Changsha Advocacy Camp Day One!!

After a day of travel (where I lost my cell phone on the plane :( ) and a little exploration we got up bright and early to visit the children in Changsha.  Our hotel was very close to the orphanage, but that doesn’t mean it was an easy journey!  They are building out the subway more and some of that construction has taken up the sidewalk that used to be there.  We walked in the bike/moped lane, carefully dodging bikes, mopeds, & a few wayward cars.  China never gets old and always keeps me on my toes!!  In fact, I may have had a run-in with a moped on the way back to the hotel!  We decided to term it a “gentle caress”. J

We got to the orphanage and were introduced to the new international adoption director and the director of the orphanage.  The director is pretty new and is making a lot of improvements she was eager to show us.  She took us over to the rehabilitation center and gave us a tour of the facility, explaining some of the rooms they have and what they are used for.  She talked about the importance of getting her staff trained to use some of the high tech equipment they have recently received and explained some staff will travel to Shanghai to be trained soon.  Gladney’s representative talked to her about the potential of sending over a few to the states for more training or to send a training team to them.  This is the beauty of agency partnerships with orphanages.  It allows the agency to truly partner with the orphanage to help better serve the children in their care.  I know some people have gotten frustrated over orphanage partnerships and how difficult it can make adopting a specific child, so it was great to see the other side and see how these partnerships are making a difference for children in the orphanages.  I know as an adoptive parent who has had to switch agencies because Laila was a partnership orphanage child, it softened me a little to the sometimes hard line adoptive families are given by agencies.  We met some beautiful children and learned about the strides they have made since beginning rehabilitation.

 

We also got to see a new initiative Changsha has started to meet the needs of not just orphans with autism, but also children in the community with autism.  They have a facility where the children are taught and cared for.  This is huge because it gives a family who is afraid they can’t care for their child an avenue for helping their child while keeping their child in the family, reducing their likelihood of abandonment.

Next we headed over to play with the kids!  This group was older kids, age 4-10.  It started off with a few boys and their music teacher.  They sang songs and taught us the motions.  Then it was time for some one on one play!  First a few kids came in, then a few more, then some more and before we knew it we had a room full of chaos and fun!

 

This boy is just plain awesome!!  His name is Lawrence and I think he will be on Gladney’s list very soon.  He’s a little small for his age, but so funny and smart! 

We had a blast with him!!  And he is available for adoption with Gladney right now!

http://superkidscharity.blogspot.com/2015/12/lawrence.html

And sweet Lance started off painfully shy, but I made it my goal to bring him out of his shell!  Judging by that cute smile with the bubbles, I’d say mission accomplished!

  

The boy on the left is Luke.  I think everyone on the advocacy team loved him!! He was so much fun!!  He also played a song by ear after one of our advocates played it a few times for him.  Such an awesome kid!!

After lunch we played with a smaller group that included some of the boys from the morning out on the playground.  It was nice to move into a different environment to see how they were outside vs inside with a ton of kids to compete with for attention.  The afternoon brought a few new faces as well!

 

And that silly little cutie in the blue shirt?? He's so much fun!!  He will be available for adoption with Gladney very soon!

This little cutie girl had me working overtime!  Zoe was VERY attached to her ayis and not at all interested in being my friend at first.  Candy helped break down the wall, but when she started talking to me in Chinese and realized I couldn’t understand her- she gave up on me! Haha!!  She went over to an older couple sitting at a picnic table and chatted with them instead while they gave her chips! ;)  Isn't she beautiful???

 

What an awesome day!!  This trip has been busy, busy, busy.  We go from a full day of play to dinner (which in Hunan province means spicy and sooooo delicious) to a team meeting to share about the kids personalities with the superkids team who will try to find them families.  There’s been a few that our advocates have fallen for as well!  Can’t wait to see these kids get families.

As this day came to a close, I couldn’t believe that the trip was already rapidly coming to a close.  We only had one day left and then we would be heading home.  I pray that as we learn about these precious children we can break down some of the walls people have toward older child adoption, including myself honestly.  These are just regular kids.  Sure, they come from a different background and they’ve experienced trauma but that is not what defines them.  After spending this time with these older kids, I can see more than ever that they are just regular kids in need of a family.  In China, a child ages out of adoption eligibility on their 14^th birthday.  At that point they will never be adopted, never have the support of a family, never get the opportunity to be an aunt or an uncle, and unfortunately they will walk out into life completely unprepared for what awaits.  The fate of children who age out is sad and scary and I just can’t imagine one of these awesome boys having to fight that fight all alone.  I will readily admit that while I loved the idea of older child adoption, I also found it downright scary but now I see how amazing it is too.  These kids are great kids.  They are great kids who need someone to tell them "Yes, I will be your mom and love you forever." 

Shanghai Advocacy Camp Day Two!

Oh what a day the second day with the kids from Shanghai was!!!  Words cannot do today justice.  We were supposed to be going strawberry picking with the ten or so kids that were the official advocacy camp group, but we were rained out.  Instead we took a bus to an indoor children’s recreation area called “10” or “Perfect”.  On the way there I played with Jack & Helen, broke up fights between them (they are like a brother & sister in every since of the word!) and just sat there smiling as I saw their sweet times of interaction.

