Butterfly House Baby's

 

Awww Christy and Baby!

 

This is Angel the baby we prayed for. Now she will be going home to a happy family!

 

 

The wonderful people who work with these baby's! Thank Ya!

Our team! I'm in the back hiding! I hate pictures! Hehe!

Day 14 Great Wall

I bet most of you who are reading this probably have not tried to climb the Great Wall of China, well guess who has! Yeah, you guessed ME that's who! Some people like me were ready to climb to the top while others were a little heisitant to climb and would rather "slide" up. Don't ask me about the sliding. That's just what our guide for the day had said (Fong had something so we got a new guide for the day) "You can climb up it or you can slide up it" We tried to ask her what she meant by it but she didn't understand. Then she told us that we could take a slide down! Awesome! I was so ready! When we got there, there was an easy way and a hard way. Well hahahahahahaha ha I laugh at easy. (I picked the hard way if you didn't already guess.) So we started up. Well I must admit it was steep and maybe a little, teeny, bit was hard, but I was gonna do it! And mom probably knowing I would never let her forget it if she gave up, kept going. And I bet even more of you who are reading this have not made it to the top of the Great Wall, well guess who did! Yup, you guessed again, ME! And to prove it I have a cheap box, with a cheap fake piece of gold with my name carved into it, so there ha! Okay, I wasn't alone Lori, Carmen, Tammy, Amy, Katie, Shawn, Elyssa, Megan, and mom made  it also. Oh, and I should probably say something about the view, it was really pretty, actually it was amazing. Alright so after we get up there we find out that the slide was on the other side!!! So we have to walk down it!! So down we go. And I highly doubt that any of you reading this have skipped down the Great Wall, well guess who has. Uh huh, you got this, ME! And yeah, I fell on my butt and chinese people laughed at me, and yeah I got yelled at by my mom to hold on to the wall, and yeah, I probably made a fool of myself. But it was FUN! I bet most of you reading this have not stood on the side of the Great Walls edges that are, well high, well guess who has! I bet you didn't guess, the guy in front of us! (But trust me I asked if I could)
   After that great adventure we headed to the silk market. Its kind of hard to explain its this huge place full with all differant people selling all differant things. And they had EVERYTHING! As you walk through the aisles every person selling something wants you to buy from there store. Here are some helpful hints
-Don't look the seller in the eyes EVER
-Don't look at an object unless you are sure you want to buy it
-Don't EVER point at anything in a store
-Don't talk about something you see at there store to close to them

 I learned all those the hard way. Let me tell the chinese might be small but the are mighty I was drug into a store by my arms more than once! We got a few things there, we decided we were done when we were called "A crabby old lady." or "Idiots," by one seller. (We didn't buy from her)

   After that adventure we went to see the 'Beijing Acrobats' Our seats were okay. Those people can bend there bodies in ways I didn't know was humanly possible! I was aching just watching! Do your knees belong on your shoulders? Okay, they didn't all do that. Some jumped through hoops, and others did bicycle tricks. At one point they brought this big spinning whatchamucallit out and two guys were running on it! I was so jealous! I guess I shouldn't plan on getting that in my Christmas stocking though cause my mother gasped EVERY time they pretended to fall!
       So we are enjoying out last day in China cause tomorrow we leave for home.

Day 13 Sheperd's Feild

We had to take a two hour bus ride to get to our next orphanage.

    We were in Beijing which at the beginning of the trip felt foreign but now after being in chenzhou was almost as good as home. (I did say almost!)
      We were already missing the kids from the Chenzhou Orphanage so we were glad to see more baby's!    When we got there we unloaded ALL of our donations and met the directors. (Who this time were American's! English, Yes!) We had some lunch and looked around there gift shop. The gift shop has some really cool things and all proceeds they make goes to the orphanage. After that we got a tour of the place. And let me tell ya this place is awesome! Its got lots of room for the kids and its just amazing. The other thing about this orphanage is all special needs kids. We were ready to see the kids though. We were split into groups and we were off. My group went into a room with five kids in it at that moment. They were adorable! We played with the kids for a while and looked around you could totally see  the difference between this orphanage and the other one!
    
     After our long day there we headed back and ate dinner at a place near our hotel. But me, Lori, Christy, Tammy, and mom werent ready for bed yet, we were headed to the mall! Muwahahaha! This mall had nine floor's of shop's I repeat NINE floors! This place would be a shopoholic's dream!
          Just for fun we took and escalator from the bottom floor all the way to the ninth floor we thought we were totally awesome. After shopping a while we went into a store, and what song was blaring loudly inside? Well it was none other than 'Baby' by Justin Beiber! I mean really? They cant even understand this music! And they were all singing along with the music! Sheesh! Even on the other side of the world I can get away from this guy!
   Anyway as we were walking through the stores we see a little sign that says 'ColdStone Creamery'. COLDSTONE CREAMERY! We almost had a heart attack. And no we weren't dreaming! Lori made my mom promise we would come back after we were done shopping. Oh Yeah, like my mom wouldn't come back for her favorite ice cream shop ever after we hadn't had American food for almost two weeks. Yeah do ya think we came back?
    
