Today we started out the day with a nice breakfast as usual.
Please pray for Rachel because the gluten allergy seems to be pretty difficult
to work around.
We headed out to the orphanage and when we arrived the kids
were just coming in, and they all ran and grabbed our hands and brought us into
the playroom on the bottom floor. The
nanny turned on some music and we all danced together. Gracie stood in front of
me singing the whole time. If I would do the dance moves wrong, she would stop
quickly to correct me and make sure I was doing it right. Colin is starting to
go through some voice changes, I think. He was singing and his voice is so deep
compared to the others. The kids jumped around and danced for a good fifteen
minutes. By the end of the dances we were all drenched in sweat!
Afterwards we all sat down at the table. We sang a little
song and at the end of each verse, each kid would stand up and introduce
themselves and let the teacher know they were present. They even made Bob,
Rachel, and I tell the teacher we were there, too ;). Afterwards they all went
around and introduced themselves, telling us their name, gender, and age. Some
of the children are nonverbal, so the older ones jumped up to help them. It was
very sweet. Then they each went around and those that could, sang a song for
us. It was so cute, because all these years I thought that our sweet Ray was
nonverbal. He never speaks, even when others talk to him first. But when it
came to him, he stood up and he started to sing a song in his tiny little
voice. It was so cute I could’ve died. He was very quiet though, so the others
eventually chimed in with him. They had a time of asking questions and if the
kids knew the answer, they would jump up, raise their hand, and then tell the
answer. It seemed to be almost like a game show! The whole time Gracie wouldn’t
let go of my hand, unless she stood up to answer a question. J
During our time at the table, Steve was able to video chat
with Shannon (previous team leader) and her two kids recently adopted from
Chenzhou. It was cool for Syler to see his old home, and I think the kids
enjoyed being able to see him too. When Gracie saw him for the first time, her
eyes got all red and she pointed and shouted his name. I thought for sure she
was going to cry because she missed him so much. Tears filled my eyes as I
watched her eyes become red, thinking that she’s seen so many of her friends in
the last two years find families, and she is still here. It has to be so hard
for her. I can’t imagine being in the place that she is in. Being one of the
only healthier kids left, being one of the last to be adopted. We are praying
very hard that she finds a family. {if you are interested, please contact me! I
have videos and pictures of this smart girl}
After that it was snack time. They had little shrimp
flavored potato chip type sticks and some yogurt. I noticed little Jack was
laying his head on the table, so I picked him up and fed him his snack. He took
his time, slow and steadily eating it until he was the last one to finish.
Some of the older kids drew and colored for a little bit. When
Jack finished I spent some time trying to get him to walk. He struggles a
little bit, placing his toes first instead of his heels. But as we practiced
some he got better and better. He LOVED being able to walk. He was squealing
when I picked up his hands and stood him up.
We walked over to the other corner of the room where the
other kids were playing with legos. I sat down next to Ray and Paul. They were
both building towers together, and they handed Jack and I some legos to build
our own tower. Ray kept bringing me more and more, and I kept stacking them.
Paul thought it was funny, and then he knocked it over, which of course, both
of the boys loved and they laughed so hard. They’re both such sweet boys. They
kept handing Jack some buildings they had built and then Jack would drop the
blocks again and the boys would erupt in laughter. It was so cute.
Eventually I made my way back to the table and Mia came to
greet me. She’s a funny one. She watches you, studies your eyes to make sure
that you are paying attention to her. If not, she’s sure to find a way to bring
your attention back to her. Usually a yell or a slap on the arm works. I gave
her some hugs and rubbed her back and arms. I’ve found that those are things
that calm her in the midst of all the craziness going on around her.
Eventually it was time to go, so we cleaned up and said
goodbye to the kids.
Mr. Wren took us to one of the local shopping centers during
our lunch break to look at air conditioners for us to purchase for them. It was
funny because Rachel and I have noticed that all the women here wear heels, and
usually pretty high ones with lots of glitter and sparkles. Well, the girls in
the store had their uniforms on (polo and black pants) and their sparkily high
heels. Anyways, Mr. Wren picked out the unit that we liked so we could go back
and purchase it later.
After lunch we went to the bank to exchange money, which
seemed to be a bit of a challenge. There’s only a certain amount of money you
can exchange at the bank under one passport, so we each had to exchange the
orphanage donation money which took quite awhile.
Bob and I decided we would run down to drop off our laundry
while Rachel finished exchanging her money, and Steve waited with her as well.
