Thursdays visits...Part 1 (Visit to the orphanage)

It's 12:38am China time and everyone is asleep.  I should be asleep but I must tell what I can for now.  Today which is really yesterday, but anyway, Friday China time, (I know, it's very confusing), was a day that started out with a mess of tears.  Not for Jake or anyone else, but it was just me shedding the tears.  The flood came when I read that some dear friends had gone to clean my house, which I knew they were going to do, but couple that with all the emotions of the day before, and it was almost too much to bear.  I don't know how to explain it but I am just so grateful for being so blessed.  Blessed to have such sweet friends, family, and neighbors in our lives....and a very precious new addition to our family.  We are starting to see who Jacob Elliott Hongfuxia Stanley really is....and it is amazing.  God's plan is so amazing.

I don't want this trip to sound like anything more or less than what it is.  Anyone that knows me, even the least bit about me, knows I'm riddled with sin.  I'm selfish, impatient, short-tempered, but I serve a God who has conquered all that and more.

Yesterday, China's Thursday, we set out about 2:30pm to go do three things...visit the orphanage, visit the foster family, and visit Jake's finding spot.  I can not tell you how nervous I was about all this.  Questions raced through my mind....were we doing the right thing for Jake, would he have an awful time leaving, would we be safe, and the list of unknowns just went on and on.  But we did go and we started out with the orphanage.  It was in the oldest part of town and the roads were very bumpy.  Lots of mopeds, pedestrians,and PEOPLE,  just absolute beyond anything I could picture.  As we wound deeper and deeper into this oldest section and got more and more stares through the windows, it was just the most surreal experience I can describe.  I'm sensitive though and I began to picture my sweet Jake living here and the precious people....it's hard to describe.  We finally got to the orphanage and the conditions were much different than what I could tell from the picture.  Don't get me wrong.  We weren't allowed to go inside and there was a "garden" area, but it was still just run down looking from the outside.  We did some walking and met some precious little boys from "the outside" meaning outside the orphanage.  They were there collecting mangoes.  Andrew and our guide noticed that one of the boys had gotten a crab from a little lilypad covered pond.  Jeff and I weren't sure about whether we wanted Andrew to catch this crab that he had seen, but before we knew it this little boy wisked over and jumped in with one foot submerged a good foot or more and just went to fishing in there with his hands.  I don't know why I was so touched by this gesture but I was.  Boys are the same all the world over.  Anyway....David began to connect with ayis walking the grounds and they invited us to come with them to collect mangoes.  David wanted to right away and I did as well, but I began to see that this was a group of severe special needs children.  It began to break my heart.  They had so much fun using this instrument to cause the mangoes to fall and then collecting them in a blanket.  We tried to help, but the whole experience was almost too much.  We ended up going back and walking the grounds a little more and going to the clinic where Jake would go monthly.  Still didn't get to see the inside.  But we could hear lots of older special needs children singing and learning and talking somewhere behind the clinic.  We finally decided to head back up to the front of the orphanage where we met the director.  She kept saying that she was very grateful that we adopted Hong Fu.  This conversation with her and passing over a present to her was so surreal.  As we did this, the special needs children began to encircle my children and I could see the nervousness on their faces.  I went to draw closer to them in an attempt to help my guys and began to speak to a young boy and the verse that says what ever you do to the least of these my brethren, you do to me...that verse came to my mind.  I saw Jesus in his face.  I am so grateful for that moment.

We finally left the orphanage and started towards the foster home.  What happend over the next two hours or so, was just unbelievable.  It's late though, so I'll have to blog and add pictures tomorrow.  Jake has his medical at 10am and we got in late from Guangzhou.  I am exhausted from being up with Jake last night.  Tonight, once we go to our room which was about 11pm, I got him into pjs and went to stroll him (sort of a bit of a routine) and finally his sweet little face just looked back at me and I parked the stroller and began to walk the halls with him.  He's heavy so I took my chances and just sat in the hallway and he didn't wail.  Finally he went to sleep.  It seems like at night he gets to thinking and gets upset.  I think he's grieving.  He is the happiest little boy during the day.  Having to work with him on typical two year old behaviors but I can already see progress.  Oh, the sweetest thing happens when I sing Jesus loves Me.  He just stops and listens so intently.  Something about it captures his attention.  Anyway, if you could please pray for the following:

the 15 hour flight home (if tonight's one hour was any indication of how things will be, we will have our hands FULL)
pray for Jenna...she has some sort of strange rash on her arm.  I am going to get it checked when Jake has his medical tomorrow
pray for safe travel about town this coming week
pray for Jake and his attachment to us
pray for patience for Jeff and I
pray that Jake's tb test will come back negative so that we won't have to stay here any longer than planned'

Oh better go to bed.  Many thanks to you all for journeying this with us, Kimberly