Kiss the baby for me

BLOW

KISSES

TO  DADDY

WHEN YOU SEE HIM...

WAIT FOR IT

WAIT FOR IT

WAIT FOR IT

IN 17 DAYS!

OK NOW YOU CAN SCREAM.

Happy Birthday Dear Husband,

This was pretty much the best gift I could think to give you.

Enjoy your trip my love.

And kiss our baby girl for me.

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Daddy Dressed Me

A few of you might have wondered worried about Dad taking the girls for a week.

I mean how on earth would he dress them?

well I got an email today and now we know.

sigh, well at least they match each other.

Now I'm wondering how many "I heart daddy" shirts he packed?

Dearest husband, if you are reading this...HAIR COMBING IS NOT OPTIONAL! xoxo

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Farewell Family

Honestly I should be ashamed to admit



how happy I am



to see them



GO!

but come on a week at home without kids or husband

one week in the last 12 years

I mean you get that right?

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Butterfly Blessings

One of the most inspiring orphanages we were able to visit while in China was Butterfly House in Changsa.  It is China's only known palliative care center for orphans.  Actually calling it an orphanage makes it sound much bigger than it really is because in fact it is a tiny operation taking space in a half dozen small rooms within the Changsa SWI.

Started just two short years ago by Lyn and Alan Gould a British couple from Australia, Butterfly House now cares for 12 children with chronic and/or life threatening conditions.  (Sadly two of the children there today are in fact terminally ill.) Since its start in 2010 Butterfly House has been home to 35 children.

Most children come to Butterfly House after being deemed terminal or otherwise being "given up on" by the orphanage authorities.

Butterfly House operates on a shoe string budget but everyone there has a huge heart and their love and persistence is paying off.  Right now two of the children at Butterfly House, two that were deemed too sick to provide for, have been nursed to health and are being adopted!  An incredible testimony to the power of prayer, the resilience of these children and ability for people like Lyn and Alan (and just like each of us) to make a real difference for a child in need.

Our Visiting Orphans Team with the support of MedWish International in Cleveland Ohio and many of my friends here in blogworld and on facebook, were able to deliver hundreds of pounds of medical equipment and infant care supplies to Butterfly House.  The donations were very much appreciated and desperately needed.  There were heartfelt tears of joy as we rolled our many cases of goods into the building!

Of course the need is great and much more remains to be done. Right now Butterfly House is searching for a Nurse to join their team! If you are a nurse and have ever thought about living abroad for 6 months or more this is your chance to do something AMAZING!!!!

I have witnessed first hand the work done by Butterfly House and can personally attest to its value and worth.  If you would like to learn more about Butterfly House or if you would like to sponsor a child there please visit Butterfly Children's Hospices for more information.

Here are just some of the beautiful butterfly babies I met during my short visit.

Won't you please say a prayer for them?

William (defective windpipe, adoption status unknown)

Eve, (Adopted)

Paul (post surgical/omphalocele, available for adoption!)

Sarah, (delayed development, available for adoption!)

Little Swallow, (spina bifida, available for adoption!)

Angel, (Adopted)

Ysmael, (terminal liver failure, not able to be adopted)

Hannah, (thalessimia-available for adoption!)

Isobel, (terminal liver failure, not able to be adopted)

Lyn Gould, my new hero.

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3 Worst Things About My Trip to China

#1

#2

#3

Ironically (in the moment) felt like THE BEST...

I would not normally eat this swill but we had a few die hard junk-foodies on the trip who were missing "American food".  At first I was a little snobby in my thinking but I have to admit by day 10 that McDonald's cheeseburger was heavenly.

You can keep the KFC though...it was the only food in China that has ever made me feel sick. (And I remind you,  I've eaten a scorpion here!)

Don't forget to click the banner...need to keep this blog high in the rankings if we want s lots of potential families to see our Chen Zhou kids.  (Pssst: Pics are coming soon!)

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Shopping...

I'm over it.

Maybe it's because I'm old. Maybe it's because knock off brand purses are just not my cup of tea.

Maybe it's because I just spent the last 10 days with orphans who own nothing. Kids who don't even have a mother to call their own (much less a Coach diaper bag...cripes they didn't even have diapers. )

Sigh.

I'm in no mood to shop.

