Look at all those Dumplings

Here are a few more pictures from the afternoon of making dumplings.



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.

Misunderstood

Friday July 5, 2013

Misunderstood. That is what most of these kids are. There are a few who at first glance you may think are mean spirited. But look at their situation, look at how they are living and give them a break. They always want to hold something because that means that they have something of their own, but there is hardly enough to go around. We fed them these little buddy fruits, the fruit in the pouches yesterday and they swarmed us, and devoured them and were begging for more… for the kids in our country these could be an everyday snack and for the kids in the orphanage it is very rare. They take each other’s toys because there is not always enough to play with. There is this one little girl we call her Mia. And at first I just thought she was mean, she would bite and hit and scream and push. But as the days are flying by I see that maybe she is just misunderstood. She is trying to be heard, trying to show what she wants but since she can’t talk, and she is about 7 years old. I have seen her clap and encourage a little girl using a walker we brought today. I think she is a sweet girl, it may just take a little more patience and guidance to bring the best out of her.



 We have spent the past two mornings with the bigger kids outside, and today we celebrated the 4^th of July with red white and blue bubbles, and we played a Chinese game where you sing in the middle and then run around the circle and put the handkerchief by someone else who then in turn tries to catch you and then if they cant sings in the middle. We also did crafts, and used A TON of stickers. They were everywhere on faces, paper, the floor. The kids had a blast and it was more structured so they were using their motor skills. Teaching kids to blow bubbles is not as easy as it seems. Some of the kids who are more with it knew just what to do, and we let them have their own. But some of the others…… one could not get the concept of blowing gently, he just spit everywhere! A few others would not blow enough and got sad when the bubbles would not come. So we had to blow the bubbles and hold it for them to blow them and this went on for a good hour and a half.



The second half of the day we spent with the sweet babies. I picked up Jenny my sweet, happy girl from her crib and played with her for a while. Then I went and got Emerson a baby girl with a cleft lip and cleft palate from her crib and fed her. “I named her Emerson today”. She is so happy and loves to move around. I dressed her up in this cute little cherry outfit with a ruffle on the bottom, that Lynn McKinney donated along with many other clothes, and took tons of pictures.

I love these kids… they are the sweetest most loveable children in the world. And I do not know how because they have not seen a whole lot of love. Don’t get me wrong; those nannies love those kids and they show some affection, but there are way more kids than nannies and they just do not have enough hands. One on one attention is hard to come by unless, I hate to say it but unless you are one of their favorites.



They need so much and it just makes me mad at myself for having so much that I don’t need. I would be willing to give up so much just to see that they get all that they need and want.

We were talking tonight at dinner about people asking us why we were going on this trip, or what we were going to do. And most people assume we would be building/painting/fixing things. And sometimes have a look of disapproval or confusion when we tell them we are going to love on some kids. Think about the effect loving on kids living in an orphanage can have. Look at all of our pictures, read all of our blog posts. See that we are passionate about these children, passionate for their well being, and passionate about showing Christ’s unconditional, unfailing love to them. We want to be sure we put a smile on their faces that when we leave for the day they are excited and joyful and ready for another day tomorrow. They need love and affection just like any other human being, and we are giving that to them. (Of course, babies who are smothered with love are healthier and happier than babies who experience minimal physical contact. “Kissing a baby, and all the affection that goes with it, helps a baby grow,” says Tiffany Field, Ph.D., the director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami Medical School.)

Below are a few more pictures of the kids, our team and the area around the orphanage & our hotel.

 

 

A Few Pictures

Here are a few pictures to enjoy.  I don't have captions on all of them but most are kids from the orphanage.

This is a view from our hotel.

 

 

 

 

Please continue to pray for the kids and their medical conditions, their caregivers, and us as we strive to love and care for these babies while we are here.

God of This City

Thursday July 4th

We took the bigger kids outside to play today! They had a blast we gave them little balls to play with that I brought and some blow up beach balls and a lot of chalk!

This little three year old Dora is the cutest and smartest thing ever!!! She has only been in the orphanage 1 year. But we will say something to her in English and she will repeat it and sound just like us!

We left at 11:30 for the nap and lunch break for the kids and came back at 3. We got to play with the babies for the rest of the day, it was full of changing diapers, feeding, changing into the new clothes we brought and putting hair bows on the little girls. We left around 5:30 and went to dinner at this restaurant that all the alumni on the team call fried banana because they serve really good fried bananas.

 In our devotion tonight we sang Forever Reign and God of this City, which is in a way our anthem for this trip.

You’re the God of this city - You’re the King of these people - You’re the Lord of this nation - You are
You’re the light in this darkness - You’re the hope to the hopeless - You’re the peace to the restless - You are
There is no one like our God - There is no one like our God
Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city - Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city
You’re the God of this city - You’re the King of these people - You’re the Lord of this nation - You are
You’re the light in this darkness - You’re the hope to the hopeless - You’re the peace to the restless - You are
There is no one like our God - There is no one like our God

Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city - Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city - Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done here
There is no one like our God - There is no one like our God
We believe - Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city - We believe - Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done in this city - Greater things have yet to come - And greater things are still to be done here
We believe, we believe greater things - Greater things, greater things - Greater things, greater things

This song is my hope for this city, these people, that they will come together that we can find the connections here to keep on making changes and helping the orphanage year round after we are gone. That it will not just end with us coming once a year, but that others in the community will stand up and do what’s right. These kids deserve that, and so much more.

Being here I haven’t even really thought about surfing the web, checking facebook, twitter, instagram, or texting anyone from my phone. I don’t have any of those things. All I have is my email and sometimes skype. Its been nice, it makes you really think and put things into perspective. These kids do not have any of these things, they don’t have ANYTHING and are so grateful when they get something as small as a little ball to play with. These kids are changing my life, and all I want is to do more for them.

