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

 

Friday, July 5th

Friday, July 5^th

Breakfast today was really good… we had our noodles which tasted so good. We also had this dumpling thing that literally tasted like chicken pot pie… but it’s so delicious. We had it yesterday but asked for it again today because it was so good.

When we got to the orphanage today we got up to the fifth floor and little Al came running to the door and cried for one of us to pick him up. He’s always wanting to be held. And as soon as one person puts him down, he runs over to the next one to pick him up. He just loves to be held.

We brought the three walkers that were donated to see if some of the kids would benefit from using that. We had Carrie try one. She stood up and took a few steps, but would lose her balance and then fall over. We adjusted them to her height and had her walk some more, but would still tumble over a bit. But I think she just needs to work on her balance. She was happy, nonetheless, to be able to walk. We all clapped and cheered for her, which made her always smiling face even happier.

We took the older kids outside to play for a bit. We took out some little containers of bubbles which they loved. Sweet Carrie, as soon as we blew them at her, laughed SO hard. Her laugh is so contagious.

It’s really the simple things in life.

I sat down next to Sky and started blowing bubbles. She would smile and giggle when she would see them blow across her face. A few times she got so excited she stood up and jumped a little. She was beaming. It was so good to see her so happy. She’s such a sweet little girl.

So the reason why we gave Drew his name is because he drools all the time. As sad as that may sound… it’s so true. So we thought that it would fit. Well, today as we were blowing bubbles, he was going around to everyone and holding his wand up and blowing so hard, but all he did was spit. It was so funny. He loved it. He would just walk around and blow spit all over us. I think we all got a spit bath today. But he was so happy about it. It was the funniest thing.



Joy

After some time the nannies got everyone in a big circle to play a game. It was almost like duck duck goose, but when you were chosen with a handkerchief and didn’t catch the person, you had to go in the middle and sing a song. The kids loved playing it,    and it was so sweet to see the kids singing and the nannies getting into it.

At one point I was sitting next to Amy who was holding a little boy. He had the bubble container in his hand, but it didn’t have anything in it. Little Dora came by and was playing near us and he noticed that she had a container with bubbles in it, so he tried to grab it. But instead of getting upset, she ever so sweetly opened up her container and poured some of hers into his container. It was the sweetest thing ever. It honestly brought me to tears. Because as sad as it is, these kids have nothing. Absolutely nothing. So whenever we bring something out, they jump for it and climb all over us to get it, and once they do they hold onto it for dear life. Because that’s the only thing that they can claim as “theirs” at that time. So to see her willingly give up her bubbles, I was just so touched. And I’m telling you, this little Dora is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. She’s precious.

After that we brought all the kids inside to do some crafts. We brought out a tablecloth with flags on it and as soon as we unfolded it, the kids went wild. They were so excited. I think if we had let them play with the table cloth, they would’ve been just fine with that. Haha.

We gave them red, white, and blue napkins and sticky boards in the shape of the world trade center and the statue of liberty and let them rip the napkins up and stick them on the boards. They really enjoyed that, and many of the kids got really into it. It was a bit chaotic getting everyone the stuff they needed… there’s really no easy way to hand things out. Because as soon as they see one kid with it, they all go crazy and start climbing on you to get what they want. But as soon as they all got something, they were fine. They actually settled down quite a bit.

After they finished with that we pulled out stickers that we brought and let them stick it on paper. I’m telling you, it’s the simplest things that make them happy. They all loved it. It was cool to see how the different kid’s personalities showed through them… some stuck them all over the place, some on top of other stickers, and some were very orderly in straight lines.
Ray was so proud of his picture after he finished it. He kept posing for everyone and waving it back and forth. It was so funny. That kid has a lot of personality.

At one point I took a heart sticker and stuck it on Joy’s shirt. She smiled really big and gave me a hug. I really do love her. She feels like an aunt to me. I can tell that she really loves the kids, and wants what’s best for them.

Eventually it was time for us to go, so some of us took the kids upstairs and some of us stayed behind to clean up, because the kids had made a mess. We asked if they had a broom, and they said, “oh no! We can clean up! You don’t have to.” But we didn’t want to leave a mess for them. Although, they did help us.

