had some visitors. I woke up to someone walking into our room. These men came in with suitcases and got halfway into our room when I popped my head up to see what was going on. Then they realized we were in the room and walked out quickly. I was confused but went right back to bed again. I thought it might have been a dream…

When we woke up Charlie looked at me and said, “I had this weird dream last night…” and told me what happened last night. And then we realized it actually happened! Plus they’d left a key card in our room. Not cool.

The hotel looked up the security cameras and I guess what had happened is someone left their key in their room and had a maid open up our door thinking it was their room. But it obviously wasn’t. Charlie and I stupidly forgot to deadbolt lock the door.

Hey, you learn something new every year.

In their apologies the hotel sent all of us fruit this afternoon and Charlie and I received a note saying sorry (at least that’s what we mustered from the chinglish.

Anyways, we walked to the orphanage at 8 this morning and it was actually fairly cool out. The kids were MUCH calmer, which was a huge answer to prayer. Miss Crazy (wheom we now called Leah) ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug.

This one little girl came and gave me a big hug too. She has a leg disorder where she can’t use them. It almost seems like they’re out of socket because she can move them in almost every direction. She had a walker last year to help her walk, but she doesn’t use it this year for some reason. She has incredible upper body strength. She was supposed to be adopted last year, but a family’s paperwork didn’t go through. :( she’s the sweetest thing, though. I’m going to call her Macy from now on.

I picked Macy up and she just giggled. We became close friends today! We took the kids outside to play with chalk and bubbles and they all loved it. We drew out some hop scotch for them and we played jumping games. Annie and Molly got traced by the kids, and they would draw faces and hair on the tracings. They LOVED it.

Macy and I spent some time drawing. She’s very artistic, and I remember that from last year. I drew her a heart and after that she drew nothing but hearts for a good 10 minutes. After that I drew some smiley faces, suns, flowers, and such and she copied everything I would draw.

I threw the ball around with a few of the girls and we had a lot of fun. They LOVE being tickled… unfortunately I don’t like to be tickled, and they try to tickle me back.

At one point the kids were drawing with chalk all over us all. We were sitting on the ground and got it on all our clothes… I mean, I still right now have my clothes covered in chalk. But sweet Macy noticed it all over my legs and lead me inside. I was so confused why she was taking me in, but then she took me into the bathroom to wash off. I never asked for it or anything. She did it later, as well, when we had wet wipes. It was so gross… because there was more dirt than chalk from sitting on the ground. Ew.

After awhile we took the kids inside to color. The nannies gave them some milky drink that they drank with straws. Then all the kids colored with the coloring books we brought. Macy was very good, stayed in the lines and was attentive to the coloring. I was impressed.

I sat with a little boy and colored. He kept giving me the marker to color and would tell me where he wanted it. He thought it was so great.

We also gave them paper and stickers and the kids loved it. One little girl took her paper and had me put them in her “lifebook”.

At one point Will and Leah were looking at a binder full of children at the orphanage. They were profiles for Half the Sky foundation, an organization that does amazing work in orphanages across Chinia… I think they were sponsorships, but I can’t be sure… it was all in Chinese! They looked through all the paperwork for their pictures. Leah, Will, and Xiang Xiang were in there numerous times. I looked and Leah is about 8 years old… and I had a moment when my heart just broke. I was just reminded that my sweet sister is 8 now, and this could’ve been her life… It’s a sad reality, but these kids didn’t choose to be here. They don’t  deserve it. And I just couldn’t image living a life without a mom or dad, without knowing the love of a sister. It’s just one of those moments that makes you realize how blessed you are.

Later in the morning we broke out the tattoos… and BOY did they like them! Leah looked like she was going to have sleeves if we let her. She laughed and was SO proud of them. Macy didn’t want any, but liked putting them on the kids. Such a little helper.

We handed out little clips that Amy had made to put in their hair, and they all loved them. Even the boys! ;) The little girl with down syndrome came over and was SO proud. She showed EVERYONE and made sure to let us all know just how pretty she was. I remember that from last year… such a girly girl!

Towards the end of our morning we took the kids back upstairs to their room. I went into the baby room to get my things and came out and saw a little one rocking on a little horse. She was so sweet and I went and rubbed her back.

Al also came up to me and wanted to be picked up. He’s pretty snuggly. He can crawl on his own, and he’s really close to walking now.

After that we went to lunch at the restaurant that the orphanage director usually takes us. I think it was our best meal so far. We even got our fried banana which was SO good.

