Thursday 7/23/2015

There were so many volunteers from the church that came to play with the kids today and donate snacks and toys. It was very encouraging to see them want to be involved. They said they were convicted because they did not even know there was an orphanage in Chenzhou, their own city, but Americans came and knew before them. They said they want to come every week to bring donations and play with the big kids.

Megan and I are both a little under the weather. Kissing and hugging on snotty babies and kids will do that to you. I wouldn’t have it any other way though. Everyone is exhausted. Kathy has been sick, and so has Julia. Pray for our team. Pray that we can finish out strong as we end our time here in Chenzhou until next time, and as we travel by train to Li Ming (6 hours) and then another 1.5 in car. I am excited to go to the orphanage in Li Ming, but none of us really know what to expect.. so I will write more about that later.

I got a little frustrated this morning.. My baby Emerson that I fell in love with two years ago was adopted, and I had heard she was adopted into Norway, the U.S. and now today France. Don’t get me wrong.  I am ecstatic she was adopted,but it is just frustrating that I have heard so many different things about where she went. They looked up her file and then came and told me. So now I am going to contact the French embassy to try and get contact with her new family. I have tons of pictures and videos that I want to make sure that they have.

Today we bought 4 washing machines for the orphanage! And tomorrow we will buy a lot of diapers to give them. The rest of the donations will have to wait until later so that we can decide the best things to get them.

Tonight we went to a bridge in Chenzhou, it lights up really pretty and there are shops and restaurants and huge groups of women doing dances. It was quite beautiful.

Tomorrow is our last day with the kids. We will spend time with the babies in the morning and then we will have a party with the big kids and the nannies. We will perform, they will probably perform, we eat cake and fruit and give the nannies their gifts. Then we will all fellowship together and eat dinner at the orphanage.

Pray for us and pray for the kids and nannies. Pray that they know they are loved. That they know we love them, and will miss them, and are sad to go. Pray that the seeds planted over the past few years and especially this trip will start to be watered, and will continue to grow. Pray for the kids health. Pray for the nannies sanity in taking care of so many kids. Pray that the kids that will go to host families over the next year find their forever families.