It's been over a week now that we've been in China.
Although I loose track of days here.
Yesterday was children's day
Which is an actual serious holiday in China
The orphanage had a party to celebrate and we were asked to sing a song and perform a dance.
We sang God of this City which was emotional
And for our traditional American dance we performed the Cupid shuffle
Yes it's weird but I've learned that when in China everything's weird
Just when you think you've seen it all you see something even stranger than the last time
The weather has been hot
And air conditioning is hard to find in China
In the mornings at the orphanage when we are with the babies, we have a new goal
That is to get as many babies out of their cribs and into the playroom as possible
I think we hit a new record everyday
It's hard sometimes because there's so many babies and not enough of us to hold them all
Especially now since we have been getting out the more severe special needs kids
Like Johnny who is missing part of his skull
Or Tyson who we think has either hydrocephalus or a tumor
But the kids are doing good!
Now there's always the ones who don't want to be touched
We are still working on them
But so many with severe special needs have been in the playroom lately and it's been amazing
We are hoping to show the nannies that just because they have special needs doesn't mean they need to sit in their cribs all day
In the afternoons we go to the big kids
And as much as I love the big kids, they're hard to work with
There is such a wide range when it comes to the big kids
You have the pot sitters, you have the crazies who run around the room screaming, and you have the more able children
This year there is a new older girl who is 12
She came this year
She is so smart and completely healthy yet she's living here
They said they are rushing her paperwork to try and get her adopted before she ages out
I just hope that there is a family willing
Because she will be a blessing to whoever adopts her.
Yesterday we split up the group, five of us took the kids that were able down to do crafts and five of us stayed with the pot sitters
A lot of the kids surprised me with how well they did the crafts
All they had to do was put Cheerios onto pipe cleaners but boy do they love it
I helped Paul who is a little Down syndrome boy do his
He has come so far since last year when we did the same craft
Last year he just shoveled the Cheerios into his mouth
This year he completely got it!
And he was even trying to show another kid how to do it!
I also worked with a little boy named Drew
Poor kid got his name cause he drools a lot
He worked really hard to get the Cheerios onto the pipe cleaners and he was so excited every time he did
When it was time to switch I went upstairs with the "pot sitters"
They had brought them all into the playroom trying to work with them
The room was kind of depressing
One little girl had a seizure while we were in there
Which is the third child to have a seizure on this trip so far
Another kid threw up multiple times
While another peed on the floor
Sometimes all you can do is smile to cover up the faces that you are actually feeling
Because you really never know what's going to happen next
We are working on getting information about each child so that we can start advocating for them
The trip is going by so fast
Too fast
And I can guarantee I won't be ready to leave when the time comes
Please continue to keep us in your prayers!
