We were on our way to her house: House of Love in the morning, and got “side tracked” with some of the kids form the House Peace right outside our Inn and spent time playing with these kids outdoors: pushing them around on their toy vehicles and encouraging them to take turns playing with one another. We saw Moses – the deaf mute boy who is also a dwarf. We enjoyed playing with him during our last visit in January and were glad that we were able to “pick up where we left off” with him. One of my new co-workers from Nyack College met him over the beginning of the summer and had fallen in love with him. So, we had to take some extra pictures of him so we can send them off to his admirers back at the States. Moses had such a great time making gestures into the camera as he was able to simultaneously look at himself on the screen (thanks to Mary’s wonderful and advanced camera)!
We then went on to what we thought was the House of Love. I saw a girl, Charissa, who looked like an older version of Noel, and for a second I thought that Noel had “graduated” to a wheelchair, and my heart sank when I realized that I was not at the House of Love after all…we had “mistakenly” walked into Zachary House. We stayed and played with kids with Cerebral Palsy, and were able to take them out of their wheel chair/baby carrier so we can hold them and get them out of their chairs for a bit. Asa, who was in a baby carrier, peeled with laughter anytime we pushed or spinned his carrier around, or took him out and held him. He was an extremely happy child, laughing on and on…
We finally arrived at the House of Love by 11:00 AM, and much to my dismay, Noel had finished lunch just prior to our arrival and had gone upstairs for her nap…we had a good time playing and chatting with Grady and some other older boys. Grady is the 15 year old who broke my heart when I found out from the newsletter that although he was matched with a very loving family, his paperwork was not able to be completed in time for him to be adopted (kids over 14 in China are not allowed to be adopted). He was his usual easy going, friendly, outgoing and helpful self, updating us on what was going on at SFCV.
We had to leave when it was time for these boys to take a nap as well. We were set to return at 2:00 PM, but Grady said we were to return at 2:30 PM. We didn’t think he knew what he was talking about, and were ready to go back at 2:00 PM when Chris, who is an one year English teaching intern, was functioning as our “liaison/guide” for the weekend, informed us that Grady was correct, as the houses weren’t ready until 2:30 PM… meanwhile, a group of 21 young people from a Beijing 3 Self-church were here for a visit for the day. Mary got to share her testimony with this group and we went back to the House of Love with a small team of this group.
I FINALLY got to see Noel! I was so glad to see her happy and smiley face! Noel Joy, another beautiful girl with CP, had actually remembered us from January! I first gave Grady an Easy Ken Ken booklet and tried to explain to him the rules of the game. I was shocked to find that he didn’t know his Times Table! As a result, he wasn’t able to use the booklet…but he was extremely generous in allowing all the other kids (who were just interested that there’s something new) to take turns looking at this booklet. I grabbed Noel and sat her on my lap on the floor, and tried to help her play a picture booklet, “Sepot the Difference,” and realized that she cannot hold a pencil properly, as she grabbed it really tight, making stray lines, and soon broke the mechanical pencil she was using. Also, I found out that there’s no such thing as giving something to only one child, as all the other kids snatched the booklet to play with it and Noel only had it for about three minutes – and that was with me fighting off other kids! The booklet went around the house, with each kid refusing to return it to me or Noel. By the end of the afternoon, it was ripped and one of the nannies had to rescue it from the kids and put it on the bookshelf.
Noel kept on pointing to the bookshelf, so we took numerous trips picking out books after books for her to peruse through. I’ve had to also “entertain” some other girl who also wanted to “read” books. Since I really only wanted to focus on Noel, it was a tough task to appease the other child while trying to spend quality time with Noel. I was able to spend a good amount of time with Noel with her on my lap, and I abandoned my teammates as they moved on to the House of Blessing for the rest of the afternoon.
Henry and Eric came and scooted Noel off my lap and came “riding” on my legs, each possessing one, and I was their human horse (and got a good thigh work out) for a while. I looked at Noel helplessly, as these two boys occupied my lap. She then joined the rest of the kids in the house to watch an animated DVD, never complaining…I was trying to stay through their dinner so I can feed Noel, but 5:00 PM came around and they still weren’t serving dinner, and Grady “verbally ushered” me out of the house, as 5:00 PM was the “curfew” time for visitors to leave…sigh…
While at the House of Blessing, Mary was overjoyed that she finally got to see her buddy, Josiah, and snapped numerous pictures of the kids (she took over 412 pictures for the day)! Julia also enjoyed meeting and playing with all the kids she met for the first time on this trip. They both saw Lucas, the boy who cannot hear, Team James was trying to raise the funds toward a Cochlear Implant operation. Mary noted how Lucas has grown and matured and appeared much better integrated with the rest of the house.
We went to a local outdoor BBQ for dinner as Julia tried to stay awake, and we feasted on lamb meat, lamb tendon, beef tendon, chicken gizzard, chicken leg, chicken wing, stewed peanuts, edamame, grilled string beans and grilled squid for a total price of 43 RMB (equivalent of $6.51 for the entire meal)!
We look forward to attending Beijing International Christian Fellowship on Sunday morning and to check out Summer Palace in the afternoon…
~ Elissa
Sat, August 28th, 2010
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