Wednesday, July 10th

“I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I’m praying for strength.”

—	Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa is one of my heroes. I look up to her in so many ways. I found this quote today on my break and I just felt like it fit so perfectly how I’m feeling right now.

This morning Amy and I were curious to see if the heart babies would be back and what information they would have on them, and if they’d be willing to share.

We went up to the orphanage and saw that baby Charlotte was getting ready to be put on an IV. The nanny in the room, who is Nathan’s nanny, saw me and came over to give me a big hug. She always has a smile on her face, and is always so cheery. Seeing Charlotte there, I quickly went to find Sarah and see if she was there. She was in the older kids’ bed room hooked up to an IV. Sweet as ever, just sitting there. I just love that little angel so much.

I walked back to the baby room to see who else was in there, and Nathan’s nanny had just finished changing him when she picked him up and handed him to me. So I brought him down to the playroom. When I got there Steve was holding papers, and he told us they were evaluations on the heart babies from last night. He read the parts that he knew how to translate (medical terms are so hard to translate between Chinese and English). He said that Charlotte’s heart condition is very severe, and the surgery is very complicated. We kind of thought that, because she’s blue. She has a few different things that she may need multiple surgeries. Sarah’s isn’t so severe. He told us that the orphanage said we could take pictures if we wanted and then send them to the doctors in Beijing. So you better believe we jumped on that. So exciting.

Nathan working on those core muscles

I played with Nathan for a bit. We’ve been working on getting him to sit up, but he just doesn’t have the strength. He’s just little. But we propped him up so he would sit up. He’d start to fall forward a little bit, but we hovered over him and prop him up.

Blossom - is she not adorable?

Shannon bought a cake for baby Blossom because her birthday is in a few days. So we all gathered around for the party. It was Nathan, Minnie, and Angelina’s first birthday party that they had ever been to. They didn’t last for long. All three of them fell asleep half way through. Such party animals.

I gave Nathan to Elyssa to hold because the nannies handed me cake to feed to the babies. I fed Ellie for a little bit, but she wasn’t very hungry for cake, so I gave Sarah (teammate) my piece of cake. By this time we decided it was time to go play with the older kids. So everyone took babies back to their cribs and I stayed back and picked up toys and cameras.

 

By the time I had picked up everything and walked into the big kid room, most of the kids had already been brought outside, so I stayed with Joy who was helping Carrie (Caroline) walk to the elevator. We rode down and when I got off one of the nannies had a big pot of mush that she was bringing up to the babies. So I held the door open for her (those elevators always close so quickly here) and the nanny said thank you. I tried to say “you’re welcome”, but must have failed miserably. Because Joy looked at me and corrected me saying, “yea xie xie”, and I said it and she laughed a little bit. She corrected me once again, and then I repeated it and she clapped and gave me a big hug. :) Just got a little Mandarin lesson from Joy today. Love her.

When we got outside there wasn’t much going on. Yesterday Kathryn and I bought Sydney a dress because she’s always dressed in boys clothes. And she literally looks like a boy. So we gave her the dress, which was fun. Throughout the end of the day she put her shorts back on underneath it because she likes that. But now she looks like a girl, haha.

Since there wasn’t much going on, Amy and I went back up again to get some tattoos to give the kids. And then we had to cut them all up, which took quite a bit of time.

We took them outside and discretely started showing the kids one by one the tattoos, but then all the kids seemed to find out and they all went crazy. Haha. They loved them, though. Dora was working her way to getting herself some tattoo sleeves. Taylor was getting them all over the place. Legs, arms, face, you name it.

Our guide, Steve

Every day that we’re outside this older lady with some mental disability will come out and stand next to Steve (our guide) and sing to him. The first day we could tell he felt a little awkward, but now he’s so sweet and will sit with her and listen and then sing back to her sometimes. Steve’s awesome.

We brought the kids back upstairs eventually and got them settled in and had to leave.

A few of us went to the market before lunch to get drinks and what not. We were checking out and all these Chinese people kept trying to cut us in line. They’re so rude and unaware of their space sometimes. It was interesting. Then Danielle wanted to go and look at the shoe stores downstairs, so we walked around for a bit. A lady who spoke very good English came up and started helping us. I told her that her English was very good and she just giggled and said thank you. I’ve noticed that more people than I expected speak English here. KFC has quite a few workers whose English is fairly good. I’ve been impressed.

