Last Day!

Today is packing day! Some kids want to go home tomorrow, and some don't. They have been spoiled rotten while here! We have so many things to squeeze into our suitcases. All of the children packed pounds and pounds of gifts for their family and friends to take back home. While here, they probably bought 1 or 2 things for themselves. They have the sweetest hearts.

I leave to China with the kids tomorrow morning too. I have really enjoyed my time with these orphans this past month. They are so inspiring to me. I love them to pieces!

Thank you all for reading my blog, and for my teachers for making it possible to do this! 

Professional Swimmers

Today, the children got to swim for the very last time. They were so excited that they got to go swimming again. This time, they weren't a bit scared, and were pro!

Our bus is broken right now, so it's hard to get places. We'll have to take multiple vehicles in order to get to the airport this week. ):

Breakdown....again

On our way back to PA today, the bus broke down again... this time, we waited 3 1/2 hours! We waited in McDonalds. The people working there were Chinese. What a coincidence! The kids were so happy.  We will be packing for the next couple of days.

Last Few Days

Today is our last day in Ohio. We've been here for about 2 weeks and have met so many amazing people that have been so supportive.  The children have really felt the love of their sponsors and the people who care for them.  We leave to Pennsylvania this afternoon. Only 4 more days until we go to China!! :)

Creek

We may take swimming or wading in a creek for granted, but for these orphans, they have never done either.  The kids got to play in a creek today, and had a lot of fun picking up pick big rocks and finding little critters underneath.  One of the first things that they saw was a tiny snake, and the whole creek shook. Little Chinese kids were running everywhere!  They were soooo scared! After a little while, finding a snake became quite common, and they would get really excited when they found one. The children found fish, snails, and most of all shells. The little girls collected hundreds of shells. I asked them what they were going to do with them, and they said they were going to give it to their friends at home because they all liked to play with them. :)

Fried Chicken Galore

This past week, we have had fried chicken EVERY DAY, and the kids couldn't be happier. It is their favorite American food. Sometimes, the boys come back to the table with a wing, thigh, and leg... We asked them, "If you could take one food back to China to share with your friends, what would it be?" Of course, fried chicken!!  The kids love this picture. According to these kiddos, the heart of China is above all things, fried chicken.... :)

Bus Breakdowns and a Ball Game!

We drove back from Columbus to Cincinnati yesterday. Our big green bus broke down 2 times while on the highway. Thank goodness we were able to get the bus back into shape and get to Cincinnati on time!

Big smiles in Cincinnati

We saw a Cincinnati Reds game today! At the end of the game, we asked who thought it was fun and who thought it was boring. Most of the kids said that it was boring because the Reds lost. ):

Chad, Grace, me, and Amber at the ball game!

Experienced Drivers

The kids got a big treat yesterday. They went to Magic Mountain and drove go-karts! At first they were all nervous and said they couldn't because they didn't know how to drive a car. We explained to them that it's not the exact same thing and that it would be easy and fun. They really enjoyed themselves!!

Thomas trying to pass Tim

Experienced Drivers.... ;)

New Experiences

The children had many new experiences today. They got to spend part of the day in an elementary school. We stayed for a couple classes, lunch, and recess. At the end of the school day, we had them share what was different to them in an American school. One said that the recess was REALLY long. In China, they probably only have a couple of minutes. Another said that the children and teachers are really friendly with each other and freely walk up to the teacher's desk to ask questions or to get something. In China, there are about 50-80 children in every class so they are not allowed to do that.

Crafts with some 3rd graders.

Chad participating in class!

The orphans also got to go swimming today!! That was super new. They had never been swimming. I have never seen such big smiles. At first, every one was really scared to go into the water and get their whole bodies wet. By the end of the day, almost every single one of them were able to float on their backs! :)

Floating!

Claire and I :)

They also got to try turkey today! They really enjoyed it.

Zoo!

We got to go to the Cincinnati Zoo this afternoon! The kids enjoyed it very much. Even though it rained here and there, they still had a blast and got to see many animals. The first animal that they saw was a squirrel. You would have thought that it was the most amazing animal in the whole world. They seemed to like that dinky little squirrel better than all the other creatures! We saw giraffes, penguins, snakes, insects, gorillas, manatees, turtles, monkeys, and many more. When we got to the giraffes, I heard the kids saying it in Chinese. I finally realized what it REALLY means in English - "long necked deer" :)

Amber was so amazed when she said hello to a parakeet and it said hello back! She also went to the bathroom and came out with the biggest smile on her face. She said, "Wow! That bathroom is so high class! There was music coming out of little holes in the ceiling!"

Big Manatee!

The Group!

A Day At The Park

We had a fun time at the park today. We got to play in the playground and run around in the sprinklers. We also had a picnic! The park staff played parachute and capture the flag with everyone. The kids had so much fun, they didn't even want to go home!

 Here are some pictures from the aquarium today!

Fun Day!

