7:45am
It’s the last day.
Need I say more? Everyone is still refusing to think about
that fact so I’m not going to talk about it either. Breakfast was the same as
always, bread, rice, noodles. The team is REALLY starting to crave American food.
We start with the babies today so I’m
interested to see how that goes.
1:35pm
Lunch at the hotel again. We had pigeon and it still had the
head on it! I held the head in my hand, it was awesome!! But the taste was nasty.
There was lots of crying today. A lot of the team members
were upset. Trust me, leaving is the worst thing ever. I guess I havn’t gotten
upset yet cause I’m holding on to the fact that we are still going back. But
that’s for only two and a half hours. I’m dreading saying good bye to the older
kids. Because with the babies they don’t cling onto you, begging you not to
leave. They don’t follow you to the door and then when you’re out the door,
they scream goodbye to you from the window. They don’t constantly hold onto
your hand, asking you to stay with them. And yes the older kids do that. It was pretty heartbreaking watching my
little boy Jake cry when I laid him into his crib for the last time.
Jake and I
Group photo
9:23
I’ve been sitting here looking at a blank word document for
about ten minutes now and I just glanced over at Megan’s computer screen to see
that hers is still blank too.
I guess it’s hard to
find words to describe how everyone is feeling right now. I just don’t know where to begin. But I think
a good place to start is the beginning.
Well after our lunch break Monte, Mom, Annie, Fawn and I all
ran over to a bakery to pick up two huge cakes for the party that we had with
the kids tonight. When we got to the orphanage the kids were just waking up
from there naps and the nannies were starting to dress them in there nice
matching outfits. (This party was a very special occasion) We took all the kids
down stairs to do crafts while the nannies got ready for the party. They got
out some dress up clothes and the girls looked adorable dressed up like
princesses. I tried to get pictures with as many kids as possible today. When it was time for the party the kids got
super excited.
Me with Avery
I should probably bring to your attention that the kids stay
on floor five of the building but they have a play room on floor one. So every
time we need them in the play room on floor one we have to try and get 20 kids
down an elevator. Many good storys about
that. The kids know exactly which button to press on the elevator to get them
where they need to go. So today when us Americans were all confused about where
the party was, the kids just loaded us on the elevator and took us to floor
nine.
After a bunch of confusion we arrived at the party room. It was decorated all fancy, with us sitting at tables and the kids
sitting in little red chairs in front of us.
There was a stage and the kids did
two songs for us, it was absolutely adorable.
Then it was our turn we sang a
song in English and then Annie sang the same song in Chinese with the rest of
us humming along in the background. And to finish our performance we ended with
the cha cha slide. The kids loved dancing to that.
Singing
And dancing
Then all the nannies and kids got on stage to sing a song for us. By
the middle of the song a few nannies were crying and most of our team was in
tears. We have made such a bond with the kids and nannies here.
But the party wasn’t
over just yet. To end we lit the singing
candles and gave the kids cake. That was quite hilarious.
But after the party came the worst part.
Saying goodbye.
It’s not like the kids understood we weren’t coming back. We
said good bye every day and we were always back in the morning.
But this time we aren't coming back.
Pretty much everyone was sobbing. That really confused the
kids.
We have grown so close to them over the past week.
And now they are being ripped away from us.
I tried to hug every single kid before I left.
And even now as I’m sitting here I can’t really explain how I’m
feeling.
Angry? Sad? Hurt? Bitter?
Maybe a little of all of those.
I didn’t want to leave.
I had to make myself pull their tiny hands off my legs so
that I could leave.
They held on so tight.
Ugh!
I wish we could bring the whole orphanage home with us.
But I don’t think my parents are gonna go for that idea.
After leaving the orphanage, the director and a bunch of the
nannies took us out to dinner afterwards. It was a little strange because they
sat at one table and we sat at another but it was the thought that counts.
Tomorrow we say good bye to all the nannies.
Oh and to add to our sad night we also said good bye to Fawn
our translator tonight. We brought her into my moms hotel room, gave her the
gifts we had for her (Which included a bible that we all signed) she gave us
some awesome maps of Chezhou, we took pictures with her and we even got a
chance to pray over her. Fawn is so amazing and I know we all want her as our
translator again next year.
Ok well we have to be up early tomorrow morning so that we
won’t miss our train so goodnight everyone!
Please continue praying for those kids!
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