When we got back upstairs they were giving one of the older boys the walker and he was learning how to walk with that. It was cool. I think they were excited to have them. Hopefully they’ll continue to give those to the kids so they can learn to walk. I think that’ll be good for them.

We ate lunch at the hotel today… and it wasn’t so great. I literally didn’t eat anything that came out. Except for a few bits of potato that was stuck in with some meat. We just got some weird stuff today. Some of which included a whole fish that was cooked and brought out. Yummm.

Kathryn, Annie, and I adventured out to the market today. We got some drinks and some different flavored Pringles to try. Kathryn lost her mascara somewhere so we went down to one of the cosmetic counters in the mall/market, and with our broken English we tried to tell them that we wanted to buy the mascara that she picked out. She wrote out a little slip and handed it to her… and then just stood there. We were so confused as to what we had to do. So she ended up walking us to a cashier that was in the center of the mall where she paid and then brought us back to get the mascara. It was kind of interesting. But now we know how things work in the mall. Haha.

Back at the orphanage, we went to play with the babies again. I went to find Sarah, she was in the crib propped up so that she was sitting up. I’m glad that they’re at least trying to get her to sit up. They do that with all of those older kids that aren’t able to sit up, the ones that are in the crib. They prop them up on the corners of the crib for a certain amount of time, and so that’s good.

I brought her back to the baby room and just walked around with her and bounced her for awhile. I spent most of my time walking around the room praying for her. I just hope she survives. I’m praying for a miracle with this one. But our God is great, He performs miracles every day. And that’s what I’m believing for.

She was a happy camper for the most part. I think she’s still not feeling well, so she would whine a little bit, but after I bounced her for awhile she was fine. She grinds her teeth, they ALL grind their teeth actually, and It’s horrible. It honestly hurts my teeth when I hear it. Shannon brought a bunch of rubber teething toys, so I grabbed one of those for her to chew on. She doesn’t like anyone changing her, moving her arms much (I assume it hurts), or anything like that, so I didn’t think she’d like the teething toy, but she took and chewed on it for a long time. I was so impressed and so happy. She was cracking me up because the way she would chew on it was so weird. She does some weird things with her tongue that I can’t even explain. Haha.

After awhile my arm got tired so I sat her in a little cushion and held her chew toy. But she eventually got tired of it, and she went back to grinding her teeth. *cringes* It hurts me to think about. She sat on the cushion for awhile and she kicks her feet a lot. She also rocks her head back and forth, but I think that’s because she hardly gets any stimulation. Because when I rock her or bounce her, she doesn’t do that. It’s just so sad.

I went to get baby Nathan for a bit, and when I got into his room he was sleeping. The nanny saw me looking at him and picked him up for me and gave him to me, even though I said I didn’t want her to wake him up. But she gave me his bottle and had me feed him. So I brought him back to the playroom and fed him. He wasn’t hungry at first and would just look around at everyone, smiling like crazy. He ate a lot of his bottle, and I think he was so happy to be eating, he kept smiling so big that all of his formula would spill out of his mouth! Haha. It was actually pretty funny. He ate most of his bottle though. I burped him and kept saying that he smelled really bad because the formula would dry all over his clothes and they don’t change them all day, and he did smell like that yesterday. But then I looked down and realized where a big portion of that smell was coming from. His diaper. It was spilling out of his diaper and all over my shorts and tshirt. Yumm. I was so thrilled about that. Haha. So I changed his diaper and then wiped off my clothes. It was pretty nasty. A nice mushy yellow color, in case you were wondering.

I changed him into some of the clothes that Kathryn brought, seeing as he now had formula and poop all over his clothes. He had on super cute pants with little monkeys over his feet. I loved it. :) I had him laying on his back for awhile, and then he started rolling over onto his stomach! I was so proud of him. He had been trying yesterday, but couldn’t quite get his arm out from under himself. But he got it now, and he loved it. After awhile his face looked to be a little red so I turned him over to his back again, but a few seconds later he rolled over again. It was so funny. He loves little rattles when I shake it in front of him, but he can’t do it himself. Though, he is only a few months old. His grip is so strong though. When he holds my hands I’m so surprised by how strong he holds on.