We decided not to go back to the orphanage in the afternoon because we were going shopping for shoes, underwear and other things for the kids then. Though some of us didn’t go with because we didn’t want to get in the way or overcrowd everyone.

They came back with a lot of clothes for the kids, but didn’t find the shoes they were looking for, for the price that we wanted. So, we’re hoping to find another store for those.

We went to KFC for dinner tonight. We got lots of stares and people asking for pictures. The usual. We also go ice cream which was wonderful.

I haven’t been feeling 100% today. Little sick. Woke up with a sore throat, and another sore in my mouth which makes it hard to eat anything. I also started reacting to something (I don’t know what… because it came out of the blue) and my eye started puffing up. But that’s nothing benadryl can’t fix. I’ve been exhausted all day. So I’m not sure what’s up. But I’d appreciate prayers. Tomorrow is the last day, so I’m hoping to feel better for that.

The orphanage director still has not signed the consent for the heart babies transfer to New Hope in Beijing.  PLEASE pray with me that she signs soon.  I think baby Charlotte will need heart surgery soon if anything can be done for her!

 

Tuesday, July 9th

BIG news from today. Big things are happening with the heart babies, and I’m so excited. God is so good!

Today at the orphanage we decided to switch things up a little bit. Shannon thought it would be better to spend an hour in with the babies and then the rest of the time with the big kids.

This morning it seemed like all of the babies were on an IV. They say they’re sick with a cold or fever, so they’ve been giving them the fluids to make them better.

We grabbed a few babies and brought them down to the baby playroom. We sat and played with the babies for a bit. Nathan must be getting new teeth in because he LOVES to chew on his fingers and mine. By the end of the hour I had drool all down my arms, haha.

When the time came to bring them back to their cribs, I set Nathan down on his back, and he immediately flipped over on his stomach and looked up at me. I gave him a little kiss goodbye and he looked at me and started to cry. It broke my heart.

I walked into the room where the older kids were, and most of our team had brought them down already. Carrie was left in the room, so I waited with her while she used her walker to get to the elevator. Sarah decided to stay with me and help. Carrie does well with the walker, but she’s still a little slow with it. She’s just not used to being able to walk. I think once she uses it a lot, she’ll be able to run around with it.

Once we got outside, all the kids were blowing bubbles. Annie brought really cool Gymboree bubbles and bubble blowers, and the kids love those. Little Ray loves to blow bubbles. Drew kept trying again today. He kept spitting all his drool at the blower, but he eventually got some bubbles out and he was SO proud! :)

 

 

I sat down and sweet Cameron came up to me again today. So I started to rub his back a little bit. He absolutely loves it. He eventually came and sat in my lap, once again, and laid on my shoulder. He’s such a sweetheart. Just wants that physical touch. I had Julia blow bubbles to him and he LOVED it. His face lit up and he smiled so big.

When he got tired of sitting in my lap and left, little Penelope came and sat in my lap. I rubbed her back, as well. She kept looking at me with a tiny bit of a smile while I rubbed her back. She loved that, too. Soon I started to run my hands through her hair, and then I scratched her legs a little bit, and she reacted with a big smile. All they want is that physical touch. That soft touch of simply getting their back rubbed or scratched—something that we get all the time at home. I eventually warmed her up to letting me rub her belly, and then I started tickling her. She laughed and laughed. That’s the first time that I’ve seen her open up this trip, and it did good for my heart to see that. She’s a sweetheart. She’s very quiet, but she’s sweet.

Julia had given little Lena one of her bracelets yesterday, and today she was wearing it as a ponytail on the top of her head.  I kept calling her Cindy Lu Hoo all day. She was so cute.

