Back from Luoyang

I have arrived safely back in Beijing! I sucessfully took at 10 hours train ride both ways and made it back in one piece! I am so glad that I went too. While there, I met some amazing people doing amazing things for the orphans of this country. Here are some photos of my adventure and the rest will be on facebook soon...


This is the outside of Maria's House of Hope. Funny story about this paint job. Basically the director of the local orphanage has a room painted like this in his building, someone told him that it looked nice, and he decided to paint this whole building to look like that room, a big blue sky with big puffy clouds. Hehe.




Inside Maria's House.



Sweet girls. The one in the orange didn't have an English name, so I named her Melina b/c her smile reminded me of my little sis Melina! The one on the right is Lane, who was already given an English name by Michael.



My new friend Michael with some of the kids that he works with.

Off to Luoyang

I didn't think I was going to have time to pull this off, so I had pretty much decided to not go. Last Saturday, I walked into a travel office just to see how much tickets were, and since they were so much cheaper than I thought they were going to be, I walked out with one :)

Am I really as random a person as I sound? Probably so.

So tonight I am leaving on the night train and will arrive in Luoyang early in the morning. The plan is to see Maria's House of Hope and a local orphanage there. I'll be back early Saturday morning!


While I am here and am thinking of it, let me ask you a few q's....

-what are some things that you would want to know about living here?

-what would you ask a nanny if you were here?

-if you could ask a child in an orphanage anything, what would you ask them?

-what perceptions do you have of China?

-if you could travel to China, where in China would you go?



If you are reading this, please consider these questions. I want to tell you all I can about this grand place!




P.S. Sweet little Drew fell asleep on me the other day :)



P.P.S. I bet that all of you thought that I was over in China, but actually I have been in Nashville the entire time!

It's a Small World After All

Remember how I was saying what a small world it is???


Well in case you have forgotten, let me add another story to further confirm just how teeny tiny this world is.

How I ended up in China the first time is kind of a long story for another time, but the first time I came to China was the summer of 2005. During that trip I met some great new friends, one of whom is my best friend Samantha! On this trip I also met a little girl named Anna. Anna was at that time matched to a family in New York.


A few weeks ago a woman named Dawn from New York arrived here to teach. She is also my new roommate. Throughout the last few weeks she has been talking about her friend Marilyn that has a little girl from China named Anna. I saw some pictures of her two daughters from China that Dawn had brought with her. There are so many kids in China and kids adopted from here that my mind didn't even think of these children being ones I may have met before.


Today as we were playing with some of the kids in the House of Blessings (my fav house!), there was a little boy named Nick in there. Nick has a deformed ear that has caused his hearing to be less than ideal. Dawn then mentioned that her friend Marilyn's little girl has an ear similar to Nick's. And then a light came on in my head.

"Her name is Anna right? And she lives in New York....what orphanage is she from...? Hmmmm........I KNOW HER!!!!


I am continually amazed at all the random connections that have unfolded throughout this trip! And there are probably more that I don't even know of yet! Dawn thinks this means that I am supposed to work in or do something with adoption, which I would like very much to do, so if you know of anything, anywhere-let me know!!


Anna is now 5 years old. This is us in July 2005.

ALREADY OCTOBER?!

Wow...I can't believe it is October 1st today! Do you know what that means?

That means that I only have 23 more days here. That is crazy. So much to do in such little time.


I wanted to share with you 2 short videos that I recently uploaded of Jamison and Grady singing. Check em out!!!


Jamison




Grady

Follow-up photos of haircuts :)

Here are some of the children after their haircuts per request!

















At least it will grow back fast!

Cuttin' Up.

Most kids don't enjoy haircuts, which is probably why so many of them decide to take it upon themselves to cut their own new 'do. Don't worry, the kids here at Shepherd's Field didn't try to cut their own hair, but some barbers did come in to give them some trims. I love shaggy hair on boys, so I was sad when they started shaving all their heads, and little Drew was clinging to me as if he was saying...

"Save me, I don't want to be bald!"


I tried my best to stop them...


They kicked. They screamed. They didn't want it done, and I don't blame them, but it happened anyway. Look below to see how much they didn't like it!


Moses is very animated all the time, but this picture cracks me up!



Poor Cole REALLY didn't like his haircut.



Christopher just looks really angry!



Mei yo tofa! (no hair!)




Lucas is the only one that actually enjoyed his haircut!

Abandoned and alone.

Around 3:30 on the morning of September 13 there was a little baby girl that was left at the gate. 6 days old with a cleft lip and palate, her parents left her with blankets, a piece of paper with her name (Jin Qiu) on it, and 200 RMB, which is about 30 US Dollars, and quite a bit to most village people. Most likely they just couldn't take care of her and were probably too poor to pay for her surgery. She was only with us for 3 days and was then taken to the local orphanage because of new rules regarding child abandonment in the area. Hopefully she can come back to us. Isn't she beautiful?



Another thing was left here recently that is becoming all too common... more puppies. Yes, you read that right. 2 days ago, somebody decided to leave 3 puppies yet again. These are at least a little older than the first bunch and aren't quite as high maintenance.