Thursday, July 11th

Today Kathryn and I both woke up with a really bad sore throat. Hoping that goes away. I think it’s just from the smoky air or something… but we can both feel that our lymph nodes are all swollen. :( My sore in my mouth still hurts… Danielle gave me some tablets for my mouth, which helped a little, so I’m hoping those will bring it down. Thank God for Danielle!

When we got to the orphanage today, half of us went up in the elevator. When I got up there, all the kids ran out and went crazy, jumping on us and giving us hugs. I felt so loved, haha. Little Paul came and grabbed my hands and pulled my inside to sit with him. Everyone went to play with the babies, but Paul wouldn’t let me go. So I sat with him for awhile.

All he wanted to do was sit with me. Such a little snuggle bug. I scratched his back for a bit. Again, just wanting that physical touch. I know it’s so hard to be able to give all the kids that kind of attention, especially when there’s only a couple nannies in that room. But I’m glad to be able to spread it out to these kids while I’m here. This little guy is so sweet.

Every time I see Mia, she runs up to me and will give me a hug and immediately start clapping. She loves to clap ever since the other day. So I clapped with her for a little bit.



Kathryn loving on sweet Emerson for one of the last times



Beautiful baby Emerson



Help is on the way, sweet Charlotte!

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that baby Sarah had been propped up in the crib, but because she has no core muscles, she kept slipping and slipping. Eventually Paul got off of my lap, so I ran over to grab her. She had been sobbing silent tears (which is very rare for that little girl. Her heart may not work properly, but her lungs sure do! Her cry is SO loud). I snatched her up and brought her into the baby playroom with everyone else.

I sat down with her and played for a bit. I walked around the room with her for a little bit. As I was walking, I looked at the play mat and realized that there was a new little boy playing. He’s another boy with down syndrome, and so so handsome. He and Sadie were really hitting it off. She kept licking his ear and his mouth. We’re pretty sure they’re a couple now. ;)

My sweet Sarah

I got the bumbo seat out for Sarah to sit in. Last year she sat in those EVERY day, and I thought for sure that it’d help her core muscles. But it really hasn’t. I think because she’s just so tiny and she doesn’t get the nutrition she needs… her body must need a lot more than a normal baby. I propped her up and put a bow on her head. I may be a little biased… but she’s one of the most beautiful babies I’ve ever seen. She’s so sweet, her cheeks are so round and her eyelashes are so long. So sweet.

 

Sarah just needs some medical care and lots and lots of love!

She started reaching for things and grabbing them today. She’s been working on it this week, but today she saw something she really wanted and went for it right away. So that made my heart happy to see.

Joy came into the room, and I don’t know how it all started, but all the nannies started doing yoga with Annie. Haha. They’re all so goofy. I love seeing their personalities.

Yoga time with the nannies

Liz, one of the nannies, is trying to get Annie to marry her son who is in his early 20’s. It’s pretty funny. They all LOVE Annie. They think she’s the funniest thing.

After their little yoga time, Joy came over to get Sarah saying she needed to go get an IV. We were all so excited today, saying they weren’t on their IV in the morning, and they must all be better. But I guess not. Soon all of our babies were taken to get their IV’s.

Once Joy took Sarah away we all started to go back to the big kid room. Little Jesse was laying on the table when I got in there crying, so I picked her up and started bouncing her. It didn’t take long before she started giggling. She’s a very happy baby as long as someone’s holding her.

 

We started to bring the kids downstairs, but the elevator was taking forever. So I took Jesse and we walked down the stairs. She loved that.

Outside we played with the kids for a bit. We ran around to wear them out and get their energy out. Amy brought down a craft for the kids. They sat and glued strips of paper together to make a paper chain. Some of them didn’t understand the concept and would make bracelets out of it. I mean hey, whatever makes them happy, we don’t care.

 

After that we brought out those little animal capsules, that when you put them in water the sponge comes out and there’s little animal shapes. The kids loved that. They were so excited and would pull them out and show me all the animals that they found. It was very sweet.

After that we brought the kids back upstairs and into their room.

At lunch a lot of our team spent a lot of time putting together gift bags for the nannies. Today was our last full day at the orphanage, but since our train doesn’t leave Chenzhou until 2 pm tomorrow, we decided to have some time at the orphanage in the morning. We’re going to have another party like we did last year. The kids were all dressed in matching outfits today because they had been practicing for us. We’ve prepared to sing a worship song for the nannies and kids, as well. It should be a fun day. Very sad when goodbyes come around, but otherwise fun.

Back at the orphanage we spent some more time with the babies. I went to get Nathan, and his nanny again came and gave me a big hug. She has such a sweet and tender heart. Nathan saw me and smiled because he knew he was going to be picked up. Such a goober. Love that little boy.

I brought him down to the playroom and set him down to play. He just smiled all day. I went to get Sarah again and brought her in the room. Took a few more pictures of her, and then held her for a while. I want to love her as much as I can. I know she doesn’t get picked up as much as she needs… and you really can’t with that many kids. Her cry is so loud and so pitiful. Whenever she would get uncomfortable she would yell out this cry, and it was so sad. But she sat for some time before she got sick of being held. So that was good.

I played with little Nathan. He was getting closer and closer to rolling over from his belly onto his back now. He needs to work on that more, because he fusses when he gets tired of holding his head up. And when that happens he just face plants. Haha. So he needs to learn to flip around again.

After spending a good amount of time with the babies, we brought them all back to their cribs and played with the big kids. Once again, Paul came and found me and sat with me for awhile. Lena, Dora, and Ray all tried to get in my lap, too. Haha. One of the nannies got a hold of my phone and started searching through my pictures. Soon all the kids saw what she was doing and noticed that most of them were from being here. Dora and Ray looked through them all, and Dora would yell out the names of the kids whenever their picture came up. She was so excited when she found a video of her friend Lena. Ray LOVED watching a video of himself working out this morning. It was so funny. His face just lit up.