I kept saying that I could still smell the poop on my clothes and how gross it was… but then I picked Nathan up again, and realized that it got a LOT stronger… and upon checking further, he had pooped his pants again. He had a big day today, I guess. So I went ahead and changed that too.

We played for a bit longer, but soon enough it was time to leave. Whenever it’s 11:30 or 5:30, our guide ,Steve, will look at the clock and go, “Okay!! It’s time to leave now!”  Guess he doesn’t want to overstay his welcome.

We put the babies down in their cribs. I went to look at another baby and when I turned around again Nathan had already rolled over on his tummy. I guess he’s going to be sleeping on his stomach a lot now.

On our way out of the orphanage, we saw a dead rat on the road, and it was HUGE. Last year our guide had a rat run out and brush up against our leg, so we knew there were some around the orphanage. Our guide this year was even looking in the bushes and looked up at us and said there were rats running around in there. Ew. They’re so gross and big.

As we walked down the street one of the nannies was leaving work, she was all dressed up in her clothes and in her nice little wedges. I find it funny that most of the women here wear dresses or fancy clothes on the streets, and almost always have fancy heels or wedges. We were talking to her and she said she had a 24 year old… we were all shocked, because she looks so young. So Steve asked how old she was, and she said 48… we were so surprised. She’s so beautiful and looks much younger.

On the way back Julia and I saw this cart on the street that was frying some kind of tentacles… they looked like squid tentacles. We stopped and took a picture of them because… well, they were frying tentacles. I felt kind of awkward, but everyone around us thought it was funny. They probably thought we were crazy, but oh well.

And that’s pretty much all for today.

Shannon said she talked to the orphanage director about the heart babies. They said that they’ve been trying to give Sarah the nutrients that she needs, they’ve given her other formulas and such, but it just didn’t work. So I don’t know what there is to do about that. I’m praying there’s a solution somewhere. The director also said that they were going to have the blue heart baby, Charlotte, evaluated by a doctor today. I never heard the verdict on that. Hopefully tomorrow.

Please just pray for these babies. Their lives are so precious, and I want to be able to help them in any way that we can. This is life and death. And I know that they will be put on the list and be adopted if they get these hearts fix. So please pray for them.

**Please pray for Annie today! After devotions tonight she went to the bathroom and passed out. Besides some bloody lips, and chipped tooth, she seems to be doing fine. We’ve given her protein, sugar, and drinks with electrolytes in them. We think it is just dehydration. But please pray for her health and a good night’s rest. Pray that for everyone, for that matter. Thank you all! Special thanks to our nurses’ advice back home, Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Ervin!

 

Thursday, July 4th

Thursday, July 4^th

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

I hope you all have fun at cookouts and watching fireworks today! I’m kind of jealous that I won’t see fireworks this year, but that’s okay. I’m much happier to be here.

We have 4^th of July crafts for the kids, but decided to wait until tomorrow to do them, because it would be the real fourth at home… and we were hoping we’d have our luggage by then, which had some of our crafts in it. Haha. So far… no luggage. It’s been located in Guangzhou, and the airline is supposed to send it at some point. We’re just not sure when it’ll be here. SOON hopefully. Poor Charlie is using the same clothes over and over again. We’ve lent her some clothes, and she’s been washing them. But she seems to be doing well with them.

And let’s be honest, none of us smell pretty by the end of the day anyways. I’m sitting here typing this and I just smell awful. In the words of Amy, “I just smell like a trashcan.” There’s no way around it. No matter how much febreeze/body spray/perfume we spray on ourselves, we still just smell.

Yeah. It’s that bad.

It’s just so hot walking to and from the orphanage. And not to mention in the orphanage. And not to mention that the kids don’t smell so pretty either, so the fact that they’re climbing all over us doesn’t help. Oh well. They don’t care, and that’s all that matters. The kids and nannies love us anyways.

So today was a much more upbeat day in my book.

