Butterfly House Baby's

 

Awww Christy and Baby!

 

This is Angel the baby we prayed for. Now she will be going home to a happy family!

 

 

The wonderful people who work with these baby's! Thank Ya!

Our team! I'm in the back hiding! I hate pictures! Hehe!

Day 14 Great Wall

I bet most of you who are reading this probably have not tried to climb the Great Wall of China, well guess who has! Yeah, you guessed ME that's who! Some people like me were ready to climb to the top while others were a little heisitant to climb and would rather "slide" up. Don't ask me about the sliding. That's just what our guide for the day had said (Fong had something so we got a new guide for the day) "You can climb up it or you can slide up it" We tried to ask her what she meant by it but she didn't understand. Then she told us that we could take a slide down! Awesome! I was so ready! When we got there, there was an easy way and a hard way. Well hahahahahahaha ha I laugh at easy. (I picked the hard way if you didn't already guess.) So we started up. Well I must admit it was steep and maybe a little, teeny, bit was hard, but I was gonna do it! And mom probably knowing I would never let her forget it if she gave up, kept going. And I bet even more of you who are reading this have not made it to the top of the Great Wall, well guess who did! Yup, you guessed again, ME! And to prove it I have a cheap box, with a cheap fake piece of gold with my name carved into it, so there ha! Okay, I wasn't alone Lori, Carmen, Tammy, Amy, Katie, Shawn, Elyssa, Megan, and mom made  it also. Oh, and I should probably say something about the view, it was really pretty, actually it was amazing. Alright so after we get up there we find out that the slide was on the other side!!! So we have to walk down it!! So down we go. And I highly doubt that any of you reading this have skipped down the Great Wall, well guess who has. Uh huh, you got this, ME! And yeah, I fell on my butt and chinese people laughed at me, and yeah I got yelled at by my mom to hold on to the wall, and yeah, I probably made a fool of myself. But it was FUN! I bet most of you reading this have not stood on the side of the Great Walls edges that are, well high, well guess who has! I bet you didn't guess, the guy in front of us! (But trust me I asked if I could)
   After that great adventure we headed to the silk market. Its kind of hard to explain its this huge place full with all differant people selling all differant things. And they had EVERYTHING! As you walk through the aisles every person selling something wants you to buy from there store. Here are some helpful hints
-Don't look the seller in the eyes EVER
-Don't look at an object unless you are sure you want to buy it
-Don't EVER point at anything in a store
-Don't talk about something you see at there store to close to them

 I learned all those the hard way. Let me tell the chinese might be small but the are mighty I was drug into a store by my arms more than once! We got a few things there, we decided we were done when we were called "A crabby old lady." or "Idiots," by one seller. (We didn't buy from her)

   After that adventure we went to see the 'Beijing Acrobats' Our seats were okay. Those people can bend there bodies in ways I didn't know was humanly possible! I was aching just watching! Do your knees belong on your shoulders? Okay, they didn't all do that. Some jumped through hoops, and others did bicycle tricks. At one point they brought this big spinning whatchamucallit out and two guys were running on it! I was so jealous! I guess I shouldn't plan on getting that in my Christmas stocking though cause my mother gasped EVERY time they pretended to fall!
       So we are enjoying out last day in China cause tomorrow we leave for home.

Day 13 Sheperd's Feild

We had to take a two hour bus ride to get to our next orphanage.

    We were in Beijing which at the beginning of the trip felt foreign but now after being in chenzhou was almost as good as home. (I did say almost!)
      We were already missing the kids from the Chenzhou Orphanage so we were glad to see more baby's!    When we got there we unloaded ALL of our donations and met the directors. (Who this time were American's! English, Yes!) We had some lunch and looked around there gift shop. The gift shop has some really cool things and all proceeds they make goes to the orphanage. After that we got a tour of the place. And let me tell ya this place is awesome! Its got lots of room for the kids and its just amazing. The other thing about this orphanage is all special needs kids. We were ready to see the kids though. We were split into groups and we were off. My group went into a room with five kids in it at that moment. They were adorable! We played with the kids for a while and looked around you could totally see  the difference between this orphanage and the other one!
    
