Day Three - New Hope, Beijing

Today we visited an American run orphanage in the Beijing area. We have friends who are very closely connected with this orphanage and it was really a great experience to visit.

 

Today Rachel and I woke up around 4:30 and were wide awake. I told myself I would go back to bed, but I just couldn’t fall back to sleep unfortunately :/.

 

After breakfast at the hotel we drove the orphanage. It was about an hour away from Beijing. I love driving away from the city and gradually watching it become less and less buildings and more agricultural.

 

When we arrived we met with the founder and heard his story. They have a really amazing facility. They started in 2000 with the intent to care for children who needed medical attention that their orphanages couldn’t give them. A lot of the times the orphanages don’t have the resources to give  children surgeries, so this family took them in and would give the kids surgeries and do whatever else needed. They now have 5 care facilities around the country, and combined can hold 360 kids at one time. Once the children are well enough, they file for their adoption paperwork, and once the paperwork is finished, they are brought back to their original orphanage in hopes that they will find an adoptive family. It was an amazing story to hear. It all started as a dream, and now 14 years later they have grown so much, and are changing so many lives.

 

I know a few of the babies that live at New Hope currently, and I was super anxious to see them again and see the progress that they’ve made. Rachel and I went to use the restroom at one point and I walked down the steps to find my sweet Sarah coming out of the cafeteria. I looked at Rachel and said, “Oh my gosh, that’s my baby. That’s her.” And started tearing up. I so badly wanted to snatch her up and play with her, but at the risk of scaring her, I resisted haha. I smiled and waved and could barely keep the tears in.

 

We visited the unit for the heart babies, and were amazed by the care they’re given. In fact, I’m just completely amazed by the whole orphanage in general. They are SO organized. The founder, Robin, told us details about the kids and how organized their nannies are and what not. My near OCD-type A personality was thrilled. They even said that they sterilize the place TWICE a day. Amazing.

 

At that time all the kids were about to take naps, so they were all laying down. I peaked in and saw my little baby, Charlotte, and she is so big now! She has a whole head of hair. We waved and smiled at her, and she smiled and giggled back! Such a cutie. I hope to be able to spend more time with her next week.

 

We toured the facility downstairs, and we were able to see where the kids sleep and play. They break them up into “Families”, which consists of 12 kids and 6 nannies. I like those numbers. So that’s who they play with and spend most of their time with. Some of the older toddlers go to preschool that they have in the orphanage, as well.

 

When we finished with the tour it was naptime for all of the kids, so we left for a little bit and ate lunch.

 

When we came back we went to find the babies to play with. We walked down to find my sweet Sarah. When we walked up to the door we were immediately greeted by two little ones at the door that were ready to play! J I was so happy to finally be playing with kids. We spent the whole afternoon playing with them. Most of them in Sarah’s room were probably 2-3 years old.

 

I had prepared myself for the fact that Sarah might be scared of strangers, and thus, may be nervous around me. But when I walked up to her, she put her arms out like she wanted me to pick her up. I grabbed her and we played for awhile.

 

She’s three and still very tiny, but doing much better than she was before. She has a double chin now! :)) She can sit up all on her own, which is something that we only dreamed of a year ago. She can stand up with help, and is taking steps with help as well. She’s a very happy baby, which was so wonderful to see. I mean, this was the child who I never saw smile, but she was giggling and smiling today. It did my heart good to see her doing so well.  Obviously she still has a long way to go. She has some developmental delays, but I can already see the improvement, and I’m believing she’ll continue to improve.

 

We had a blast spending the afternoon with the kids. We were able to crack the "shells" of some of the shy kids, and it was so fun to watch their personalities unfold in front of us. They’re very energetic and love to play. Each “family” has their own playroom, and they’re very nice! They all have a theme as well, which is super cute.

 

We stayed the whole afternoon, but the kids had to take another nap, so we decided it was time for us to go back to the hotel. On the drive home, all three of us slept for a little bit. It was a tiring day.

 

We went to a cute little walking street in Beijing and walked around and then stopped to eat some dinner. Our guide orders lots of food for us at every meal, and we can never finish it… but he always tries to get us to eat more and more food. Rachel and I are always so full but he scolds us for not eating enough. * sigh *

 

Anyways, that was pretty much our night. I’m currently exhausted because I’ve been up since 4:30 this morning. I’m hoping I’ll sleep very well tonight.

 

We take the train to Chenzhou tomorrow, and I’m very excited to be back in the city! J


(My mom is having trouble adding photos to the blog, so she will be posting them to Facebook for now.)