He must become greater, I must become less. John 3:30

Wednesday, July 3

He must become greater, I must become less. John 3:30

This is my verse for this trip, we all picked a verse awhile back to focus on and this one stuck out to me the most.

First day at the orphanage

First days are always hard. I knew that I would get attached but I didn’t realize that I would get THIS attached… I mean it has been one day and I am already thinking about how hard it is going to be to leave this place and leave them.

The heat is pretty brutal and all we do is sweat, but to see the pure joy of those kids who do not have anything, makes me completely forget about it.

I have already fallen in love with a little girl Jenny. She is the happiest little thing and first thing this morning wanted to play. I put her down to play with another little boy and she screamed so I picked her back up, I played with her for most of the day and could always stop her from crying.

My heart breaks for these kids. Most have some sort of special need, and some do not even get out of the crib. But I do not want to focus on the bad, the things that hurt. I want to focus on the good, what we can see that is changing and better. This is my first time on the trip although others have been numerous times. I can see that the nannies do their best and love the kids. But they can only do so much. The babies have a lot of special needs and need therapy and do exercises and need to be out of their cribs and playing and moving around. And this is happening, maybe not as much as we would like and think is best but it’s a step in the right direction. The team members that have been before said the director is really starting to interact. Today, she came in carrying one of the babies and sat down and fed some their dinner. Apparently nothing like that had happened while they were there before.

In our devotion and worship time tonight, Shannon read one of her blog entries from her first trip, about when she goes back. We see the needs, we see the hurt, and we start making plans. But do we follow through? Do we really take it to the full force that it needs to be to be able to get done? Or do we just go back to our same old ways? You look at the kids and how most of the time they wear the same clothes day after day. And it makes me think… do I really need all of the clothes and nice things I have? It all really just seems silly and impractical when you are looking at these kids who are joyful with the little they have, and how we cannot be happy with the numerous things we own. We always want more. But what we want we usually say we “need”, and we don’t. We can lie without most of the things we have. But the kids what they want and need is the same. Food, shelter, water, and most importantly a FAMILY. While the nannies do their best in taking care of them, they will never replace a mother, and father to a child.

I don’t know if I can ever get used to all the stares and random people coming and trying to talk to us even though we cannot understand. But it doesn’t matter, as long as I keep what is important in my mind. Making those kids feel God’s love by showering them with love, compassion, making them fell wanted and special, and giving them lots of hugs and kisses.

Whew! We Made It.

We have been traveling since Sunday june, 30^th, and tonight is Tuesday July, 2^nd. Lets just say I am exhausted and my entire body aches and I cannot wait to shower and sleep in a bed.

The first flight was easy. But then we had a long wait in LA and departed at 1:40 am on our flight to China. It was a really really long flight, my legs cramped up, you couldn’t get comfortable. But then I remembered…I am going to work in an orphanage where they are more times uncomfortable than not and I have no room to complain. So I attempted to sleep and I watched a few movies and tv.

We get to Beijing and fly through immigration, but that’s where it stopped being easy. We go to security check to find out that our flight is cancelled. We met a guy who lives and goes to school In LA but his parents live in Guangzhou. He helped us out a ton getting our new flights booked, and helping us find the terminal. The terminals are 2 separate buildings about 15 minutes away from each other by bus. So once we finally get another flight scheduled and go ride the bus from terminal 2 to 3. Then we get there get our boarding passes and find out that we have to go back to terminal 2 to find our luggage, which we had all been told would go all the way through to Guangzhou. So 3 stay back with our carry ons and the rest of us (including “Bo” the guy helping us) went back to terminal 2 to find our luggage. We get to the lost and found for Air China and they don’t know if they can help us. Then finally they say it will take an hour to pull up the information. So we wait and wait and a few of us try and go find water bottles, but had no luck and some of us had been going on more than 10 hours without drinking. So finally some luggage starts coming out and we get most of it, but were still missing 7 bags, then 1 more came and then half stayed and have tried to get a head start with all of the luggage in the crazy elevators. Apparently 2 more bags came, but we were still missing 4. We get to the elevator and wait for like 20 minutes. We finally get on with two luggage carts and get shoved to the back. Our stop comes and we cant get off we are trying to tell them to please move but no one budged so we just started shoving, finally people got the hint, but this one man had a huge cart sideways completely blocking the door. But after a good couple of minutes we finally got off and then found the rest of our team and sprinted with our carts to the bus so we could get back in time to check our luggage and go through security and find our gate before our flight that was scheduled to board in 1 hour. Well we finally get through and find out that our gate was changed so we had to go find that and then the plane was delayed which meant we didn’t have much time to get to the train. But somehow we made it with just a few minutes to spare!

Bo and I got separated from the group on one of the bus rides from terminal to terminal so we had a chance to talk. He asked me if I was a Christian too, I of course said yes, and then he asked if I liked being a Christian… I thought this was kind of a funny question and really was unsure of what to say, but I said well yes I love being a Christian. Then we talked about our families, and got onto the subject of adoption. He then started to ask me something else and bluntly said you’re probably not going to like this. He had just asked me what I was studying in school, I told him social work, and he said, so basically this what youre doing now. And I told him I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it yet, that I had not had enough time to figure out and decide, but I might want to work with adoptions, family and children. We were just really glad that he was so willing to help us because we would have been in trouble if he hadn’t.

So far its going really well, we are finally in Chenzhou and I cant wait to go see the kids tomorrow!! I feel like God has a lot of awesome things in store for the next two weeks, so please keep on praying!