When we got the lady who runs it wasn’t there, it was her
husband. Which I remember last year happening, and he had no idea what to do,
haha. He called his wife and started counting our pieces of clothing. He then
asked me to sign, so I did. Then he asked me to write something else, and I
didn’t know what it was. We kinda laughed a little and so I took it and printed
my name, which I obviously knew at the time that’s not what he wanted… but I
didn’t know what else he wanted. He looked down at the paper and laughed so
hard. When his wife finally came back, he pointed to where I wrote my name and
they both laughed together haha! I was quite the spectacle. She tried to tell
us some stuff which was obviously hard to understand and we just kinda shook
our heads yes many times. We could’ve agreed to join the circus for all I know.
Steve did come by eventually to clear things up.
Steve and Bob headed to the convenience store to purchase
the air conditioners and Rachel and I went back to the orphanage to play with
the babies.
It was funny because I didn’t realize it yesterday, but one
of the cleft babies in the room was Angelina from last year. Rachel and I had
talked about her last night and then when I was playing with her today I was
trying to think of a name for her, but I just couldn’t come up with one that
seemed to fit. Well of course that’s because Angelina fit her perfectly. I
didn’t recognize her at first because I remember Angelina being so so tiny, and
she has grown up so much now. She can stand and walk with help, and can crawl
on her own, so that’s good. She’s generally pretty unresponsive when Rachel and
I would both play with her, which was disheartening. At one point she was
crawling along and she stopped to look at my foot. She seemed to be fascinated
by my sock and toes. She just stared at it for awhile and then kept touching it
and moving them. I mean, for a good long while. Liz even looked over and
started laughing. Angelina smelled them too. I looked at Liz and make a gesture
like it was smelly and she laughed.
When Steve arrived at the orphanage, I had pictures of some
of the children that have been adopted and showed them to the nannies. They
studied the pictures and talked about each one, asking questions. Liz looked at
the picture of Austin and recognized him, saying that she worked with him for
awhile so that he would be able to have movement in his hand (his hand was
burned before and couldn’t move it well). I told her that he is doing very well
know and has sisters that love him very much. She was very pleased and
intrigued, and asked if she could keep the picture of him. J
When feeding time came around we went to the other room and
I fed sweet little Emma. She was more curious than hungry. She only ate a
couple sips from her bottle at first before she sat up and looked all over. I
finally got her to sit and eat, because she needs to finish before they put her
to bed.
There was one baby in the room that was crying for almost
the entire time we were in there. Rachel went to pick him up and he was having
the hardest time breathing. He must be very sick. But I’m not kidding you, he
was wheezing (I said he sounded like the penguin from Toy Story, Wheezy) like
crazy. Anytime he was set down he cried and cried, which made it harder to
breath, which I’m sure scared him and then caused him to cry some more. It made
me cry to hear him gasp for air. When Emma was done with her bottle I picked
him up again and rocked him around, hoping that he would stop. He did, but as
soon as Steve told us it was time to go, and I put him back, he started crying
again. And as I walked to the elevator, I could hear his cry from down the
hall.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the bakery to
order a cake for tomorrow’s party. Rachel and I were looking around at all the
pastries when a girl came up to us and started talking to us. She was speaking
English, and it was pretty good, actually. We asked her how old she was and she
seemed like she could hardly breath and replied, “I’m so sorry, I am very
nervous”. She had just finished high school. We talked for a good 10-15
minutes. She was a very sweet girl and very curious about us and America. She
asked if we liked Chenzhou, and when I said yes, and that I love China, she
giggled with delight and said, “Oh thank you, thank you!” It was very fun to
talk to her.
For dinner we went out to a hot pot restaurant. The
restaurant was in a new mall that I’ve never been in before. And let me tell
you, this mall was HUGE. Six stories high, and it stretched forever on all
sides. Now, I’ve been to a hot pot restaurant before, but it wasn’t like this.
Here, you make your own type of sauce to put on your dishes, and then you sit
down with a conveyer belt type thing in front of you. Then as ingredients come
by, you pick it out and put it in a boiling pot in front of you to cook. Once
they are cooked, you put the sauce you made on the food and eat it. It was very
interesting. I really enjoyed it, too. There were lots of interesting
ingredients, such as shrimp (with the head), chicken wings, squid, and bean
curd made from pig intestine blood. Yumm. All in all though, it was a very nice
experience, and we had a lot of fun talking with Steve tonight.
Anyways, that’s about all there is to report for the night.
Tomorrow is our last day at the orphanage which is very sad.
It seems like our trip has been too short, and that I just got my feet in the
water, and now we have to leave. But obviously, I am very grateful for the time
that we have been given to be at the orphanage, love on the kids, and catch up
with the nannies.
Pray for us as we love hard and love big tomorrow, and as we
leave it all behind again. It never gets easier.
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