Plans changed! We are staying at a host family's home so I have access to the internet. :)

We have an awesome group here in Ohio that planned a fun week for us!  We went to the aquarium today and the kids enjoyed every second of it. Every time we saw a new sea creature, ooh's and ahh's rang from the crowd. :) Everyone liked the sharks the best. We got to see the divers feed them by hand. It was really neat! We also saw a penguin show. That was fun too! Some of the older helpers braved a little kid maze that we had to squeeze and crawl through. I guess we're too old for those things now. :P

After the aquarium, the church treated us to Coldstone! It was so yummy. The children loved the ice cream and enjoyed sharing their own flavors with others.

We had a pizza party this evening with games. The orphans learned a lot of English by playing with the American kids. They made a lot of new friends.

Travel Day

We are traveling to Cincinnati, Ohio today! We will be there for a week. I probably won't have internet connection while there because we are staying at a church. I'll try to write down everything in a notebook and update my blog later. :)

Too Many Eggs

Grace, Laura, and I walked around in the park this afternoon and almost got attacked by a bird 78961 times smaller than we were. We thought that it had a broken arm, and then we thought that it was drugged, and then we thought that it was trying to find a mate. We tried chasing it away but it constantly came back. One of the little boys, Keegan, told us that it probably had eggs near by. We still didn't think that was the case so we continued to chase it all over the place. It had the weirdest chirp! It was so annoying! We finally decided to look for it's eggs. And where did we find them? In the middle of the playground camouflaged among the pebbles. What a horrible place to lay them! ;)

Later on, Grace and I heard one of our host family's chickens' screaming like crazy. Grace said that meant the chicken was laying eggs. We ran out to see, and there were 6 eggs! The younger girls collected 2 this morning. That makes 8 eggs in one day! :)

               What a wonderful place to lay eggs...

Looking over her eggs

Temptation...

 

 

 

 

 

We took the children to see a video about Kentucky's history today. We still had a couple of hours afterwords to spare, so we decided to go to a nearby park. The closest one had a bunch of fountains to play in. We didn't want the children to get their clothes wet because we had a special place to go to later on, so we told them not to play in the water. Well what-do-ya-know, 10 minutes later all of the kids were soaked to the bone!

Maggie soaked to the bone!

Claire running through the water!

English Lessons and Kung Fu

Every morning after breakfast, and after lunch, we have the kids do their homework. They are missing out on a lot of school, so they still have to catch up on work while in America. I've been focusing on helping Tim. He's a toughie. He is in 3rd grade and is still having trouble recognizing letters. I had the boys sing the ABC song, and learned something new. They sing it a little bit differently than Americans do. I sang it to them the way I was taught and they laughed so hard! Their tongues were twisting and turning. :)

One of the most popular dances that the kids perform is Chinese Kung Fu. They always wow the audience with their fancy moves!  Thomas, Chad, and Mike are training me on how to lift my leg straight up in the air... So far, no result.

Bats and Bats

Yesterday, we took a trip downtown and visited the Louisville Slugger. It is where all of major league baseball player's bats are made. It was exciting to see how the bats were made, and the kids even got to play in the batting cages!  This big bat leaning across the building is the largest bat in the world. It is an exact, but enlarged, replica of Babe Ruth's bat! :)

This morning we went to the longest cave in the world.  It has 390 miles of known territory! However, we only walked 2 of the 390 miles. The name definitely fits the size - Mammoth Cave.We got to see a few bats, and every time we did, there were mini shrieks coming from the kids. :)

Mini-Golf and a Taste of Home

The kids got a special treat on Saturday! They got to go mini-golfing! It was ten times more interesting to them because the place, to them, "was magical". People with white shirts on glowed! They were very curious as to what made them glow.

After mini-golfing, we ate Chinese food in the food court. The kids were so excited because they hadn't eaten Chinese food since they'd been in China. They stuffed themselves full!

Today, we are going to go to a museum. We don't know which one yet... it will be a surprise. :) Hopefully the children will be able to learn a lot from the trip!

Elevators Replace Playgrounds

 Who knew that what we consider a simple machine could turn into the most amazing toy to a young orphan child. Today, we performed at an Orphan Summit. It was held in the biggest building the children ever laid their eyes on! The most fascinating thing to them was the elevators and escalators! They asked if they could go on a ride. :) So, we squished them into the elevator, and went all the way to the top floor and down. They weren't satisfied with that one ride... they wanted to ride the escalator! So, we went up and down that machine. It was so funny seeing all of the people pass by stare at us wondering what we were doing!

Amazing Host Familiy

We are in Kentucky right now, and will be here until next week. We are staying at a family's home who have 10 children! They adopted 8 children from China, India, and Ethiopia. They are also hosting 17 of us! That makes 29 people staying in one house! They have such a heart for orphans! The picture below is of a few kids surrounding a laptop watching Japanese cartoons.

I found this video below from the 2nd orphan tour in September. It's my favorite! I taught these girls how to recite a tongue twister and a chorus of some silly song... :) Their names, from left to right are, Little Sarah, Lois, Fanny, and Pearl!