Eventually she saw something that caught her attention so she got up and ran off to find it. Annie had recorded a video that Jian’s (Macy’s) mom had posted on her blog with pictures of them getting Jian and then coming home. Which, I will say, made me cry so hard the first time I saw it. The song that she put the pictures to was the Ho Hey cover by Lennon and Maisy, which we’ve been listening to in our rooms everyday throughout this trip, and the song is just SO sweet. Anyways, I went to get Annie’s camera to show Jian’s nanny, Joy. When I went up to see her and show her the video she recognized the pictures of Jian’s mom and dad and said, “Oh! Jian!” And I smiled. She and another one of the nannies sat and watched it. They smiled and laughed at some of the pictures. They loved seeing the one of her swimming. They asked me on a few where they were, and when they saw the picture of their house they went, “oohh! So pretty!” and smiled when they saw her looking in her room. They again told me that they missed her very much, but they were so happy that she was happy in America. It was so sweet.

I stood with Joy and then rubbed her arm a little bit and she smiled and laughed, because she must’ve been ticklish. She made a face like, “Ohh that feels good!” So I kept doing it a bit and she kept laughing. It was funny. Then she decided to scratch my back a little bit, too. She is precious.



Precious Little Sarah

I eventually brought the big kids inside and back up to their room because it was time to leave. When we got into their room I noticed sweet Sarah was in the crib lying down. I went over to give her a kiss and noticed that she was so clean. They must’ve bathed her today. So I gave her kisses all around.

We ate at the hotel again today. After lunch Julia, Makenna and I went to get ice cream from KFC again… because the rest of the team had gone before lunch without us. *sigh* But it still tasted so good. Can’t get over it.

Back at the orphanage we spent most of our afternoon with the babies. As we walked up to the orphanage I could hear little Sarah’s cry. She has such a distinctive and loud cry. It’s so pitiful. When we got upstairs I went to the big kid room to get Sarah and then brought her into the playroom again. She had big alligator tears on her cheeks. :’( The nannies had propped her up in the crib to be sitting up, so she didn’t like that at all and cried. In the baby room I rocked her around the room. She always has to be rocking or bouncing up and down… she just likes that stimulation. Otherwise she just cries. When she’s lying down she rocks her head back and forth and kicks her legs a lot. But if I’m not rocking her while I’m holding her, and she can’t rock her head at all, she starts to get fussy. So I have to always be rocking/bouncing and walking. I walked by the air conditioning unit a few times and kind of lingered and every time she would wince a little bit and get fussy. I guess they’re just so used to it being hot (like, her shirt was literally soaked with sweat today), that when they get cold it shocks them. Oh well.

As I was walking around with Sarah, Amy was walking and talking with baby Charlotte. We gave them a little pep talk and I prayed for them as I walked around. Amy told little Sadie, our cheerleader, that she needed to do a cheer for Sarah and Charlotte, that they need to fight! Haha, I love it. It made me laugh. Love her sense of humor. So thankful for Amy and Julia.

As we were still rocking, we got some GREAT news about the heart babies. After my meeting with Helen yesterday, I emailed  Cathy at Show Hope with Sarah and Charlotte's (the two heart babies) information and the orphanage’s contact information, and told Helen that these were my “friends”, and they’d be contacting them. Today Helen came into the play room with a few sheets of paper and asked us if this email she had printed off was from my “friends” I had told her about. Amy read the email aloud to Julia and I. Tears welled up in my eyes as I read all that was being offered—all that these babies could receive from these wonderful people. I told her these were the people I was talking about, and asked her what she thought about the email, if she was open to that, etc. She said she was, and that they were going to get a CT scan on the girls and then send it to New Hope (not quite sure it was a CT scan, pretty sure they meant some kind of heart scan, because things get lost in translation). We were all so excited. Helen said the director still has to approve it, and that she will think it over.

Beautiful Baby Charlotte

Baby Charlotte needs heart surgery to make those toes a healthy pink!

So here’s where you all come in: PRAY. Pray that the director is open to this, that she sees this as a great opportunity for the babies. I genuinely believe that the director is trying to help the kids and she wants what’s best for them. So I think that she will be open to it. We’re just praying and believing that she is. Our God has already done so much already, we’re believing that He will take it all the way. I believe He can. Please pray with us?

So we were so excited about everything. All three of us had tears in our eyes and were just beaming.

Sarah had started crying while we were talking to Helen and getting super fussy, and was tired of me holding her. So I sat her on a cushion on the ground. She started grinding her teeth again, so I tried to find a teething toy for her, but she wouldn’t chew on it for too long. But she was grabbing it and trying to get it in her mouth for a little while. I was so excited about that.