So I'm checking my "Ugly American" into this coffee shop by the famous silk market. I'll sit here and wait for this bit of the trip to be over.

I'll watch the frenzied shoppers go by.







And I'll remember my babies in Chen Zhou.

Because the thing about being "changed" by an experience like this is .... YOU ARE CHANGED.

Don't forget to click the banner...need to keep this blog high in the rankings if we want s lots of potential families to see our Chen Zhou kids.  (Pssst: Pics are coming soon!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Great(er) Part of the Wall

Today was our one day to play tourists. 

We visited the Badaling section of the Great Wall just outside of Beijing (it is a steep but fun climb to the top and a much more scenic section than the Juyongguan Pass we visited last year).  We then had lunch at a jade factory (ie total tourists trap), visited the famous Silk Market in the afternoon and attended a performance by the Beijing Acrobats.

I especially enjoyed the climb up the Wall, mostly because it now felt like I was walking it with friends.  A friendship I do not take for granted.

Frankly speaking, we are an unlikely group. Our backgrounds, where we live and varied ages would not normally place us together, never mind together in China. And I have been the odd team member without prior connection to anyone here. 

Yet we have shared an intensely emotional experience over these past weeks and it has (as these things tend to do), bonded us in a truly special way.

It took a while to warm up, to feel accepted, (for me to learn everyone's name) but today was fun and finally it felt like I was among friends.

Team Chen Zhou: (top left),  Christy, Megan, Tim, Francine, Elyssa, Amy, Makenna, Lori, Shannon, (bottom left),  Tammy, Carmen, Shawn, Katie

Hero GOLD Cards for everyone!

The long climb UP the wall.

Looking very "touristy"

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Goodbye Chenzhou

We've left Chezhou and we're now back in Beijing. We are coming to the end of our mission in China. Tomorrow we will visit Shepard's Field an orphanage about 2 hours away, then it's a day of sightseeing and then home on Friday afternoon.

Hard to imagine the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City being anti climatic but I am sure it will be. Not just because I was there just a year ago but because our time in Chenzhou, our time with these children has been so deeply meaningful.

How can brick and mortar ever compare to flesh and bone?

Earlier this week I was beating myself up. Feeling silly and useless and insignificant.

What was I thinking?

How could hauling over a bunch of baby wipes and Tylenol help in any long lasting way? What
have we really accomplished? What did we change?

But now I realize I am the one who has changed.

There are 147 million orphans needing families. Together they would form the ninth largest country in the world. The crisis is epic, the numbers really too big to relate to in anything more than an academic
way.

And that's really what this trip was about for me...humanizing a global tragedy by putting a face, and a name and a heart to a seemingly hopeless statistic.

Don't forget to click the banner...need to keep this blog high in the rankings if we want s lots of potential families to see our Chen Zhou kids.  (Pssst: Pics are coming soon!)

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Mu Shu

I have a new friend.

I’m calling her Mu Shu.  (Like the cartoon Dragon not the entree.)

She’s tough little thing with a MAJOR attitude problem.

As is human nature the folks in our group sort of gravitate to the the kids who want the attention or at least are not openly hostile towards our advances. Mu Shu is not one of those kids.

The first day she walked around glaring at us like a cranky old Chinese grandmother. A dragon lady.

She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes enough to let us know we were not welcome. Any attempt to engage her was met with a nasty screech.  No translation needed: she did not like us. That first day her interaction with us was pretty much limited to throwing toys at us.  Lovely.

I will be honest, on day two when I walked into the room I did not want the crabby screecher.  I know I know, shame on me but there were happy, cuddly babies in the room...give me one of those!  But I was too late all the “good kids” were taken: just the cranky old grandmother was without an adult.  It was her and me.  Her against me to be more precise.

What to do?  How to tame this little pot bellied beast?

I decided to take an indirect approach.   I didn’t get too close, instead I played just near enough for her to see me stacking toys in a tower.

She noticed. Ha!

She came closer. Ha again!!

She reached out for a toy.  GOT YA!!

For the next two and a half hours I inched my way closer and closer to her.  I touched her hand when she thrust a toy at me.

Then I kissed her hand.

Then her cheek.

By the end I was nuzzling her neck and getting full on giggles and grins.

