Ni Hao!
Today was a great day. It was 96 degrees in Nanjing today. With the heat index, it was 110. We don't talk much about the heat index over in our parts. We occassionally talk about the wind chill when we do get some cold weather in the winter but it is basically the same thing, our perceived temperature based on actual air temperature and humidity. It was hot! When we went back out to go to dinner, it was still 96. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter.
We have this hot/cold debate in our family. I am sort of one sided on the discussion but it goes something like this...would you rather be TOO hot or TOO cold?? Well hands down, I would much rather be too hot. I really dislike being cold. Well the rest of our family definitely gravitates towards Tom's discomfort in being too hot so would rather be too cold. For some reason we seem to revisit this subject a lot in our household. Everybody understands how much Mom dislikes being cold. Well I had no idea it was as hot as it was today, and didn't really know how hot it was factoring in the heat index. All three girls were sort of uncomfortable and talking about how hot it was. Baylee had beads of sweat across her forehead, Hayden was flushed and Addisyn kept squatting down because she was so tired. In the afternoon we had walked over to the Confuscious Temple marketplace, a great big open market. We were having a great time, OK, well I was having a great time because I wasn't really THAT hot! I kept dragging them around looking at stuff. I did feel pretty bad whenwe got back and I looked at weather underground and found out how hot it was. I had to carry Addisyn home, she was so tired. I know Hayden would have loved a piggyback ride if Baylee would have been willing.
Today really was a great day though. We got an early start and were heading out by 9 am. We got to visit Addisyn's orphanage today. It is in this fairly large campus that also has the Nanjing Children's Hospital and a children's rehabilitation center. Addisyn's orphanage is one of the orphanages in China that is supported by Half The Sky, a US foundation that provides programs, education, and staff. It also emphasizes a lot of its focus on educating the staff that care for the children, so they are developmentally, physically and emotionally meeting the needs of the children. It really is an amazing program. You can find them at www.halfthesky.org. Addisyn is one fortunate little girl to have been raised thus far at this orphanage and I really think we are too.
We met Addisyn's nanny that she was very attached too. We also met this man who's family volunteered their time to be a sort of weekend foster family to Addisyn. They took her out and about and did things with her and often had her stay with them. They have an eleven year old girl. You could tell that Addisyn liked him a great deal and he cared for her a lot. The orphanage itself was very clean and decorated with very kid friendly decor. There were lots of pictures on the walls of the kids on outings and doing different activities. We saw Addisyn's little bed and her classroom. We did find out that they kept her back in the preschool classroom because she was being adopted so that she didn't have to go away to a different school during the day. We brought treats for the children that Addisyn very proudly handed out to the children in her classroom. The kids were so very cute. One little girl just wanted me to hold her and another one kept sharing her half eaten Jelly Bellies with me. It was so cute! Addisyn was pretty quiet while we were there, I was a bit worried about how she was feeling. As soon as we headed to the car though, she was all smiles. I guess she was happy to be staying with us. I am overwhelmed at the transition these kids have to go through and do, for the most part, so well. I try to imagine myself or one of my other kids in a similar situation and it is unimaginable.
We also saw the baby room! (Tom you can stop reading now if you like!) There were over twenty babies, all under a year, no walkers or even crawlers. There were probably eight nannies feeding and holding the babies. They started bringing some of the babies to the window, it was like an old fashion nursery in the hospital. We were told that only two were healthy newborns, the rest were considered special needs. China's definition of special needs is much different than our though. It can just be a limb deformity or cleft lip/palate or moles like Xia. So many babies just needing families to call their own. Two little ones reaIlly stuck with me. One was this chubby little boy that I was getting to smile and giggle at me through the window and the other one was this tiny little girl with a severe bilateral cleft lip and palate. No surgery yet, so they were having to feed her with a special bottle. At least they have the bottles though. So many children die around the world as infants due to a correctable facial deformity.
All in all, it was a pretty wonderful day. Hug your kids!
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