Little Sarah (a tiny 2 1/2 years old) on her way to the hospital with Joy

I went to pick up another baby who was crying and then Joy (the head nanny) came running into the playroom and checked Sarah’s diaper and then ran out of the room with her. She was carrying a bag so I looked over at Shannon and Steve and they said that they were bringing the babies to the hospital RIGHT THEN to get the scan. Which is HUGE. It was literally 20 minutes after I had confirmed with Helen. PRAISE GOD.

So I ran out to the hallway to see if they were bringing baby Charlotte, too. Julia said, “oh they just went to change her diaper.” And when I told her and Amy that they were bringing her to the hospital, we were all just so excited. We waved them off, Julia ran to give her baby a kiss and they were off. I prayed a silent prayer that everything would go okay. GOD IS GOOD.

We all stood there in the hallway completely amazed, tears in our eyes, praising God. He is so good. There is hope. We’ve come a long way this week…from believing there was nothing that I could do for these babies, to making steps to getting them to receive the care they need.

I’m so excited. I can’t even express how happy I am right now. Ahhhhh!

I think it’s a good sign that they were so willing to get the scans done so soon. Hope. There is Hope. HE is our Hope.

I went back to the playroom and played with Nathan for a little bit. He eventually got very sleepy and so I held him and started rocking him. He instantly fell asleep when I picked him up and put him in my arms. His nanny came around a few minutes later with a bottle and told me to wake him up. I tried to wake him up, but he was OUT. I sat him up and tried a bunch of different think and he would not wake up. Finally I got him to open his eyes just briefly enough that I stuck the bottle in his mouth. He sucked it down, half awake, half sleeping. It was the first time he ate his bottle without getting the formula ALL over him.

When he finished I brought him back into the baby room and laid him in his crib. He actually woke up, which was sad. But he was fine. He rolled over and looked all around. On the way out I gave his nanny a hug and told her thank you. She smiled really big. She’s always smiling. She has so much to do with those babies, but she always has a smile on her face. We found out today that she lives about 1 ½ hours away… and she stays here most of the time except for the holidays. I thought that was interesting.

I went into the big kid room and they were playing with some scratch off crafts that Amy had brought. Most of the kids had someone helping them, so I sat down and watched for a little bit. Mia tried to take someone’s camera at one point, so I stepped in and got her away, and hugged her in my lap for a little bit. Then I gave her a kiss on the cheek. She kind of looked at me, studied my eyes for a little bit, and then put her cheek towards my face, like she wanted me to give her another kiss. So I did, and she laughed. One of the nannies had called her over to finish her craft. I looked over at her and she was looking at me. I smiled at her and she smirked a little bit. She would go back to her craft, look up at me, and then see I was smiling at her and smile so big. She repeated that a bunch. Her nanny was saying, “pai pai sho” (that is definitely not how it’s spelled, so sorry about that haha), which I realized from my sister’s Chinese videos was what they say for “clap clap”. I eventually waved Mia over. She kind of just looked at me funny, and then eventually came to sit with me. She would have me scratch some of the paper off, and then she would want me to clap. We did this for a good 20 minutes straight. I’m sure the people around me were so annoyed. I would clap and say, “yayy!” or “clap clap” or “pai pai sho”. She thought it was so funny. And she loved it. When we finished the whole craft, I said it was all done, and she looked at me, we clapped, and then she gave me a big ol’ hug. And wouldn’t let go for awhile. She’s a sweetie.

 

By then Steve was saying, “Okay, time to go!” and so we picked up a little bit. Mia dragged me to the corner of the room where a few other kids were, and she wanted me to keep clapping. So I would clap with them while saying “clap clap” in Chinese. I walked into the playroom to get my stuff, Mia still following me and us both clapping and repeating “clap clap”. She laughed and laughed. Along with a few other kids that we walked by in the hallway.

I said goodbye and she didn’t want to let go of me. But I gave her a kiss and she smiled so big.

Agh. I’m just so overwhelmed with all the good that today brought. God seems to know just what we need and when we need it. And I am SO thankful. Singing praises to God tonight.

I just wanted to thank you all who have prayed with me in this whole pursuit of helping the heart babies. Words cannot express my gratitude to you all. Please continue to pray that things move along and that we can get them moved to New Hope in Beijing where they can get the surgery they need. So excited about what God is doing. So thankful for all my prayer warriors back home.