     After our long day there we headed back and ate dinner at a place near our hotel. But me, Lori, Christy, Tammy, and mom werent ready for bed yet, we were headed to the mall! Muwahahaha! This mall had nine floor's of shop's I repeat NINE floors! This place would be a shopoholic's dream!
          Just for fun we took and escalator from the bottom floor all the way to the ninth floor we thought we were totally awesome. After shopping a while we went into a store, and what song was blaring loudly inside? Well it was none other than 'Baby' by Justin Beiber! I mean really? They cant even understand this music! And they were all singing along with the music! Sheesh! Even on the other side of the world I can get away from this guy!
   Anyway as we were walking through the stores we see a little sign that says 'ColdStone Creamery'. COLDSTONE CREAMERY! We almost had a heart attack. And no we weren't dreaming! Lori made my mom promise we would come back after we were done shopping. Oh Yeah, like my mom wouldn't come back for her favorite ice cream shop ever after we hadn't had American food for almost two weeks. Yeah do ya think we came back?
    
  What an exciting way to end our day!
 
    I think we are all finally over jetlag by now. I really am gonna miss china. In some ways I'm ready to go back but in some ways I don't want the trip to already be over.

Day 3 Pictures (Our way to China)

Waiting, just waiting, for our lost suitcase.

And there it is in the lost and found! Oooh! That's embarrassing!

In Canada Eating our Canadian lunch! Yum!!!

Katie taking a nap on the floor in the middle of the airport.....nice.

Day 2 Pictures (sorry pictures didnt work in china)

 

That would be me and in the distance you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. I was at Fisherman's Wharf that was BEFORE I headed to Ghiradeli Square.

Okay, I'm sure off in the distance there on that hill it says something really amazing and interesting I'm just not sure what. :/

That's our Illinois team. From left to right, Top: Francine, mom Christy Bottom: Carmen, Tim, ME Amy, Tammy

CUPCAKES!!! See! Who was the one who wanted to go to Ghiradeli Square instead of Fisherman's Wharf? I will answer that "ME!" and who was the one who got huge cupcakes from it? Again "ME!" And who were the people who watched me eat it jealously? "The people who didnt go to Ghiradeli Square that's who!"

Day 11 The worst part of the trip....saying goodbye

Looking at the faces of everyone in the room you would have thought that 9/11 was happening all over again. Not one smile appeared on one persons face, not even the slightest hint of one. Tears were streaming down many faces and those that weren't crying wanted to, I could tell by their eyes.

 What was making us like this? What was making us show emotions we didn't want to show? Its one word. One eight lettered, two syllabled, horrid word.

   

Orphan's. 

  More like saying goodbye to them. You wouldn't think you could get so attached to little kids in five days. But our group of thirteen proved it possible. Very possible.

  Five days with four hours a day, that's 20 hours we had with the kids for the whole entire year. To think all of the stress, planning, packing, fundraising, anticipation, hoping, working, praying for this trip and now here we are saying goodbye to all the precious little kids.

 Was it worth it? Well is the sky blue? Of course it was worth it!

 Just think giving up one week in our whole year made these kids happier than they had ever been, feel more loved than they had ever felt, and smiled more than they had ever smiled.

  It changed more than just them, it changed us. It made us look farther and deeper into the bigger picture. Maybe it did more for us than it did for these kids.

 It. Changed. Us.

  Okay, so maybe I wasn't thinking ALL this as a Nannie scooped my baby from my arms and carried her off. But a lot raced through my head as our sad bunch of American's made our way out of the orphanage. We had just seen what most people don't even want to think about. Its been an experience no one will forget. And as I sent one last weary glance at the tall brick building, I smiled to myself cause I knew I would be back. . ..someday. . .

My Perfect Baby

I defiinitely was not going to fall in love with just one baby. That was so unfair and I decided before hand I wasn't gonna do that. Plan A was to play with all the babies and to love everyone of them, that was plan A.

 The first day we walked in there were babies everywhere, my plan was going to work perfectly! But I watched as every person in the group started to kind of pick out one certain baby each. And by the end of the day everyone each had their own "baby."

  Well if nobody was gonna follow my plan I could play their game too. Plan B Find a perfect baby. 

The next day I started looking around for my own special baby. I was looking for a perfect baby.

  I picked up some babies and played with them a while but most of them got squirmy and I put them down. I picked up one little girl and took her off to play. As I scanned the room still looking for a perfect baby, she cuddled in my lap and played with some toys. By the end of our two hours we had she actually cried when I left.

  When we came back a few hours later we went back into the baby room and I began another search for my "perfect baby" I noticed as a Nannie brought in the girl I had been playing with earlier. She sat her on her stomach and left. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as she reached for a toy she couldn't get to.  

Her eyes looked around the room as if to say "Where's someone to play with me?"

  And I knew that I needed a baby to hold. 

 Suddenly a Nannie walked towards her to pick her up."Oh no she did-nâ't!" I quickly snatched her up like a hawk and skipped away leaving a surprised Nannie behind. I smiled to myself feeling proud of my ninja like moves. Me and her played silently for a while, examining each other cautiously. I can honestly say I didn't even notice her special need at first. On one hand she is missing her two middle fingers so she has permanent "I love you" in sign language. How much cuter can you get? She has some other "special" hands and feet like that but that's it.

  I have nicknamed her"Miss serious" cause she always looks so serious when I see her. But don't worry I've gotten some smiles out of her.

  Its funny how much you can get to know a baby in five days. I've learned some interesting things about her.

  I knew I was looking down on my "Perfect baby" when she fell asleep in my arms. Every baby in the room was perfect, in their own way but this one was MY perfect baby. I was kind of upset when I found out that she was being adopted she couldn't leave! But then guess I realized that I would also be leaving soon and got over it. I am now getting lots of pictures of her for her new family and even bought her a new clean outfit for her to wear at the orphanage while she waits for her family.

  I don't want to tell her goodbye. But she is gonna have one lucky family. Cause now they get the "Perfect baby"

Day 5 Butterfly Excitement

Of course we were up early again, meeting for the hotel buffet breakfast. But this hotels breakfast wasn't as good.

  So after going to get some rice krispies, pouring your milk and then realizing that all milk in China is warm, I was ready to go. (And yes there are rice krispies in china)

We took an hour bus ride to our first destination, the "˜butterfly house" a hospice. (Which is a place where orphans go when they are really sick.)

 First we went into a room and sat and listened to Lyn the orphanage director talk. And also her very sweet assistant, Susie. She explained to us about the whole orphanage. Basically kids come there when they are really sick or have a big special need and they take care of them. The orphanage is a really great place and you can tell the babies are loved. There are only 13 kids here so they get lots of attention 

  When we went into a room full with sleeping babies we got to see three of the babies that are likely not to make it. It was really sad seeing it and that's when mom lost it, she cried like a little baby. :-) We also got to see a baby named Angel who we had been praying for and thinking about adopting. But she is already being adopted so boo hoo.

  After saying goodbye to all the babies we headed to the train station.  

 We were heading for the bullet train, a train that goes 200mph. It was totally awesome I know you're all jealous! Muwahahaha! It looked just like a plane on the inside complete with the little trays and everything!

As soon as we got to chenzhou you could see a difference. There was trash everywhere, there were lots and lots of kids and people, and people starred. No matter who they were, where they were, or when it was, they starred. Not that I’m blaming them we are probably some of the first Americans to come to chenzhou. And I mean we are pretty cool.

  When we got to our hotel the first thing everyone noticed was that there was a KFC right by our hotel. So for dinner that's where we went. Two days in china and people are already sick of the food.

 Me, mom, Elyssa, Megan, Shawn, and Katie all sat at a table together. So we are eating just minding our own business when this elderly women comes up and starts talking in Chinese and asking us for money. She did it like three times and we kept saying" NO!" Then I noticed the women behind our table starring at us the whole time, and every person who walked by us pointed and laughed! We are like superstars!

Anyway as we get up to leave mom suddenly yells "My purse is gone! I think its been stolen!" and in about two seconds the whole population of china is crowded around us as we ran around looking for the purse! To make matters worse our guide had already left to go back to the hotel! We automatically thought it was the old women who was eating in the corner who had been asking us for money.

  Somehow we found a teenage group of girls who spoke some English and told them to call the police, we said "Someone took bag. You call police," and they got the message. Shawn and Katie ran over to the hotel for our guide, while we waited for the police. And the teenage girls must have thought that they were watching a comedy T.V. show cause they giggled the whole time! We kept good watch on the old lady who sat chewing her chicken innocently. But the next thing we knew mom the guide and I were at the police station! And let me tell ya its not like you would imagine it to be. So there we sat at the police station nodding off cause we were so tired. Then of course mom has to go to the bathroom and what we find is a squatty potty with no lights in the bathroom. Sounds heavenly, right? She decided to hold it.

 While at the police station we got to watch the security camera that had caught the thief. Turns out it wasn't the old lady after all it was the lady sitting behind us that I had noticed starring at us. She had just slipped it off moms chair and ran out with it. The police were very reassuring they said "she's about this tall and has black hair we will look everywhere for her,"  Haha very convincing!

 

We are obviously supposed to be on this trip or Satan wouldn't be trying so hard to tear us down. And even though weâ've hit some bumps in the road we wont let Satan win we will walk with our heads up high and smiles on our faces.

More China More Travel

We had to be up and ready today by 8:00 for breakfast cause guess what we had another flight!

And just so everyone knows jetlag is horrible! Anyone who tells you different is WRONG! It makes you REALLY tired.

  We ate at the hotel buffet breakfast and it was good! (There was a lot of American food so that's probably why it was so good.)

  After our fill of breakfast we got in the bus to head to the airport. And we all thought we were pretty cool since the guide had told us that we wouldn't have to touch our luggage because she had people doing it for us. In fact they were supposed to check the luggage onto the plane for us too so we wouldn't even have to see it until we arrived at our destination in shanghigh. So there we were all of us weird Americans having people load up our luggage for us and ya know just chilling in the bus with our sunglasses on. Carmen and I definatily enjoyed the ride waving at people and seeing there faces lighting up like we were some kind of movie stars.  (Of course thats how everyone at home treats me anyway so nothing new for me. Just kidding!)

  On our plane our plane ride we certaintly kept ourselves busy also. Me and Carmen sat next to a Chinese dude who spoke very little English. I must admit we were being a little loud and abnoctious when we got out her "How To Learn Chinese" book and wrote down Chinese symbols to make sentences and then passed them back to the lady behind us. Well the dude next to us didn't like that very much. I know because he kept saying "Seatel doon, Seetel doon,"

 Anyway after the plane ride we went to get our luggage and we noticed that a bunch of our luggage was missing! When we talked to our guide we found out that there was a miscommunication between us! She thought that all of our luggage was supposed to stay at our hotel in Bejing,! (some of it was staying because we were coming back to Bejing to go sightseeing, climb the Great wall, etc.) We weren't feeling so cool anymore probably because when you don't have clothes to wear you don't feel to great!  While the guide tried to figure out that problem we took a bus to a new hotel in. And to add to this difficulty we were all still very tired from jetlag. So after lots of panic, rushing, and shock we figured out that the luggage could be driven here. We went to dinner (which was good) and then went back to our rooms to sleep. So after borrowing some peoples clothes and Pj's (I am way to cool to say pajamas):-) we got ready for bed. But only after our guide came and figured out some things for tomorrow did we finally fall asleep at eleven.

Day 3 China Here We Come

Weooh! Weooh! Weooh! I woke up right away as I heard the sirens! I glanced at the clock 3:30am. Weooh! "Fire?" I thought. Me, mom, and Amy sat up at the same time.  Mom's arms were flying around looking for something! She picked up her phone. Really? Her phone at a time like this? She quickly hit a button and all noise stopped. Then I remembered I had set the alarm on moms phone to a siren sound. Well that was kinda stupid. And yes you read right 3:30am!

  We had to leave the hotel with all of our luggage by 4:30am so we were up bright and early. When we got there we started checking our suitcases.(That means big suitcases that you don't take with you on the plane.)     

 Each person got two big suitcases to check. But when we counted it all out we were short one! We counted over and over again but no suitcase appeared. So some of us headed off to the lost and found. And even though it took a very long while we found our bag, and were on the plane just in time.

  We flew to Vancouver, Canada. When we got there mom decided that we needed to find some Canadian food. (preferably cheese soup which she had tried at Disney Worlds, Epcot, Canada) But no soup was found. Not even one Canadian restruant at the Canadian airport! Not even CANADIAN BACON!!! But we got over it.

  Next stop was china. 

  We get on the plane and just so you know every time you go on a plane you have to walk through the first class section and see what there getting then go back into your own seats and figure out how much nicer theres is than yours! But our seats were kinda nice. (Not compared to first class though) We had our own mini touch screen T.V. on every seat! That we thought was pretty awesome. And the eleven ours started. It was quite the experience. We got little T.V. dinner type things complete with bread, fruit and cake, I can now say that I have used an airplane bathroom, and I got to watch “I am sam” with mom. She sobbed through the whole thing! And throughout the whole trip I didn't sleep a wink! ;)

We landed at 4:00pm in China (3:00am my usual time) We were all so tire from jetlag walking through the airport we probably looked like American zombies!

We met up with our last member of the team, Lori at the airport. She was the only one who was actually awake. We also met our guide, Kita there to. She was very sweet.  

When we checked into our hotel I found out that the beds are rock hard in China. Literally! And the pillow felt like it was stuffed with rice. :P

  We went somewhere for dinner but we were all so tired we don't even remember what we ate! I probably ate squid and donkey butt for all I know! (But I hope not)

  You know the feeling when your eyelids are so heavy you can barely keep them open? Well try feeling like that just like 10x worse AND try walking around the busy streets of China!

But I mean give us a break we had been up over 24 hours and it was like 5:00am on our normal time!  

After we sleepily walked home Tammy and Lori came to our room to help divide luggage for the donations. We had three orphanages to visit and a bunch of donations to split between them.  So they were splitting up the donations for each orphanage. I fell asleep with them still working at 10:00 but they said they didn't go to bed till midnight!

So even though we are tired and just ready to sleep till next week we are still all so ready to go and do what God has planned for us to do.

San Francisco Day 2

So to start off our day we all got together to eat our free breakfast. Now I know what your wondering “Free breakfast? How?” Well I will tell you how! So last night after our mishap Francine decided that we deserved some free breakfast. So she went over to the manager and had a little talking with him. But in the battle of  Francine and the hotel manager, Francine won! She got us ALL free breakfast! GO FRANCINE!!!

       After our scrumptious breakfast we all agreed we wanted  to visit Alcatraz. (that’s an old prison I just found out ) So off we went to the  front desk to ask. By now I’m sure the front desk was really tired of us. Hehe!  But when mom asked them about a tour they just laughed and said “Those tours were sold out months ago! Hahahahaha!”

Well, so much for that idea!

So instead we settled for a 3 ½ hour tour that took us to some other cool places.  We got to see Fisherman’s Worf, China Town, The crookedest rode, The Golden Gate Bridge, and here comes my favorite, Ghiradeli Square!! CHOCOLATE!! We got to get out and look around these places too.

       When we stopped at Fisherman’s Worf and Ghiradeli Square we could walk around to the pier and stuff. But we couldn’t do both Fisherman’s Worf  and Ghiradeli Square cause we were limited on time. Most everyone wanted to see Fisherman’s Worf, but not me. I mean…Water or Chocolate. Fish or Caramal. Seals or Free samples. I think you get the picture. My mom makes fun of me and says “TEENAGERS” Well :P to her!

      So a 3 ½ hour tour might be fun and interesting for the first hour but after a while it gets a little boring and then a little more boring and then a little more boring until you think you can take it no longer! And I couldn’t! So what do you think my mom said? “TEENAGERS!”

      After our long and um exciting tour me and my mom had to go to the airport to pick up the next member of our group.  Elissa a girl who went on the Chenzhou mission trip last year.

        So after all this we were hungry. So we decided to go to a diner across the street from our hotel. Now we had some small problems with this place. First of all there were no fountain soda’s just cans and I’m telling ya these soda’s must have come from the land were you eat butterfly’s and poop rainbows cause they were exspensive! That would be srike one. Second of all the seats were ripped and the menus were practically in half! That’s strike two. And thirdly we were shooing bugs away from our faces! Our f-a-c-e-s! Strike three and your out! We walked back over to the hotel and ate there which was good.

     Katie and Shawn arrived after dinner they were the tenth and eleventh members of our team and then we picked up megan (another girl who went on the trip last year) at the airport who makes twelve.

                Our group is almost complete.

Day 1 Leaving

So the day started out with me and mom running through the house packing everything we could find. Every time we thought we were ready mom would run in saying "oh did ya get the..." or me yelling "I forgot my..." but luckily we still got to the church where we were meeting our group on time. We have eight people from our church going it's me, mom, Tammy, Amy, Christie, Francine, Tim, and Carmen. We drove to the airport feeling lucky that it was gonna be cool in San fransico it was hot! Anyway at the airport we said goodbye to loved ones and went through security. We had to take out our electronics and shoes! Shoes? Really? What happens to us people with stinky feet? Back to the point. We got on the plane fine and for my first time flying since I was like five it was pretty awesome! Me and Carmen played truth or dare which included her brushing my teeth, counting my toes and me preposing to my mom. Yea it was an interesting plane ride. When we were finally in San fransico we went for our luggage. Now what's the first thing that comes to mind when you see this "seven girls one guy and twenty-six suitcases (full of donations for the orphanage) walking through the airport" Now I know what your thinking "normal" right? Ok ok lots of odd looks is what we got. But when you live with four siblings two of those being crazy five year olds normal is so overrated. :P So now we are waiting outside in the rain for our shuttle. After an hour of waiting we FINALLY got one. Once at the hotel we started to check in but found out that we were at the wrong hotel! All that waiting to find out we are at the wrong hotel? So after lots and I mean LOTS of confusion we finally got into our hotel and we fell asleep at 1:00 (actually in St Louis it was 3:00am)

A very long day but we filled it with fun and laughter. I know that the Lord was with us all the way protecting us and keeping us safe. Thank you for your prayers.

DAY 1 pictures

                                      Mom, Carmen, and me ready to leave! Awesome!

                           Up up and away! (just so you know I'm the amazing photographer)

                     Awww Francine's asleep! (she is gonna kill me for putting this on here)

                                    This is most of our luggage.  I know we look awesome!

                                                  Tim and his luggage cart! HeHe!

                                       Okay I was bored and slap happy! Don't judge me! :)

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