We didn't have internet while we were in China, so it's been awhile since I've blogged… but here's a China blog! This past month we were in China working with an orphanage for disabled kids. Disabled children are hardly ever wanted in China due to the one child law, and the conditions these children live in are usually pretty bad. However, the organization we worked with has partnered with the local government’s welfare center in order to improve the children’s lives. The director of the welfare center is an atheist, but calls the people that work with Christian organization family. He loves the work that they are doing there. There have been times when others don't understand why they would want to better the lives of the disabled, but he defends the work that is being done. It was pretty amazing to see the welfare center knowingly working with a Christian organization.
China was a great month. I loved getting to work with the kids there… even if they were a little rambunctious. For the majority of the time I worked in the toddler room where they threw chairs, choked me with my scarf, bit me, snotted on me, begged to be held, played air guitar, blew kisses. It was definitely challenging because some of the kids were little bullies and you wanted to smack them. Or sometimes I just wanted to cry because the kids didn’t get all the love or attention a child would receive in a home. It was good to be there—to see the kids light up when we would walk into the room, to hear them laugh when you tickled them, to see them get so excited over going outside, singing a song, or having snack time. We all grew to love these kids. They taught us to laugh more, to get over the snotty noses and to love more.
*Due to privacy I cannot post the kids’ pictures online.
