Our first full day in Chenzhou was definitely a good day. Our morning started off at around 6:30 and we had breakfast at 7:15 in our hotel. They have a Cantonese breakfast where they have carts with food and you pick and choose what you would like and then put it at our table with the lazy susan, like everywhere else, and you pick and choose what you want. We had some yummy pot sticker type things, sticky rice, fried noodles, as well as some other dumplings and stuffed breads…and of course, our favorite, steamed bread, sadly no sweet condensed milk at breakfast though.
After breakfast we headed to the orphanage and started our day with the older kids. They were very, very hyper yesterday when we saw them so we thought we would take them outside to allow them to let out some energy. We had chalk, bubbles, and beach balls for them to play with. Skye, the older girl with CP was the most responsive I have ever seen her. She would lift her head up, look and smile at me, and even stood up from her chair and walked really fast when Li You brought out some watermelon for them. I remember from last year that she absolutely loved the bubbles, so when she saw that we had more she instantly lit up. I sat with her for quite awhile and just let her blow some of the bubbles, she seemed so happy.
Later Molly and I went upstairs to get some waters and decided to stop by the room where John, Al (little 3 year old boy who had a cleft lip repaired), and some other little babies were all alone. We had noticed that these 6 would usually be left in that room on their own or sometimes with all of the older kids being crazy and trying to mess with them. It's really sad to see how they are just left there a lot of the time while 2 nannies are in the baby playroom with 5-6 babies max. I just don't understand why John and the other 5 are on their own or with the older kids when they clearly are too small. I am planning to find out and see if we can at least keep them away from the older kids because they are just too rough with them and the poor babies have scratches and bruises all over them. While we were in that room Molly and I decided that we would try to stretch some of the babies legs. Two of them are just so tiny and their legs are starting to get stiff so I definitely think the stretching helped them and one of them was smiling the whole time, she loved it.
Once it started to warm up a bit more and the sun came out we decided to take the kids inside to their downstairs classroom and do some coloring. Most of the kids really enjoyed it, especially one of the older girls that has a problem with her legs and walks on all fours or with her walker most of the time. She is definitely an artist!
While everyone else was coloring I noticed Xing Xing (Shen Shen) all on her own in the corner. She has been returned twice to the orphanage sadly, and she is very shy. We think she might have some type of autism because she is 7 now and still doesn't talk. She also has a slight limp and doesn't bend her right knee, but she manages to get around just fine. She is super sweet even though she is shy and I just couldn't help but to go sit by her for awhile. I met her for the first time 2 years ago and she has come out of her shell more every time but she is still very, very small and quiet. I showed her one of the bounce horses by her and she got on and started bouncing with the music we were playing, she definitely liked the music and I think it calmed her down. She started laughing and smiling and I couldn't help not to laugh with her, she is such a sweetheart.
After the kids got tired of coloring we decided to pull out the stickers and tattoos they seemed to love them! However, after awhile I was getting exhausted and there seemed to be too many people downstairs with the older kids so I decided to go upstairs with Annie and see the other babies. I went in to see John and the little babies. John was his usual giggling self and even had some corn to eat and then later play with the leftover cob, he was seeming to enjoy himself…just laughing at everything and waiting for me to throw him back and put him upside down. The nannies came in not long after and started to feed them so we headed back downstairs and helped put on hair bows for all the older girls, they absolutely adored them, it was precious. Before we knew it, it was 11:30 and we said our goodbyes and said we would see them soon!
We started walking back to the hotel and decided that we would eat at the place the orphanage directors took us the past 2 years since it was so yummy and it was on the way. During our lunch there was a huge birthday party going on in the room next to us for a man who had just turned 70. It was pretty fascinating to see how they celebrate birthdays in China, even though it was really loud and smoky from all of the cigarettes. At lunch we had a bunch of really delicious dishes, including cauliflower in a really tasty sauce as well as our favorite from last year at the restaurant, fried banana. It is in a big pile and it's banana that has been fried in a sugary caramel breading, it's served hot and is very hard to take some from the plate, but it is so worth it.
Once lunch was over we all headed back to the hotel to take naps, blog (which I obviously didn't do then), and just talk in each others rooms. Annie, Charlie, Megan, Makenna, and I all went into Charlie and Megan's room and just talked and looked at pictures until we had to go back. We also discovered birthday cake oreos which are so delicious…but supposedly they had these in the states for oreo's birthday and I just never knew. I will definitely be bringing back some just in case we don't still have them at home.
This blog is getting really long…so thanks to those who actually got this far J & if not and you are just reading this, it is a ok. Thanks for at least reading some of it! I will post the other half of our day later today when we get back from our morning session at the orphanage. Until then, I am off to breakfast and love on some kids!
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