I slept all night until about 6:30, so that was good. Some of our team woke up at 1 and 4 am… so prayers for sleep would be wonderful.

Once we got to the orphanage, we went upstairs, dumped all of our bags in the baby room, and then went to get the big kids. We decided to take them outside and play with chalks and bubbles. So we took them all down to the elevator in a few trips, which actually wasn’t that crazy. Previous years it’s been so crazy getting them all to behave, but they were all so excited to be going outside, that they were so well behaved.

We got outside and started drawing with chalk. I played with little Drew. I started drawing a smiley face and he kept telling me to draw all the parts of a body. He would motion to draw the head, the body, feet, etc. It was funny. Soon I would draw something and have him mimic it. His drawings are very simple… lots of squiggles and lines. He can imitate simple things like squares and triangles. He would laugh when I would draw pictures and loved it. I traced my hands and his. He loved it.

 

After that we brought out beach balls, moroccos and bubbles. They loved those balls. I played catch with Taylor and then with the little girl from yesterday, Caroline.

Soon after we had a circle time with the kids. We sang songs and did hand motions with them. At one point I was holding Ray and we were doing the hokey pokey and he was smiling SO big, it made my heart so happy. He hasn’t been the same this year, he’s been quiet and not as smiley. But seeing him so happy made my day.

We brought out little apple sauces in pouches for the kids and they devoured them. Little Drew took the pouch and kept squeezing it all over and then trying to eat it. It was all over his hand, and naturally mine and my leg since he was sitting on my lap. I was so sticky by the time they were done with those, it wasn’t even funny.

From there we all just played a little bit here and there with the kids. I played with Taylor for a bit with the beach ball. It kept blowing away because there was so much wind today, which was crazy. We never have wind in Chenzhou.  

At one point Chun Chun came out and I ran over to say hi. She said that she goes out and sings a lot, so she’s not here very often… but her friend is going to have heart surgery, so she came back to be here with him as he goes through that. I told her I was happy to see her, and that I have a gift for her (if I ever get my checked bags back…).

We cleaned up and took the kids upstairs. Some of the kids were crying because they didn’t want to come upstairs…they love being outside.

Upstairs we just played with them all here and there. I took Avery and played with her for a bit. She loves being tickled and swung upside down.

I noticed Sarah wasn’t in the crib, and I started to panic a little bit. I looked in both the baby rooms and didn’t see her in those cribs either… but then I realized that maybe she was on an IV, so I went and check and she was in there all hooked up. She looked so pitiful. I guess she had a fever yesterday, which I kind of noticed, which is why she wasn’t upset yesterday. I asked Steve to come and read the label on the bottle hooked up to the IV, but he wasn’t sure what it said exactly, because some of it had writing over it. He said it had glucose in it? So that’s interesting.

One of the nannies told us that Jian (Macy) had been adopted, and I said I knew. I had saved some pictures on my phone of her that her mom posted on facebook, and so I pulled them out to show the nanny. She looked at them and smiled, and then kept scrolling through my pictures. For a long long time. It was kind of funny. She came across some really embarrassing ones. Oh well, what can you do? Haha.

At one point I got up to talk to Joy about Jian (She was Jian’s nanny), who was just adopted. I showed her the pictures on my phone and she was beaming while she looked at them, and loved seeing how happy she was. She told me that they wanted a young family for Jian, and when they saw their pictures they were so happy to see they were younger. She told me she missed her very much, but was happy she had a family and loved them. It was good for her to see that, I think. She told me thank you so many times.

By then it was time to leave. We ate lunch at the hotel today and then came back and played some cards in the afternoon.

Back at the orphanage everyone spent most of the afternoon in the baby room. Once again, I went to find some of the other babies to bring into the room… but most of them were still sleeping. So I went back into the baby room once again with no baby in my arms. Sarah looked at me and said, “Megan, will they let you take Sarah in here?” So I decided to go find her again. When I found her Joy was taking her temperature. While she was doing that (it took her a very long time) the baby next to Sarah started crying, so I picked her up and rocked her. She’s so stiff, I’m pretty sure she has CP. I ended up holding her all afternoon. She’s normally so serious, but I got her to laugh quite a bit when I tickled her. It was sweet.

