Saturday, July 6th

Saturday, July 6^th

Well, overall today has been a good day.

This trip has been a little rough for me so far. I think hearing of Cassie’s death the first day and then feeling helpless (and hopeless, for that matter) about the other heart babies’ situation, just really took a toll on me the first couple of days. But things are looking up, and today was good.

I think it helped last night when we had our group devotion. We went around and each said our “highs and lows” for the day, and we were all just able to talk and process everything that had gone on during the day. It was just good to talk through a lot of things but also laugh and talk about all of the funny parts of the day. I’m so happy with my team. They’re all just so sweet and down to earth. I love every single one of them.

Getting emails from my family was a highlight. My sweet baby sister emailed me today and said she was praying for the heart babies and “I hope Cassie is having a good time in heaven”. Such a sweetheart.

Kathryn and I slept through the night. My alarm went off and we both woke up still wanting to go back to sleep. So that's good -we're on China time.

Today we were told that the school children would be coming to see us, so we were so excited about the day. But sadly, when we got to the orphanage we were told that they wouldn’t come till the end of the day.

We went upstairs and some of my team walked into the baby room to see the babies, so I decided to step in and see what was going on. My poor little Nathan was crying because his bottle had fallen out of his mouth, so I picked him up and fed him. He’s such a happy baby. He loves eating, so anytime he gets his food he smiles like crazy and it spills out of his mouth and ALL over him. Such a silly little guy. I got him to smile a lot even when he was just sitting in his crib. Such a sweet little guy.



Sweet Nathan

After he was done eating I went down stairs to find the big kids with everyone else. I played with Taylor for a little bit. I love that kid. He’s so funny. He’s been noticing me taking pictures of him and what not, and so he was a little curious and asked to look at my camera, just like Charlie used to do. He’s so clever. He figured out how to work it almost all by himself, and he went around with it telling people to pose for pictures so he could take them. Don’t worry mama, the strap was still around my neck, as always. He loved it though. He’s so clever. I say this probably 20 times a day, but I can’t wait for him to go to school in the fall, because he’s so smart, and it’ll be so good for him. 

 

I spent a good chunk of my morning taking pictures of kids and figuring out my luggage situation. So I guess it was not in Guangzhou, but it’s still in Beijing. So I had to sign an authorization paper to fax to them, and they’re going to send it to Guangzhou. Once it gets there… I don’t know what will happen? Steve seems to think that we need to pick it up, but we insist that it’s the airlines responsibility. So I don’t know what will happen, haha. But at this point we only know where my bag is and not the other three. So prayers for that would be great.



Joy, the head nanny

At one point I asked Joy for a picture with her. Charlie snapped a picture, and after that she ended up putting her arms around me like a hug for our picture instead. I just love her. She’s getting much more personal, I just love it. She’s the sweetest thing every.

I went back upstairs and played with the babies for a bit. I got Nathan and we played for awhile. He had some serious gas today. But I got a lot of smiles from him and it was a lot of fun. He’s such a sweet boy. I don’t think he has any kind of special need. He’s very alert, looking all over the place. He’s kicking, rolling over, and even started babbling a little bit today. I need to ask if he’s going to have paperwork done for him. We’ll see.

We left for lunch after that. The days are so hot here… But I think that today was really hot. I was dying by the time we climbed the hill back up to the orphanage. It doesn’t help that as soon as we get to the orphanage we all cram into an elevator with no air conditioning. Haha.

In the afternoon the nannies took us into the conference room (where we usually have our meeting at the beginning of the trip) to make dumplings for the older children. It was a lot of fun.                                            They had made the meat/filling for us before hand, and then we filled them. They brought out the dough for the nannies to roll out and then give them to us to fill. It was so much fun. We ended up getting a system down, they would roll and throw the little “pancakes” to us, as Elyssa would call them.                          

 

One of the nannies would throw them all to us, and she was having so much fun with it. She would hit some of us on the head, some would make it in the bowl of filling and we would all laugh and laugh together. It was so good to all of their personalities all come out. We all really enjoyed it.

 

They would come and “inspect” the dumplings we would make and then put them on trays for them to be steamed. They kept taking Elyssa and I’s dumplings but wouldn’t take Sarah’s, because poor Sarah was having trouble getting them to look pretty. It was really funny. We were all having a good time making fun of her. And Charlie. She ended up rolling the dough with the nannies, and she kept rolling them all out in ovals so it was so hard to make the dumplings. It was so funny. The director came to join in the fun. I’ve been kind of surprised with the director this year. She has showed up quite a bit in the baby room playing with the baby and today she came to help. And her personality started to show. She was smiling and joking around with everyone. She’s usually really stern and intimidating, but she’s been warming up.   And I love it.

 

Ya’ll, we made 1,000 dumplings today. It was a LOT of work. I’m not going to lie, towards the end we were all worn down. But we all really enjoyed it. I think it was the highlight of everyone’s day.

Right after we finished the dumplings they told us to wash our hands and get ready for dinner. When we got to the room where they were having us eating, they had already steamed some of the dumplings and put them on the table along with other food.

They had a little table set up for the kids and a bigger one for us. The director ate with us, which was sweet. We enjoyed talking with them. Our dumplings looked really good, if I do say so myself! I was very impressed. They tasted good, as well. Charlie and Makenna ate some pig ear tonight, which was in one of the dished they provided for us. So, that was interesting.

They told us at dinner that this was the first time the kids had ever had dumplings before. So I guess they don’t make it very often, and it was a big deal for them. I’m so glad that they had us do this with them. I had Steve ask them who they thought did the best dumplings, because he kept making fun of us and poking fun that our dumplings “Did not qualify.” They pointed at Amy, Annie, and me. I was so proud.

After dinner Taylor was running around with the other school kids, playing and having a ball. I was so happy to see him playing with children his age and at his mental capacity. I really can’t wait for him to be at school. He’s such a sweet boy. It’ll be so good for him. SO good.

At the end of the night we talked to the director about the last day, and that we’ll have the party then. And then about church tomorrow. We’re going to take some of the school kids, Taylor, and Denise to church tomorrow. Which is a big deal. So prayers for that would be great. We’re hoping they’ll sit still and behave. Also, we’re hoping for connections in the church to help with the kids during the year when we’re not there. That would be so good for them. Hoping that if they actually SEE the kids, they’ll ask questions and what not. Prayers so appreciated.

And that pretty much closed out our night. *yawn* I’m so sleepy. Goodnight ya’ll