Sarah thanks you for praying for her!  God is listening, people!

 

Monday, July 8th

Monday, July 8^th

“I just don’t have the patience for him today.”

Those are the words I said to one of my teammates after a little boy ripped a craft out of another girl’s hands.

They’re just so mean to one another. They hit. They kick. They take things from each other. It’s survival of the fittest. It truly is. This is reality for these kids. Of course, some are worse than others. Some are very helpful and caring for one another. But today, he was not being pleasant.

And today my patience was wearing thin. I was drained from having to control children.

We are all so exhausted by the end of the day. By the afternoon, for that matter.

And we get to leave.

Can you imagine how those nannies feel? They are there, day in and day out, morning to evening caring for those kids. We’re here for two weeks and then leave. We leave for lunch, and we leave at night. We get a break. They do not.

I just have so much respect for them. Joy tells me that she is sleepy almost daily, but you know what her attitude is? Joyful. She smiles all day, she truly loves those kids, all day. She’s truly an inspiration.

You know how many infants are in one room? Twelve. You know how many nannies are in there to care for them all? One. And that poor lady runs around like crazy doing so much. All day. She feeds them all, she changes them all, she mops, cleans, and washes clothes. All in a room with no air conditioning, nonetheless.

I will just say, I have such respect for them.

Anyways, on to the day.

My alarm clock went off this morning and I was so tired, so I hit the snooze button and slept through breakfast. I was able to talk to my family today, so that was a lot of fun.

When we got to the orphanage, we walked down the hall to put our stuff in the baby playroom. As I passed the door to where the older kids are, I saw sweet Dora standing there with silent tears running down her face. So I stopped and gave her a hug and some kisses. As soon as I bent down all the nannies saw her and tried to get her to cheer up for me. She was in no such mood, so I just picked her up and carried her to the playroom. After putting my stuff down I grabbed her and tickled her a bit and swung her around which made her laugh a little bit. I picked her up and held her in front of the air conditioner (because at this point we’re all dripping with sweat), and she just giggled. She was like, “ahhhh”. She loved it.

She then took my hand and we ran down to the big kid room. She was so excited to have us there. I gave little Lena a big hug, too.

Denis and Taylor in their new shirts!

Kathryn brought some tshirts with her school’s football name on it and she gave them to two of the boys, Taylor and Denis. She wore hers today, so I showed them that they were wearing the same shirt and Denis didn’t want to put it on. One of the nannies asked if it was a girls shirt, and I said “ohh no! IT’s a boy’s. She’s just wearing a boy’s shirt today.” And then the boys put it on. Haha. It was kind of funny.

We took all the kids downstairs, in the elevator Lena kept copying everything that I would say. She’s so smart. I told her to say, “Good morning” and she repeated it back to me, clear as day.

When we got outside Amy and I started blowing up balloons and giving them to the kids to play with. They thoroughly enjoyed that. The simplest things impress these kids. We gave one to Lena and she just shrieked with joy and began jumping up and down.

Little Ray loved the balloons the most. By the end of the morning he had a whole collection of about 6 or 7 balloons all tied to each other. He would prance around and show everyone his balloons and then smile SO big when we acknowledged them.

Julia pulled out her balloon animals and started making those. The kids really enjoyed that.

Julia making animal balloons

 

Dora with her balloon

 

Taylor was found crying at one point, and no one knew what was wrong with him. It was the first time I’ve ever seen him thoroughly upset. He was bawling his eyes out. Turns out all he wanted to do was help Julia blow up the balloons. We thought he wanted the balloon animal, but turns out he wanted to just help blow them up. So we let him do that for awhile.

Lena blowing up balloons

After Taylor was done blowing up balloons, I filled in for him. Lena came over and she wanted to blow them up so I held the balloon on the pump while she did it. She thought it was the funniest thing. I blew the air from the pump in her face, and she loved that, too.

Charlie asked Joy to get a picture with her, so I took it for them. After I took the picture Joy asked to see it. Once she saw it she pointed to her belly and started acting like she was fat. Which is not AT ALL true. I made a face saying she wasn’t. She lifted her shirt up a little bit as if saying, “Oh please, look at this.” And so I lifted mine up a little to show her my little belly fat, too. She made a face at me. So I looked over at the workout equipment and pointed at it to her and kind of motioned that we needed to work out. So I went over there and started working out, and she just laughed at me. I love her so much.