 

I sat down in the big kid room where they were all watching tv. Sweet Ray came over and held my hand while he watched tv. He soon took my hand and wrapped it around his and then put his arm around my neck. He would stroke my hair and play with it. He’s such an old soul.

 

Joy came and sat down with us and tried to talk to me. I’m telling you, I need to learn Chinese. I keep kicking myself, because the nannies try to talk to us and I just can’t. She kept motioning she was so tired, jokingly of course. I asked how old some of the kids were. Julia came and sat with us for awhile… we talked about kids, she told us we were beautiful, and we laughed a bit… all through motions. I really do love her. She’s such a sweet lady. We found out today she has a daughter who is about 16 years old.

Eventually Sarah fell asleep, and my arm was so tired from holding the baby (and Ray), because she was just dead weight. I set her down in the crib because I could tell she was getting sleepy, and then went back into the baby room.

I’m telling you, walking into that room is heavenly. The air conditioners are always on in that room, and so when you walk in it’s absolutely wonderful. After holding that baby for over an hour, both of us sweating, it was so nice. Kathryn said that a nanny from the baby baby room handed her a baby and told her to feed it, and that there were other to be fed. So naturally I went in there to find one. They were feeding this little baby that I was eying yesterday, he’s so sweet. I fed him his bottle yesterday when I noticed it fell out of his mouth. Today she let me pick him up and bring him back into the play room. He’s such a happy little boy. They said he’s about 4 or 5 months. Shannon said he was one that they found when she was there in March. I named him Nathan.

Nathan didn’t finish the bottle that they gave him, probably had like 3 ounces left. But we played for a little bit, he grabs things very well, he shook the rattle I gave him. I also gave him a little teething toy to chew on and he loved that. He chewed on that thing for a very long time. Then I stuck him on his stomach, and all his smiles went away. He didn’t cry, but his face looked concerned. It was actually kind of funny. But he needs that time on his stomach to build those muscles. He held his head up pretty well, I was impressed. The nannies came back in and told us it was time to eat again… literally 30 minutes after he had his last bottle that he didn’t finish eating. But, oh well. I fed him some more of a bottle and he actually ate quite a bit of it.

We played for a little bit longer, and then it was time for us to leave again.

We went to dinner at what we call “the fried banana place”, because it’s the only place (that we know of) that we can get fried banana. And we LOVE our fried banana.  Haha. It was nice to get that again. I think it was the most that we’d all eaten over any of our meals… most of the dishes were empty! We enjoyed it a lot.

On our way home, very close to the hotel, Chun Chun and her friend were on the street singing with a microphone and karaoke machine. We stopped to wave at her and then wanted to hear her sing, so we stayed for a bit. She motion for me to come over by her, and she talked to me for a bit, which I didn’t understand, and then motioned that she was singing the song for me. So we sat there for awhile listening to her friend sing and then she sang a few songs. People kept coming by and giving them money. We drew a pretty large crowd around us, everyone taking pictures. I had a guy come up to me and start to rattle off a bunch of mandarin, and when I didn’t respond  I think he realized I didn’t understand… and just told me I was beautiful. It’s so funny to me that fair skin to them is so pretty. It was the end of the day, and I did not look pretty by any means, but they just envy and love our fair skin… which in America we try to tan to be darker. It’s so funny.

Back at the hotel we had devotions again, which was really nice. Amy read a devotion about love, and how since God is love, the best thing we can do is love one another. That is the best thing. And it really hit home as we’re on this trip, and we’re just trying to build this relationship, just trying to show love. And how we need to show them love if we ever want to be able to tell them and hope that they know the one true God who is Love, and who loves them dearly.

I thought it was very nice.

And Steve joined us tonight, which was nice.

And that pretty much wraps up the day. Prayers for luggage are still appreciated. Prayers for our guide, as he’s thinking through what we talked about tonight and reads over a little tract that Sarah gave him. Prayers for sleep. And of course, prayers for the nannies and kids.