Visiting the Babies

The part of my week that I most look forward to is still hands-down Saturday mornings at the orphanage. I love those little babies more than words can describe.  I'll walk you through a typical Saturday morning so you can see why I love these few precious hours so much. 

7am - waking up early on Saturdays doesn't even bother me.  It's SUCH a privilege!

*There are usually some sort of Saturday morning shenanigans while I get ready and drink my coffee.  Today I Skyped in for some of Apex's Night of Worship.*

8am - catch the bus to the orphanage.  They recently moved the babies to a facility that's closer to my home, so it's a much shorter commute!  Hooray!  It's a much more crowded bus, though, so I don't always get a seat like I did before. I don't mind, though.  I typically use that time to pray for the babies and take a breath after a long week of teaching.  Today the bus driver almost passed up my stop, but some really kind Chinese ladies yelled up front and told him to stop and let me off.  Phewf!

8:45am - sign in with the guard and show him my embarrassingly terrible ID badge photo.

9am - sometimes I arrive early enough to help feed the babies.  They normally eat this gross porridge with white chunks of something in it.  They used to have me feed three babies from one bowl/spoon, but recently they've been letting me give the bigger babies their own bowl of food.  The ayis know I love Shen Shen, so they often let me feed her.  Last week when I walked in they handed me an inconsolable Dou Dou and a bowl of noodles.  He cried through the first half of the bowl, but we were best buds by the end.  I'm always amazed how much food their little bellies can hold. 

9:30-11am - we bring many of the babies to the play area to play.  The new orphanage is GREAT because each room has its own play area.  Before the move, the play area was down the hall and it was too much for the ayis to take all of the babies down there to play, so I imagine many days the room didn't get used.  Now there is space right there in the room and I LOVE coming in and seeing babies already out of their beds!  There are 4 little boys, Wei Wei, Dou Dou, Ror, and another new boy, who are pretty mobile and active, so they run around all morning and get into mischief. I love when they act like ornery little boys.  We try to bring as many of the babies into the play area as possible.  We aren't allowed to bring the babies who have feeding tubes, and there are other babies the ayis say "no" to for one reason or another, but we get to bring many of them over to play.  Some of them are able to roll or crawl around, and some of them lay in a boppy and hang out together. 

I try to divide my time between several babies and make sure they all get held, but it's so easy for me to hold Shen Shen and lose track of time.  My friend R from work is much better than me at making sure all the babies have been held.  Today I held Shen Shen for over an hour and she just laid with her head on my chest and didn't move.  I could hold her and rock her all day!  I tried to put her down a few times to hold the other babies, but every time I put her down she cried big crocodile tears and of course I couldn't stand it so I picked her back up.  The ayis were kind of laughing at me (from what I gathered through my almost nonexistent Chinese) because I'm a sucker, but I think they appreciate how much I love her and I think they are glad she has connected with me. For a while today I was holding Shen Shen with my arms and Wei Wei with my legs...haha.  Thankfully he's a silly boy and loved having me scoop him up with my legs and tickle him with my feet. My friend R helped me figure out that if I give Shen Shen a snack when I put her down, she doesn't cry.  So today I asked the ayi for a snack for Shen Shen so I could put her down, and the ayi came back with packets of seaweed.  Yes, seaweed. Strange, but it's China, so whatever. So I gave Shen Shen a few sheets of seaweed and propped her up on a boppy, and sure enough she was so focused on cramming the food in her mouth she didn't mind me putting her down.  A girl after my own heart.  :)  The seaweed was super messy, but it worked out great because even after she was finished eating she was busy trying to get the seaweed particles off her hands.  Score!

There's a new baby girl who I am also smitten with.  She absolutely makes me melt.  I just met her last week, and I asked her name today but I can't remember.  (I need to start writing them down.)  All of the babies got haircuts when they moved to the new facility, which makes it even harder to tell who is a boy and who is a girl.  I was almost positive when I met this sweet baby that she was a girl but I wasn't sure, so I asked my Chinese teacher to teach me how to ask, "Is it a boy or a girl?"  R had to help me remember the vocabulary, but we asked and confirmed that she is, in fact, a girl.  I knew she was too pretty to be a boy!!  She reminds me so much of my niece Sydney when she was really sick as a baby.  This little girl is so, so skinny.  I'm not sure what her disability is, but her body is very limp.  There is something wrong with one of her eyes as well.  And she has the most pitiful cry... Today R gave me a refresher course on how to swaddle a baby, so we swaddled little baby girl and when we weren't holding her we had her bundled up and laying nearby one of us.  She is such a beautiful treasure.  I pray that someday she learns about her Maker and finds refuge in Him!

I love those little lips!!

 R usually leaves the play area at some point to hold the babies who are still in their beds.  Sometimes I go with her and sometimes I can't pull myself away from Shen Shen. Today one of the ayis put Shen Shen back in her bed for me and got her to stop crying.  I hated seeing her go back into her crib, but I knew I needed that time to spend with some of the other babies.  There is one little boy who is so smiley.  They say he is a biter, so he doesn't get to play with the other babies.  He hasn't bitten me (yet) and I just love holding him and talking to him.  As I was holding him today, I took this picture of Shen Shen watching us.

I spy with my little eyes....

 I'm so blessed to have R there with me and I just love seeing her pour the Father's love into these little lives.  There is one boy who stays in the back of the room and doesn't get out of his bed often.  We think he is autistic.  Today they let R get him out and walk around the room with him.  He even got to play for a few minutes...right before he tried to break into the medicine cabinet.  Whoops. 

Around 10:45 we start putting the babies back in bed for their nap and we clean up the play area.  We go around and say our goodbyes.  Wei Wei is usually calling after us as we leave, "Bye bye!" 

The walk back to the bus stop always seems longer than the walk from the bus stop to the orphanage.  I'm always sad to leave, but every week my heart is overflowing with love for these little ones, and that's enough to keep me going until next week.

2 hours never seems like enough... I'm very excited for my upcoming Christmas vacation.  I'm pretty sure I'll be staying in town, so I'm hoping to spend many of my days at the orphanage. 

Thanks to everyone who asks me about the orphanage, prays for the babies, and loves them from afar!  Your encouragement means so much!