Blessings all around

I am so happy right now!!

Today was amazing!!

The school kids came.

We made dumplings.

It was amazing!

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let me start from the beginning.

Breakfast was good today.

We had fried eggs!!

At the orphanage we started out with our normal routine.

Which is taking the big kids outside and playing with them.

I started playing with a little boy named Paul for awhile. He has down syndrome. He is so smart! We played hopscotch and he decided he would rather have me hold him and jump then to actually have to do it himself. We also had a tickle war that I am pretty sure i won. He is so happy and is cute as can be!

About half way through our time at the orphanage we took the older kids inside so that we could spend time with the babies.

But I couldnt let go of the little six year old girl, Penelope that i was holding. She has something wrong with her brain. I mean she has literally no idea what is going on. She just lays on a bench all day and chews her hands and grinds her teeth. Since i didnt feel like putting her down i decided to bring her in the baby room with me. Her and i sat down on a mat together until she fell alseep. For the rest of our time i held her while she slept.

During our lunch break, Alex and Luke (the girl and her son who came and stayed with us a few years ago) came to visit us. It was nice seeing them again.

After our lunch break we came back to the orphanage for a special treat. The nannies were going to help us make dumplings! They brought us into a big room with a huge table in the middle to make dumplings on. The nannies tried to teach us how to put the meat into the shell and then pinch it closed. It was hard!! I had alot of fun though. The nannies were laughing at us all as we tried so hard to make them. One of the nannies was having so much fun throwing us the dough across the table. We had our translator, Steve, tell her about the restaurant Lamberts and that made her laugh even more.

We made dumplings for THREE HOURS.

Yeah it was a long time.

When we finished making our hundreds of dumplings we got to head outside to meet the school kids.

The school kids are eight kids that we sponsor to attend a private school. They have been at school all week so far.

When we came outside to where they were playing they all started cheering and ran towards us.

Gracie, my eight year old girl from last year, ran right up to me and gave me the biggest hug. From that point on she wouldnt leave my side. I had so much fun running around with her and laughing and playing with her. Seeing her again was liking seeing a close friend after a long time apart. She kept calling me "mama" and she was telling the other kids that i was her "mama."

Soon after seeing the kids we were gathered into another room to eat the dumplings we had made. The kids sat at one table while we sat at another. Gracie kept waving at me from her table, it was so sweet. The dumplings were amazing and we got to spend even more time with the nannies.

It is really cool that the director and nannies are warming up to us so much!

We finally left the orphanage around 7:30 sweaty and exhausted.

But it was totally worth it.

Today was an amazing day.

I have so many blessings.

Please pray for us tomorrow because we are bringing some of the kids to church!

Thank you!!