  What an exciting way to end our day!
 
    I think we are all finally over jetlag by now. I really am gonna miss china. In some ways I'm ready to go back but in some ways I don't want the trip to already be over.

Day 3 Pictures (Our way to China)

Waiting, just waiting, for our lost suitcase.

And there it is in the lost and found! Oooh! That's embarrassing!

In Canada Eating our Canadian lunch! Yum!!!

Katie taking a nap on the floor in the middle of the airport.....nice.

Day 2 Pictures (sorry pictures didnt work in china)

 

That would be me and in the distance you can see the Golden Gate Bridge. I was at Fisherman's Wharf that was BEFORE I headed to Ghiradeli Square.

Okay, I'm sure off in the distance there on that hill it says something really amazing and interesting I'm just not sure what. :/

That's our Illinois team. From left to right, Top: Francine, mom Christy Bottom: Carmen, Tim, ME Amy, Tammy

CUPCAKES!!! See! Who was the one who wanted to go to Ghiradeli Square instead of Fisherman's Wharf? I will answer that "ME!" and who was the one who got huge cupcakes from it? Again "ME!" And who were the people who watched me eat it jealously? "The people who didnt go to Ghiradeli Square that's who!"

Day 11 The worst part of the trip....saying goodbye

Looking at the faces of everyone in the room you would have thought that 9/11 was happening all over again. Not one smile appeared on one persons face, not even the slightest hint of one. Tears were streaming down many faces and those that weren't crying wanted to, I could tell by their eyes.

 What was making us like this? What was making us show emotions we didn't want to show? Its one word. One eight lettered, two syllabled, horrid word.

   

Orphan's. 

  More like saying goodbye to them. You wouldn't think you could get so attached to little kids in five days. But our group of thirteen proved it possible. Very possible.

  Five days with four hours a day, that's 20 hours we had with the kids for the whole entire year. To think all of the stress, planning, packing, fundraising, anticipation, hoping, working, praying for this trip and now here we are saying goodbye to all the precious little kids.

 Was it worth it? Well is the sky blue? Of course it was worth it!

 Just think giving up one week in our whole year made these kids happier than they had ever been, feel more loved than they had ever felt, and smiled more than they had ever smiled.

  It changed more than just them, it changed us. It made us look farther and deeper into the bigger picture. Maybe it did more for us than it did for these kids.

 It. Changed. Us.

  Okay, so maybe I wasn't thinking ALL this as a Nannie scooped my baby from my arms and carried her off. But a lot raced through my head as our sad bunch of American's made our way out of the orphanage. We had just seen what most people don't even want to think about. Its been an experience no one will forget. And as I sent one last weary glance at the tall brick building, I smiled to myself cause I knew I would be back. . ..someday. . .

My Perfect Baby

I defiinitely was not going to fall in love with just one baby. That was so unfair and I decided before hand I wasn't gonna do that. Plan A was to play with all the babies and to love everyone of them, that was plan A.

 The first day we walked in there were babies everywhere, my plan was going to work perfectly! But I watched as every person in the group started to kind of pick out one certain baby each. And by the end of the day everyone each had their own "baby."

  Well if nobody was gonna follow my plan I could play their game too. Plan B Find a perfect baby. 

The next day I started looking around for my own special baby. I was looking for a perfect baby.

  I picked up some babies and played with them a while but most of them got squirmy and I put them down. I picked up one little girl and took her off to play. As I scanned the room still looking for a perfect baby, she cuddled in my lap and played with some toys. By the end of our two hours we had she actually cried when I left.

  When we came back a few hours later we went back into the baby room and I began another search for my "perfect baby" I noticed as a Nannie brought in the girl I had been playing with earlier. She sat her on her stomach and left. I watched her out of the corner of my eye as she reached for a toy she couldn't get to.  

Her eyes looked around the room as if to say "Where's someone to play with me?"

  And I knew that I needed a baby to hold. 

 Suddenly a Nannie walked towards her to pick her up."Oh no she did-nâ't!" I quickly snatched her up like a hawk and skipped away leaving a surprised Nannie behind. I smiled to myself feeling proud of my ninja like moves. Me and her played silently for a while, examining each other cautiously. I can honestly say I didn't even notice her special need at first. On one hand she is missing her two middle fingers so she has permanent "I love you" in sign language. How much cuter can you get? She has some other "special" hands and feet like that but that's it.

  I have nicknamed her"Miss serious" cause she always looks so serious when I see her. But don't worry I've gotten some smiles out of her.

  Its funny how much you can get to know a baby in five days. I've learned some interesting things about her.

  I knew I was looking down on my "Perfect baby" when she fell asleep in my arms. Every baby in the room was perfect, in their own way but this one was MY perfect baby. I was kind of upset when I found out that she was being adopted she couldn't leave! But then guess I realized that I would also be leaving soon and got over it. I am now getting lots of pictures of her for her new family and even bought her a new clean outfit for her to wear at the orphanage while she waits for her family.

  I don't want to tell her goodbye. But she is gonna have one lucky family. Cause now they get the "Perfect baby"