Before we left she was cuddled up in my arms. We ended up being the last two in the room.  We had bonded and Mu Shu clung tight to me and tried to fight off  the nanny who had to peel her away.  She  cried (ok she screeched) and stretched towards me. It was pathetic and I wanted desperately to pull her back into my arms but at the same time I was too satisfied with our (her) progress to be sad.

When we came back to the orphanage the next morning guess who made a bee line for me?

My Mu Shu of course.

She is still a little stinker as proven by her swatting and (of course) screeching at another little boy who tried to hug me.  Not very nice behavior but actually a good sign that she can (and maybe did) bond.  We played all day today and I even got to give her a bath.  Again when it was time to leave she cried for me to stay.  My heart ached just a bit more today...(I’m bonding too).

Mu Shu is a scrapper, a strong willed survivor of a kid.  She is just 20 months old with a very old (and ornery) soul.  And I’m in love with her. Her paperwork is done and she should be available for adoption soon.  He medical need is so minor I can hardly believe it is a special need at all (it would not be in the US).  She will certainly be adopted...at least I pray she will.

My team is joking she will be our number 7. (Don’t worry honey I’m not drilling holes in my suitcase...yet.)

In my heart I don’t think Mu Shu is meant to be mine but what I do know for sure is she is meant to be....wanting to be.... loved.

Don't forget to click the banner...need to keep this blog high in the rankings if we want s lots of potential families to see our Chen Zhou kids.  (Pssst: Pics are coming soon!)

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Real China

I came out here planning to write a novella.  I expected long blog posts to come pouring out of me BUT the reality is I am physically exhausted and emotionally spent by the end of each day and the frustration of dial up internet speed (or lack there of) is just enough to make me give up any attempts at writing.

I think too if I’m being honest, I am in sensory overload not yet able to filter my thoughts enough to clearly communicate what I am experiencing here. While Beijing felt familiar, Chen Zhou and working in the orphanage is so entirely different that in many ways it feels like my first time in China.

Unlike our adoption trip to China here we are free to move about the city.  We walk each day from the hotel to the orphanage and back again.  We shop and go to restaurants and stroll through the street markets on our own. It is quite a sight all of us American’s running around this place where Westerners do not normally come.  The entire time we are out people stare and point and sometimes nearly drive off the road to get a look at us.  School children practice their best “Hello” on us and run giggling when we respond with our heavily accented “ni hao”. We negotiate the language, the money and the traffic independent of a guide. It is about as authentic an experience I could expect short of living here. I’m finally in the REAL CHINA.

Our days at the orphanage are long.  We meet for breakfast as a group at 7am then head to the orphanage at 8am.  We are with “the babies” from 8:30-11:00 where we play, sing, feed and rock them.  At 11am we head back to the hotel for lunch and to plan our day with the preschoolers.  We return at 3pm to put on our makeshift preschool program for “the big kids” and finish up at 5pm.  Then back to the hotel and a walk to dinner somewhere in town.  (Have you noticed yet that there is A LOT of eating going on? Thank goodness there’s a lot of walking too!)

By the time we finish our dinner (the Chinese take there time) it is nearly 8pm.  We gather our group one last time to recap our day, have some prayer and reflection time and prepare for the next day.

Add in a a bit of Skype and frustratingly slow email checking and a quick shower to wash away the sweat and grime (and baby slobber) and your day is pretty much over.

I’m not sure we accomplish much.  I wouldn’t even know how to measure our efforts.  But I do know we feel busy.

Honestly I wouldn’t even have time to write this except that I’m up at 4am.  Nope it’s not jet lag...It’s smothering heat that has me unable to sleep.  It’s 90 degrees and humid outside and we are on the 14th floor of the hotel and while we do have air-conditioning  inexplicably the hotel turns  the air-conditioning off (which means all airflow) at 3 am.

Yup, REAL CHINA

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Making the Sky

Today proved to be a very emotionally difficult day for me.

Going on a mission trip and visiting with special needs orphans while I'm waiting for my own child to come home from her special needs orphanage hit me hard and unexpectedly.... like a big ole sucker punch in the gut.

******

We finally made it to the Chen Zhou SWI and this morning we spent the day meeting with the orphanage Director, touring the facility and rocking babies. The Director was welcoming and the nannies seem to work hard and care for the children here. The facility is clean and fresh and all and all a nice facility (as much as any orphanage can be "nice" and for as much as we could hope that what we saw was typical.)

