Sky Stories‏

Hey everyone, we are just getting back from our first full day in the orphanage.

I am smelly, sweaty, tired, and covered in chalk and baby drool.

And I couldn’t be happier to be this way.

Let me backtrack.

After we checked into the hotel last night we met in the lobby to head to the orphanage.

I couldn’t get my feet to get us there fast enough.

I was SO ready to see them.

As we were walking down the street, I was able to notice the changes in the past 13 months, and the things that remained the same.

The same street vendors, the same smells from the creek that runs through town, the same drips from the overhead air conditioners, and the same constant chaos.

(side note, its so loud here that skype told me I had a lot of background noise. In my room. Alone. 11 floors up from the street. Yeah, its noisy here.)

As soon as we reached the gate to the orphanage, we all started to cry.

Finally. Finally we were here for what we worked so hard for, traveled so hard for.

The director met us a the door and ushered us into the same conference room we had sat in just 13 months ago.

There was water and watermelon waiting on us. And tissues. I think those were what we took the most of.

Mrs. Wang is the director and she sat with us and gave us some info:

-20 kids in foster care (not up for adoption)

-50 kids living there, mostly special needs.

-about 30 older, 20 babies

-her daughter has been working with the nannies to help them learn a few English phrases.

And this was my favorite.

She thanked us profusely for the help and donations we had given over the past year and she told us that she truly believed that the reason so many babies went home this year was because of us.

 (pause for more tissue grabbing)

And then she asked us if we had rested enough to go see the babies.

Everyone of us shot out of our chairs and headed for the elevator.

We all packed in, and then took the short ride to the 5^th floor.

We were immediately greeted by a hoard of kids running down the hall to us.

They were ready to play.

So ready that they were hyper ALL afternoon.

Hyper to the point of tackling us, pulling hair, glasses, and earrings, and just all around crazy.

It was so overwhelming.

And so unsettling that they felt that they needed to fight for attention.

Yet, in the middle of the chaos, sat a girl that I remembered vividly from last year.

We call her “Sky”.

Sky has a beautiful smile, and is about 12 years old.

She has severe disabilities similar to CP that have sadly kept her for getting adopted all these years.

She was curled up in a ball on the chair with her head down.

I was nervous to go over for fear of her rejecting attention.

So I walked over and offered a small “Ni hao”.

Right away she uncurled and grabbed for my hand, showing that gorgeous smile.

(cue the tears again from me.)

And so we sat, just like that holding hands for quite a while.

She was literally shaking with excitement at the notion of being loved on.

As we sat, I studied her, thinking of what she had been through all these years, I wanted to cry or get very angry. 

Sky is a beautiful, loving child that her country pushed aside.

She’s twelve…

She should be taking dance classes and having slumber parties, not worrying about her upcoming aging out of the adoption system.

As we got up to leave I asked the guide to tell her that I thought she was very beautiful and that I would be back to play very soon.

Which I was today, but that will come later in a post. Its almost dinner now.

Friends, please join me in praying for Sky. She’s just so precious.