Once we got there it was all smiles and excitement!!  The older kids who’d been pretty conservative during day one and hadn’t seem all that happy just lit up when we walked into this place.  THIS was something they were definitely into!!  We started off in an indoor playground area, the kind you really only see in China, with ball pits and water obstacles and toy cars to ride around on and little soft spinning carnival type rides. 

Then we headed over to an area where each kid got to make their own cotton candy stick, spinning it around in the floss.  Like most kids I know, this was a hit with them all and the only thing they like more than making it themselves is eating it themselves and going back for seconds!!!  After this they sugared them up even more as they got to “make” their own ice cream.

So, making no sense to me at all, we then took the fully sugared up kids and asked them to sit down and do some art projects!! LOL

During this time I was working with my buddy Jack, the little guy with low vision.  I don’t know if it was his silly personality, the fact that he spoke English, or both, but I just loved this kid!!!  These projects were particularly difficult for him because of his low vision.  He has one spot on his eye that he can see out of, so he has to pick things up and put them right in that line of sight to be able to see them.  It was amazing to watch him lift things up where he could see them and then work on the project.  Being the silly kid he is, he kept telling me how hungry he was and since I didn’t have his lunch to feed him he kept threatening he was going to eat me.  This went on and on for about an hour, Jack telling me he was hungry and “I’m going to eat YOU!!!” and me telling him “No, no!! Don’t eat ME!  I’m not FOOD!!” and him pretending to eat me and all that.  As I saw he was starting to get a little bored with the project I pulled out a chocolate chip granola bar and asked him if he’d ever had one.  He said yes, so I offered him the bar.  Oh.my.goodness.  The look on his face as he took the first bite was so cute.  It was like he’d just tasted the most delicious thing he’d ever had.  He completely focused in on eating this granola bar and finally looked up for a second and told me, “I don’t want to eat you anymore.  I want to eat this!  I won’t eat you, I like you.” LOL!!! This kid is so awesome!!! I’ve GOT to help him find his family!!!

After the projects came the main event for most of the kids… Baking with the Chef!!

We all put on our aprons and the kids got fully dressed and ready to bake some cookies and cakes.  The chef was just amazing with the kids.  He even brought the eggs closer to Jack so he could be sure Jack saw them too.  This is the part where the older ones just really reminded us that they were typical 9-11 year olds through and through.  This was right up their alley.  They LOVED it.  Even Hunter, who had been so careful not to let people see his hand deformity, became absolutely unapologetic as he used his hand to push down the cookie cutter and make those cookies!

After the baking was done the older kids just surrounded the chef to ask him questions and play with him.  It was a great thing to see how well-adjusted these older kids actually are when placed in an environment that they are excited about with someone who speaks their language.  I think it provided us all with a little more understanding of how these children will do with a family in America once they adjust.

We thought it was time to go at this point as we headed down the stairs, but this is actually where our #becausechina moment started to unfold.  As we walked into the parking lot they had us make a right instead of a left and we found ourselves at a goldfish pond.  I assumed we were there to feed or see the pretty goldfish. 

I was wrong.  They handed the kids little carriers and small nets and told them to catch some goldfish.  What???? I looked over at the international director for the orphanage and asked her if this was okay and she assured me it would be fine.  But as a mom, I could see that this was going to be a terrible idea.  We had an hour-long bus ride to get back to the orphanage & foster families.  There was a walkway you needed to go out on to catch a fish and my buddy was way too vision impaired to be out on that walkway by himself!!! This was just the craziest, funniest, most chaotic thing I may have ever done!!!  Kids catching fish and leaves and more fish and more leaves.  Goldfish being dropped on the ground before being picked up and put into their new tiny home.  At one point one of the older girls picked out a larger almost belly-up fish and stuffed him by hand to make her too big fish fit into her carrier!!!!  (Thankfully some ladies stepped in and gave her some guidance that the too-big fish needed to go back into the pond J)  Then one sweetie FELL INTO THE POND face first next to me!!! So I’m holding onto my little almost blind buddy whose leaning over the side on one side of me and I’m trying to help another child as two ladies try to get her out of the 5 inches of water!!! Somehow she was fully wet on both sides from head to toe in dirty, fishy water!! Poor thing!!  Once all the kids had caught, with our help, 4 fish each we headed to the bus.  As they walked, fishy water splashed out of the carriers onto them, but they didn’t care!!! They were ALL grinning from ear to ear SO proud of their newest little friends!!!  And as you might expect… Two kids dropped their fish carriers onto the floor of the bus with fish and water going everywhere.  Our team members scooped up the fish, put them back in the carrier, and they were refloated with bottled water ;) !!

What a funny, memorable day this was!! The kids all had a blast, the advocates all had a blast, and as we pow-wowed with the Superkids team that night there were shrieks of laughter as we retold the tales of the day!!  What a wonderful day that I will never forget!!!!