Annie came and handed sweet Sophie to me. Sophie is such a snuggle bug. She just wants to snuggle and lay her head on your shoulder. So sweet. It does good for my heart. In the midst of all the crazy, a calm child’s hug is just what I needed.

Amy brought out some cookies that she had bought and icing for the kids to ice it with. They all went CRAZY. But I mean, we expected that. Amy gave Sophie a cookie and we sat in the corner while she ate it. She got it ALL over her face. It was super cute.

All the school kids came back tonight so they could be here for the party tomorrow. So we got to see them. In fact, they joined in on the icing cookie thing. But they loved it.

Hope saw me and came running and was climbing all over me, nonstop for a good 30 minutes. She just wanted to be held and then would jump out of my arms. She loved being tickled and swung around.

I had a nice conversation with Joy today. I asked if she had an email that I could talk to her on at home, but I guess she doesn’t. At one point Steve said, “Why are you asking about this? This sounds like a goodbye, but this isn’t goodbye. You still have tomorrow!” And Joy’s eyes began to fill with tears.

And that’s when I knew.

It wasn’t going to be easy.

It will NEVER be easy.

Saying goodbye, that is.

Eventually they brought us all down to have dinner at the orphanage again. That’s the FOURTH time that we’ve eaten at the orphanage this year. And we’ve never eaten here once. So that was exciting. I like it a lot. I feel like it’s them inviting us into their homes. When we want to get to know someone better, or when we have close friends, we invite them over to our homes to eat dinner. And I think this is kind of like that.

As we sat down, Shannon prayed, but then the director said she wanted to toast us. She started talking about how she can tell we really love the kids, and that we really have made a difference. She said, “Thank you for all that you have done for the kids. Especially thank you for your help with the babies with the bad hearts.” And as she said this, she started to tear up.

This woman, who is usually so stern.

She thanked us.

And started to show that she was grateful for what we’ve done.

So naturally, I began to tear up.

The food was very good. We made sure to eat a lot, so we wouldn’t offend the orphanage. The Chinese always say that we don’t eat very much… but we really do! We ate a lot extra tonight, too. Annnd we may have moved some food around to make it look like we hate more than we actually did. Haha. But it all worked out. They even had fried banana for us! So sweet and thoughtful of them.

After dinner was finished, they said, “Are you finished? It’s time for dessert now!” And we all went, “Dessert?!” But they brought out watermelon for us to eat. It made me chuckle a little bit. Fruit is so rare for them. All the nannies say their favorite food is fruit. Must be considerably more expensive here or something. Whenever the kids get watermelon they eat the fruit all the way down to the rind.

After we finished eating they gathered us all up for a group photo. I’ll say that I’m really impressed with Steve’s “th” sound. Most Chinese people have trouble with that… but when he would say, “one, two, three” it sounded almost perfect! Haha. Okay, side note.

After that we all went around taking pictures with the nannies and staff. I asked Liz for my picture and she gave me a hug. And then I asked Joy. Oh, Joy… I could see her tears begin to form in her eyes. She looked at me and made her eyes so big and tried to be goofy. Her way of fighting back tears. Then she gave me a huge hug and kept kissing me on the cheeks. I can’t say it enough… I love her so much.

Charlie started talking to Liz and Joy about how she won’t be back again and that she’s going to miss them. And they all started bawling. Which made all of us start to bawl. *Sigh* Tomorrow is not going to be easy.

To lighten the mood, we stood in a circle and Annie did some crazy dancing. I’m telling you, they think she is the funniest thing ever. Some of the older kids that had snuck back in the room joined in. She got Taylor and Colin to do the worm with her. Haha. We all started doing the Hokey Pokey to cheer up a little.

So many tears shed tonight. And I know many more will be shed tomorrow.

It’s something that I don’t look forward to.

And from then we said our goodbyes for the night and went back to the hotel.

I have a lot of packing to do. Okay, maybe not a lot. But our room is a mess right now. Kathryn and I also did laundry today (washed it by hand) and it’s currently hanging up to dry. But I don’t think it’s anywhere close to being done. So we may be using the blow dryer to dry all of our clothes tonight. Hahaha.

Anyways, a few more prayer requests:

HEART BABIES: Last we heard, Chenzhou sent the babies' medical evaluations to New Hope in Beijing, and there may be some confusion as to the next step.  Show Hope says they're waiting for the director's consent and the director says she is waiting for the doctor's confirmation at New Hope that they'll take the babies. We're trying to work that out right now so there isn't any hangups.  Our guide, Steve, seemed surprised when we said they take all kids, and New Hope should be able to fix their hearts. He said, “Oh! It’s not too complicated?” Of course we won’t know until they get there, but they’re pretty sure they can help them. SO, pray that things are sped up, and we have papers signed TOMORROW. I would feel so at ease knowing that they have signed those, and New Hope starts working on travel arrangements.  FYI-Show Hope was founded by Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman and they have partnered with New Hope foster home in Beijing to help orphans (along with a million other things they do for orphans and adoptive families).  Show Hope is AMAZING, you all!  They have advocated for these babies and are moving mountains to get these little ones the care they need.  Check them out HERE and if you're ever looking for a worthy charity...they are IT!

LAST DAY: Tomorrow is our last day… and it’s going to be sad. It was bad enough tonight. So just pray for us as we say goodbye to our friends and that we feel at peace, and that they do too.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. I appreciate you more than you know.

And I'll leave you with this video of the beautiful kids we love on: