Day 6 Chenzhou

7:38am

Today we go back to the normal routine at the orphanage. Older kids from 8-11:30. Babies from 3-5:30. We are about to leave to go to the orphanage to work with the big kids. We are already bruised and battered from them. They just want attention so bad. And when 20 kids all want the attention it’s just hard. Yesterday I was holding one kid, another was hanging on my leg, and two others were yelling the Chinese word for hold me. It was pretty crazy!

12:48am

Just got back from lunch.  We ate at the hotel, we eat here alot. Nothing really that exciting to report. I can tell everyone is pretty tired of Chinese food. Everyone keeps talking about missing Chick-fil-a. I don’t really have a certain thing I miss, besides maybe  cereal for breakfast. But that’s not important. 

Cause we also went to the orphanage. It was pretty crazy as always. We took the kids outside, because they love to play outside. We were outside for a long time and it was pretty hot. We started by sitting in a circle with all the kids and sang songs with them. They liked the hokey pokey. They did chalk as usual, but today we had brought the kids dress up clothes. They loved it! There was sunglasses, capes, head bands, boas, little dinosaur tails, and head bands with long hair on them.  They had so much fun running around pretending to be super heros and rock stars. 

Us in the circle dancing

 

Hopscotch 

 

Mom, Charlie, and I 

Me painting Avery's face 

 

 

Kids getting tattoos 

 

Charlie and Collin 

Daisy the rock star 

And Leah the super hero

Today I got to play with a little girl named Hope.  At the beginning of the week we thought Hope had hydrocephalus, but the nannies said that it wasn’t hydrocephalus but something wasn’t normal  in her brain. Hope is very rough. She pinches, and a lot of people on the team have bruises from her. But today I decided to hold her. She squirmed a lot and didn’t want to calm down at first but after a while she calmed down and we sat and watched the other kids play. She really is a sweet loving girl. That moment didn’t last long cause then other kids came running over wanting attention. 

 

 

Cute little Hope 

 I also got to work with Jacob some more. I got to help him with his snack and drink. And we also did a puzzle together.

A little boy named Taylor fell down and scraped his knee. I got to help him clean it up. He was trying so hard to be brave and not to cry. And he did a good job, he only sniffled a little bit while I sat with him then he was back to being the rambunctious little 6 year old that he is. 

Taylor

Usually by the end, around 11ish the kids get really crazy. Because they know we are going to be leaving soon. So they all panic, wanting to be held before we leave. They just want to be with us so badly.  And I’m always scrambling around trying to hold each one of them before we run out of time.

9:11pm

We are back in our hotel rooms now. We had a nice quiet afternoon with the babies. Even though there are just to many babies and not enough of us. We are all holding at least one, and some of us two, and there are still babies that need held. We try keeping the ones that can’t be held busy by sitting them in bumbo seats or with toys. But it’s still hard especially before they eat cause they all wanna be held cause they are hungry and cranky.

So I switched between holding Jake and Claire today. Claire was strangely cranky today so Megan ended up holding her while I held Jake. This time he fell asleep while I was holding him and I got to put him in his crib.  It’s hard playing with the babies, because each day we have to pass by the older kids room and so they know we are at the orphanage and that we are just ignoring them. So every day they all sit in a line against the wall waiting for us to come out of the baby room, and when one of us does to get a diaper or something they all come running towards you with hugs and kisses.

We stopped by the teams favorite restaurant on the way back. It’s our third time eating there! The reason we keep going there is for the fried banana. It’s the only place that has it.

Heres the menu for dinner

*Potatoes and beef

*Soup (With corn on the cob in it)

*Beans

*Cauliflower

*Fried dough (Which was an interesting texture)

*Fried banana!!!!!

There are other things too, but that’s what I remember.

They came out with the fried banana tonight and it was white and normally its golden brown. That really threw us off. I ended up tasting it, and it tasted like a glazed banana. Like instead of a glazed donut it was a glazed banana. Fawn ended up talking to the waitress and she took the banana back. Fawn then said “They forgot a step when they were baking it”

The last thing we did today was devotions. Mom read a page from Katie Davis’s blog. And then we sang some worship songs. We ended with the song ‘Spirit and the Bride’ and there were many tears listening to that song.

We have been working on gifts for the director and nannies. We all hate to admit it but tomorrow is the last day. Every time someone brings it up we kind of just push the thought away. Tomorrow we will do the babies in the morning and then we are having a party with the older kids in the afternoon. Everyones pretty excited about the party.

I can’t wait till tomorrow, but I also am totally dreading it. Because so many people have gotten attached.  Please pray for us and the kids.