I sat down on a chair outside and was just observing for a little bit when Cameron, a little boy with down syndrome, came up and stood next to me. So I started rubbing his back while we both kind of looked around for a little bit. These kids just look for any kind of physical touch. He eventually came and sat down in my lap and put his head on my shoulder as I rubbed his back.

After the kids got tired of playing with balloons, we took them all inside for a craft. When we moved the table to the center of the room, they all started to get so excited knowing that we were doing a craft with them.

We brought out foam flowers and some foamy stickers to put on them. I showed Lena how to peel the backs of the stickers off and stick them on her flower, and from there she went on. Some of the stickers were a half circle that had layers that pulled apart like a rainbow almost. I took one and put it on the outside of a pedal on her flower, and she immediately copied me and put the rest of them on the pedal. She’s so smart. She’s so particular about her crafts. I’m telling you, if she had Pintrest, she’d be all over it. :)

And that’s when a little boy came by and took her flower she was working so hard on. She cried and cried. And that’s when I got upset. There were lots of things that I saw him do this morning that frustrated me. But that was the final straw.

We got it back from him and Lena finished her flower. Everyone took the kids back upstairs to the room, but she and I stayed for a bit longer because she wanted to finish. She’s that particular, haha.

After that I took her back upstairs. We had a few minutes left there, so a few of us went to check on the babies. I went to pick up my sweet Nathan, and he was happy as ever. Julia went to see Charlotte (the blue heart baby). She was on the IV and she noticed that her hand was all puffed up. The doctor that put her on the IV didn’t put the needle in right. She must’ve missed her vein or something, and all the fluid was building up in her hand and arm. It was so sad. I ran to grab Emily, who volunteers as an EMT, to see if she could help or something. As I was walking back Lena ran out from her room and gave my legs a big hug. She’s so sweet. I gave her one back and she giggled.

Elyssa, Danielle, and I had dropped off laundry yesterday, so we went to pick that up on our way back to the hotel. The lady that took our laundry yesterday wasn’t there, and it was a man. He had no idea what he was doing. He was such a man. Watching him fold his clothes and figure out whose clothes was whose was funny. It took him forever, though.

Elyssa's ice cream

After that, Kathryn, Elyssa, Charlie, Danielle and I all went to KFC to get some soft serve ice cream. Only $0.50 USD for a cone. Not too bad. It was literally the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted in my life, haha. We were all SO excited about it. We’re not used to cold things anymore, that it shocked me at first. But I can’t complain. It was SO good.



After lunch we went to the orphanage and played with the babies.

I went into the baby room to grab Nathan and then brought him back to the play room. I sat in there and played with him for a little bit. We spent some time in there with the babies. Sweet Sadie, a little baby with special needs, kept stretching like crazy. We call her our little cheerleader because she’s so flexible and stretches all the time. She always looks at her fingers like she’s looking at her fingernails like they’re so pretty. She’s such a little princess. She’s so funny.

 

Amy, Julia and I took Steve (our translator/guide) to talk to Helen (the nanny that deals with the children's paperwork) about the heart babies. We had a very good conversation with Helen about them. We were careful with our words, telling them that we believed they were doing a good job, but we would like to help. We asked about a few options that we’re exploring right now, and they seemed very open to it. So PLEASE pray for those babies. Believing that God will work some miracles there.

Getting love from Kathryn

 

After that we spent some more time in the baby room. I clipped Minnie’s finger nails because they were so long. Minnie is a sweet little preemie, who is probably 2-3 months old, and has down syndrome. As I was clipping them she fell asleep. She’s such a sweetheart.

After that I found Nathan again and sat him in my lap and rocked him back and forth. He eventually fell asleep in my lap. He was so tired from working so hard on sitting up and holding his head up. Such a big boy.

Steve came into the play room and announced, “Okay, time to go now.” So we all went to bring our babies back. I managed to keep Nathan asleep when I put him down. On our way out the nanny in the baby room stepped out to wave goodbye, and I said goodbye and rubbed her arm on the way out and smiled at her. She turned around and smiled really big. The simplest things can mean so much to people. I have to remember that. I hope they know that we think they’re doing a good job.