We came back to our hotel for a bit and looked through some pictures. I tried some of my birthday cake oreos that I bought at the market last night and they were so good. I think they’re Charlie, Elyssa and I’s new favorite. :)

On our way back to the orphanage we ran into an American couple, and they were actually going to the orphanage because their daughter was from there. It was 3 families all taking a heritage tour together.  They were taking a car and we saw them at the orphanage when we got there.

We spent our afternoon in the baby room. I picked up a little boy whose paperwork is about to be finished so that he can find a family. He had a cleft lip, but it’s repaired now, and I don’t think there’s any other special need. He was so sweet… laid on his tummy and could hold his head up pretty well.

One thing I’ve noticed is that their core strength is much better this year… and I’d like to think that’s because of the bumbo seats we sent over! I’ve also noticed more babbling this year.

A few minutes into our stay in the baby room the nannies brought out a baby with a cleft lip. Karla had been wanting to love on a sweet baby with a cleft lip because her adopted daughter had one, and we have to motto no child left behind! When they brought him out, she just started bawling… which of course, seeing how emotional she was, made the rest of us cry. That’s what you get for having a team of all women!

Anyways, this little guy was so sweet. He loved being an “airplane” in the air. That’s when I got the most smiles out of him. At one point they brought out bottles and I was going to feed it to him, but the nannies told me he could feed himself. So I laid him on the ground and he ate. As he was eating he slowly drifted off to sleep, and then when his bottle would fall too far he would jerk awake and keep eating. He did this practically the entire time he was eating until he finished.

While we were in the baby room an older boy with down syndrome came into the room. I believe he’s 12 years old. He is such a sweetheart. He just wanted some love and attention, and loved it when I rubbed his back.  Some of the others said that he was helping with the babies the other day, and they let him hold a infant. He’s very gentle and caring and has such a big heart! At one point when I was playing airplane with my little boy he laid down on the ground next to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek and then laughed! So funny. After awhile we sat up and put his arm around my shoulder and laid his head down… just wanting to show some love. I love him so much! He found Charlie’s camera and we showed him how to use it and he went around the room taking pictures. And very good ones, I might add! We were all impressed, because I don’t even know if my sisters could aim and shoot that well. He loved it, and would show us every picture after he took it! Once he saw Annie playing with a baby by blowing on its tummy, and he decided he wanted to do the same thing. So sweet!

The diapers don’t stay on the babies very well, and Karla’s baby especially was having trouble with his today, which was unfortunate for Karla. Her little guy pooped and it was kind of runny (sorry for the descriptions) and it got all over her and on the mats. Poor thing! She kept her cool, though. Better than I would’ve been. It got all over her shirt and shorts. It was so gross!

After awhile the families visiting on their heritage tour came into the room and we got to talk with them for a bit. One woman, Lilly, is an adoptive mom with a daughter from Chenzhou and Lily is actually Chinese herself but came to America for school and stayed. She has an amazing story having to do with the Cultural Revolution that I will share later, because I’m not sure if it is safe now. It really was interesting though.

By that time they were kicking us out for the day. So we said our goodbyes and headed out.

We went to dinner at the dumpling place and it was really good. Once again, I was amazed by how fast they were rolling their dumplings in the front of the building.

Afterwards our team met to chat for a bit and the director of the orphanage came to our hotel room with the woman who helps with Love Without Boundaries (http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/)an organization that also helps orphans in China. In a nutshell, they were asking if we could help find sponsors for some of the children to go to a special school. Four of the boys went this past year and like it much better than public school. The director said that they were made fun of in a public school setting and they feel much more comfortable with the children at the school for special needs. So this coming year they were wondering if we could find sponsor for them. One being Will, the older boy with down syndrome, another boy who has epilepsy, and I can’t remember the other. We asked about any of the girls, and they said they’d love to get them sponsors as well, but they’re not sure if they can get the sponsors. These girls being Leah, the little girl with down syndrome, and another who is the sweetest thing ever. We said we would work hard to get them sponsor for the upcoming school year. It’s a big deal to get them into that school, otherwise I don’t think the girls go at all. It builds their confidence along with some important life skills which they need if they ever want to get jobs or live independently. So we will be working hard for that when we get home!

Anyways, that just about sums it up. I’m pretty tired because the director stayed for awhile and we’ve had a long day!

Don’t worry mom, I deadbolted the door tonight ;)