The babies and toddlers were (no surprise) darling. We got to spend several hours with them in the morning. Some were happy and willing to come to us right off while others started to cry at the sight of us.

Who can blame them? What a sight we must be to them; a pack of baby snatching, white faced foreigners with cameras aimed straight at them.

Our first morning was exhausting.  Not sure if it was the jet lag or the emotional stress of finally getting to the orphanage but I was glad when at 11am the babies went to lunch and naps.... and so did we.

We returned to the orphanage at three o'clock this time to visit with a classroom of "older" kids. The children were age 4 through 8 and each had obvious disabilities. At first we thought there were boys and girls in the class but we were informed that despite the cropped hair and boyish looking clothing they were in fact all girls.

**I DIGRESS**
I'm getting them all hair bows before I leave this place! Shallow, silly, superfluous? 

You bet but EVERY GIRL should feel pretty. 

We decided to do a craft project with them that involved gluing cotton balls and glitter to a blue piece of paper...we were "making the sky".

I thought our project might not keep their attention but I was quickly corrected. We spread out a Disney princess table cloth and that alone drew "ooohs" and "aaaahs" from our young crowd, (one child clapping and shrieking in unbridled joy) .

Instantly I realized what I should have known all along: these were not my kids (accustomed to a
routine trip down the Target toy aisle) they were institutionalized kids and ANYTHING novel would be received with wide eyed amazement.

The simple joy of a pink table cloth... 

I already had a lump in my throat.

One little girl who was the most severely disabled sat motionless at the corner of the table. She was older apparently brought from another room. Her body contracted so that her head folded down to her
knees and it appeared she had cerebral palsy though I could not be sure as none of the nannies knew her medical need or sadly even her name.

While the other children moved towards the art materials this little girl stayed still her head bent to her knees. I knelt beside her and lifted her hand to the table. To my surprise she responded right away by sitting up and moving her hand. She WANTED to play just like the other girls she just needed help

And so...

we made the sky together.

As we were finishing she (my girl with no name) reached forward and dropped her hand onto mine.  Her movements were clumsy and spastic and yet she seemed to do it intentionally but I wasnt sure until... she squeezed my hand.

And then I knew.

She could not talk but she could communicate.

A heart full of love to share.


I was caught off guard when the tears surged through me and I had to get up and leave the room to compose myself.


The babies were very cute but I think I was meant to meet THIS child. One with a more severe but similar condition as our daughter who was waiting for us just to the south of this place. This sweet child beside me was an angel sent by God to cast away the nagging fears I had about parenting a child with CP.

And, I know that I can handle anything that lies ahead.

Even if Mia never talks or is significantly delayed I've learned that communication, LOVE, can be found in the simple squeeze of a hand and I now know that is good enough for me.

Such a blessing from a gentle girl I will forever call, "Sky".

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Day 1 or 2 ...depending on how you count

I arrived in Beijing yesterday around 1:30 in the afternoon: the same flight and same time and pretty darned close to the same day I first came to Beijing one year ago to adopt Macy.


Although I am looking forward to this new experience working in the three orphanages, the energy and excitement on this trip pails in comparison to our adoption trip.


Beijing itself seems more calm and far less exotic than it did just a year ago.


China is now familiar.


Macy’s birthplace.


Mia’s Home.


We are connected to this place.


And so now the excitement of visiting a new place is replaced by a warm nostalgia.


****

Last night I finally met my team: they are a group of 11 women/girls and one man and I am slowly beginning to put together names and faces.  We didn’t have much time to visit tonight as most everyone was near sick from exhaustion after the more than 24 hour trip to China.  We had a quick dinner at a local restaurant and then most of the team headed to bed.

I stayed up with my roommate Tammy and our Team Leader Shannon until after midnight sorting the hundreds of pounds of donations by each of the three orphanages.  At one point standing in the middle of the hotel room, up to my ankles in baby wipes I found myself once again overwhelmed by the generosity of all of the people who made donations.

There is no doubt this (thanks to so many of you reading now) was first miracle of the trip.

I am hoping for many more.

Don't forget to click the banner...need to keep this blog high in the rankings if we want s lots of potential families to see our Chen Zhou kids.  (Pssst: Pics are coming soon!)

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