Anyways, today I’ll just ask that you pray for the heart babies. I’m working on that, believing for something big to come from that. The Lord is sovereign over every situation. He knows what He is doing with those babies. I just pray that we can help them. I’m trying in every way that I know how.

 Also pray for our team. We’re a little over halfway through the week and we’re getting tired and worn down. Pray for strength and endurance. Also pray for the nannies. If this is how we feel, I can only imagine how they feel at the end of the day.

Sunday, July 7th

Sunday, July 7^th

So today was a pretty chill day. We didn’t spend a ton of time at the orphanage.

At breakfast Steve actually ordered less food. He’s catching on that we don’t eat so much. After every meal he always says “You didn’t eat very much!” And we do, he just orders a lot.

We went to the orphanage today to get the school kids. We each grabbed a kid, and we headed out. We were so worried at first that they weren’t going to actually hold onto our hands and would run out into the street. But they ended up behaving. I help Hope’s hand to the orphanage. She was very good on the way. Then she ran so hard through the big intersection that we had to cross.

When we got to church they had already started, but they brought us up to the top of the balcony. It was SO hot up there. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so much in my life. We were all sweating bullets. Dripping down my face. My back. Everything.

They announced to the whole church that we were there and the whole congregation turned around to see us, and they told us to stand up. They said “welcome our new friends”.

The kids sat pretty well during the whole service. We brought candy and coloring pages to color for them in case they got restless. Hope sat next to me and kept coloring and would show me her picture like she was so proud of it. Then she would hide her crayons behind my back.

 

At one point we were literally all dying of sweat. Sarah and I were getting light headed. I leaned over and said, “If Jesus came now, I would be SO happy.” Hah!

There were so many people spitting in the back of the church. It was so gross.

Annie recorded a video that Jian’s (macy) mom made of them coming home, and Leah (now named Dani) watched it 3 times on her camera. She loved it. Whenever she saw the picture of Jian asleep on the airplane, she laughed so hard. So sweet.

We snuck out a little early because the kids started getting a little restless.

Back at the orphanage we had an hour before lunch, so we grabbed some fruit loops and string to make necklaces out of.

I helped sweet Lena make a necklace. She was so proud of it. At one point she noticed one of the fruit loops in her pile was broken, so she held it to her mouth and made a face to see if she could eat it. When I shook my head yes she put it in her mouth. I wish I had a picture of her face the first time she took it. It was so sweet. She LOVED them. She would put one on her necklace, and then eat one. Put one on her necklace, eat a few. It was so funny. And she kept giving me some to eat. I was honestly so grossed out by that at first, but I figured… what’s the worst that could happen. I get sick. I’m sure her hands were dirty… but, whatever. I’m in China. She was so happy when I would eat them. She’s such a sweetheart. She even let me wear her necklace for a little bit.

Anyways, we ate lunch at the orphanage today, and it was such good food. We were worried about offending them by not eating the stuff if it was bad, but it was really good! We all ate so much. Best meal we’ve eaten so far.

Annie told Leah that she would be able to see Jian in the states sometime, and she was so happy.

We left right after lunch, and said goodbye to the school kids, because they had to go back to school. We walked a few yards behind them, and the nannies didn’t even hold the kids’ hands… they just stayed so well with them. And we all laughed because we were so worried about that.

We spent the afternoon at the hotel. We decided that we were so tired and wiped out from the morning (the heat just takes it out of you), that we didn’t go back in the afternoon. Kathryn, Charlie, Julia, Danielle and I went shopping around town, which was fun.

We did a devotion at 4… Shannon called it “a date with God”. We had little stations we went around with different prayer activities. Hard to explain, but it’s really cool. I enjoyed it.

We went to dinner at Pizza Hut tonight. So good. We got there and they said we had a 1 hour wait, so we walked around Walmart for a bit. Elyssa, Charlie, and I got matching pajamas. Yes, we are in 6^th grade.

Pizza hut was a such a nice restaurant. Like, fine dining. We were impressed. The pizza was so good. I think we all enjoyed it a lot.

Over all, it was a good day. It was very chill, and I think we all needed that.

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