Quick Update

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!