Random Thoughts

Saturday July 7^th 2013

“He must become Greater, and I must become less” John 3:30

I am sorry in advance for all the randomness in this. I am just spilling my thoughts and emotions onto here and not really worried about organizing.

Today was a BIG day.

This morning some of us played with the big kids outside and some played with the babies inside. It was extremely hot today and I wanted to give some of the babies some attention so I stayed inside. I went straight to the baby room and there was a doctor there giving a heart baby oxygen, (her name is Charlotte and she is very blue), and giving some babies IV’s. I went around to all the beds and gave the ones that were awake some attention. Emerson was trying to feed herself a bottle and with a cleft palate that is hard to do. So I picked her up and fed her, and took her into the playroom. She is the most easy going, happy baby. I feel bad for the nanny in the baby room; she does it all by herself! There are 12 babies in there and she has her hands full with a lot of special needs. I commend her for doing such an amazing job, even though I know that it is tiring and difficult, but she always has that beautiful smile on her face.

Today was DUMPLING DAY! The nannies and our team of 12 plus Steve our guide made over 1,000 dumplings as soon as we got back to the orphanage this afternoon. The nannies rolled out the dough and cut it up then rolled out the small pieces into circles. Then threw them like discs down the big table to us so we could fill them with the meat/vegetable mixture. They got to teach us how to make these dumplings, to form them just right, it was really cool. We got to see their personalities, and really connect more with them. We all worked together to provide a meal for all of us plus the older kids, plus all the elderly who live in the building. We really enjoyed doing this, enjoyed spending time with just the nannies letting them get to relax for a little bit before they had to take care of the kids again, and just being able to learn something from them. They said they had not made dumplings there since 2008, and that none of these kids had eaten them before. So the big kids got to eat something new and special that we got to help prepare for them and they loved it!

 





Mia broke my heart today. She came up to me today and wanted to be held, wanted to hug, and for me to lift her so she could jump up and down. I did and then we noticed she had something in her mouth and when she saw that we noticed she clamped her mouth shut and would not open it. We finally got her to and we think it was a piece of food, so luckily nothing harmful. It makes me sad because why would she keep that hidden there? To save for later in case she didn’t get enough or what?



You really have to make sure that you are not always picking up the cutest ones, or only giving attention to a few. ALL these kids NEED love and God doesn’t choose favorites, so why should we? Instead choose the ones that need it the most, the ones sitting in the corner. The ones who do not get picked up from their cribs.

I had someone tell me that I must have a lot of patience, today. And to be honest that’s one of the first times I have heard that. Patience is my word that I have been working on. For New Year’s resolution our team decided to pick one word to focus on that we really struggle with that God was telling us we needed to work on, instead of something like eat better, and go to the gym. I have never really had a lot of patience, but thinking on it I think that I have really been doing well on this trip. I seem to have a lot of patience with these kids, and not being able to understand the nannies or them, but trying to figure it out so that we do not step on any toes or offend them. God has been teaching me how to deal with my impatience and has been giving me challenges it seems for a while now, so that I would be ready for this trip.

They keep on giving us water, bottle after bottle after bottle. I cannot wait for some sweet tea and raspberry, peach sweet tea from Sonic. I love water but I might be a little bit watered out for a few days after we get back. I realize that it is hot and with how much we sweat we need to drink a lot, but it is hard to remind yourself of that.

Another AMAZING thing is that the big kids that are off at school got to come back for tonight and tomorrow, to see us, and we asked the director if we could take them to church with us tomorrow.  Although she was hesitant at first she AGREED. This is big and a prayer answered! We are taking 9 kids with us and I'm sure they will get bored and antsy and we won’t be able to understand the service at all! But we are going in hopes to build a connection there and then in the community to help the orphanage and continue what we are doing after we have to leave.

It is amazing how open they are being to our ideas about building the sensory wall, and making the place a safer better place for the kids to live, play, and hopefully learn. They are opening up to us, and letting us be more a part of their lives and it is such a blessing. The closer we get in  the closer we get to being able to lead them to Christ which is the ultimate goal.