Magic

China is magic.

Magic to me is red lighted lanterns on a dark street, music playing in the square while ladies dance with fans, and children posing with a peace sign in every picture. Magic is walking down a crowded street to find the perfect hole-in-the-wall restaurant, eating things you never thought you'd like, and listening to people argue in another language only to realize they are just having a good time. Magic is pagodas whose walls have seen more years than the oldest person on earth, worn cobblestone walkways, and firecrackers in the middle of the night. Magic is Chinglish (Chinese English) signs, babies in strange clothes and accented hellos from passers-by. Magic is too many stairs, the city at night, and fruit stands side by side.

Magic is China.

Magic.

Cotton Candy and Whipped Cream

I didn't come to China thinking working in an orphanage with be cotton candy and whipped cream. I came preparing myself for difficulties. One thing I didn't prepare myself for was little Mutong. Mutong and I have become very attached to each other in this short week I've been here. He is not happy when I'm around unless he's in my arms. If he cries, he stops almost the instant I hold him. Mutong is inoperable here in China. The hope was that someone in the states would want to adopt him and he could get heart surgery in the US. Unfortunately, when someone pulled his file in the US and submitted it to a doctor, the agreement was that he is completely inoperable. His heart just has too many problems. It's now that I try to face the reality that his chances for adoption are very small and he will live out his short days in another orphanage with palitable care since this one is not set up for the death of a child. My heart is so broken and I am beyond sad for my little friend.I couldn't bear to ask how long he will stay here before that happns. I pray so hard for a miracle to take place, but I know I can only ask the Lord to let Mutong feel my love and accept His will whatever it may be. Mutong was born without a family and I can't bear to think of him never getting one. He is my little buddy! I love him! The world is such a harsh place. We are so blessed to have the families and homes that we do. Please don't take it for granted. I know I shouldn't, but I feel guilty that I was born with so much and he was born with so little. I wish I could give him all the good things in this world.

Now, to restore my faith in humanity, I will only talk about good things. The other children here all have more hope for families. 3 babies have families waiting for paperwork to be completed. Daniel leaves for America and his new family this month. Midst all the sadness, there is so much joy, laughter, and hugs.The babies make any sadness melt away.

There is one little girl, Ruth (Xiao Wu), Kendra and I call The Police because she runs around telling everyone what to do and where to put things. She doesn't speak words, but there is a distinct sound when she is bossing someone around.If one of the kids takes off their socks, she picks them up and begins telling people to put the socks back on. She thinks she runs the place and it's so funny!

Fact: McDonald's is just better in China. I'm not saying the quality is better, because it's not. It's actually probably worse, but it's like a comfort when you are thinking of home to go eat a Big Mac even if you never ate Big Mac's in the US before. There is something about the lettuce and cheese that you don't see anywhere else in China that just screams, "I'm AMERICAN!"  Their McFlurries are DEFINITELY better than McFlurries in the US though. If you make it to China soon, try one.

I told you last time that we hang out at that bakery. I'm starting to feel a little embarrassed about it. It's either spend two hours getting into the city or spend 20 minutes to stare at boys decorate cakes. We of course choose the latter. The guys decorating cakes notice us more than other people since we are white and act like we've never seen a cake decorated. We basically commentate and critique the cakes. They can't hear us so that's good. Sometimes, it's amazing what they do with chocolate shavings and my favorite is when they make a rose out of frosting. Cake decorating is probably my favorite form of art since I think it's the only kind I could possibly be decent at. I loved working at a bakery in a grocery store. I started learning how to decorate cakes and that was SO much fun! I should pick that up. Better yet. I'll become friends with one of them and have them teach me their tricks.

One way you know you're in China is when you feel like you totally made someone's day because you waved at them. On the bus going home from the bakery, there were some guys kind of staring at us and acting like they might come talk to us. They didn't and one guy was staring at us pretty constantly just before he got off. When he got off the bus, I waved at him. His face totally lit up and he did some weird sort of hop/skip and waved back. That would never happen to me in America. Imagine me waving at some random guy my age. He would probably just give me a strange look. I feel so much cooler here.

A big reason I love China is because of simple things that might seem little to you, but to me are huge. There was the time I dropped my wallet on the without even noticing and the man near me sorta wacked/patted my arm and pointed at it. There was the time I left my eggs sitting on the counter at the grocery store and some guy yelled "Eggs!" so I would come back and get them. Also today, when I went to meet one of Tony's friends at a university here, he bought me lunch, some kind of Taiwanese drink, and a traditional Chinese snack just to make me feel welcome. I can't forget the black market taxi drivers who come running up to me and try to get me to take their taxis. They love when I say no in Chinese. They laugh and copy what I say like parrots. It's endearing and annoying at the same time. I love the people who try to make their children say, "Hello!" or the people who tell their children we are so pretty when they think I can't understand. China is a big confidence boost.

I love speaking Chinese. The truth is, I get incredibly discouraged about my terrible language skills all the time, but I am so determined to be good at this, that I just try to forget about it. Learning a language is such a daunting task. I can't even begin to understand how some people speak 3, 4, or 5 languages. There is SO much vocabulary and I'm still trying to workout Chinese grammar! Someday, I will speak Chinese like a native (or close to it). That's my goal.

And finally, the Temple of Heaven is lovely and the Lama temple is full of smoke from incense. It's all part of the Chinese experience and I'm loving every minute; the good and the bad.

 Faith in humanity=restored.

We Hang Out at Bakeries

I spend my days with 8 babies, babies without moms and dads to love them. Babies who were abandoned, close to death when the were miraculously saved. My heart is constantly breaking for these babies. I feel so much love for them! I would adopt all of them in an instant, especially Mutong who is my best friend.

Mutong. Isn't he the cutest!?

There are so many stories about children in orphanages with less than kind people taking care of them. I'm so glad that is not a reality here. The nannies that care for these kids love them as their own and the babies love them back.

Kendra and I have done a few night shifts. We sleep in a bed in a room with two babies each. I stay with Xiao Wu and Mutong. Xiao Wu sleeps through the whole night, but when she is trying to sleep, you need to stay where she can see you or she starts to cry. She is very insecure about sleeping alone. The first night, she had a hard time sleeping because it was the last night of the new year and fireworks were going off like crazy. She would start to cry, and all I had to do was touch her gently and she would stop. Mutong is a chatty baby at night. He wakes up about 3 times a night and needs a bottle. Sometimes, after he finishes his bottle, he just talks for a half hour. It's really cute and funny, but when it's two in the morning, I sorta wish he would just go back to sleep. When they wake up in the morning, they are always really happy. Especially Mutong who is all smiles. It melts my heart.
In the day time, we help feed the babies, play with them, and take them to the park or the "lake" in our neighborhood. The routine is pretty basic, but the kids have a hard time when it changes or the ayi's (nannies) change shifts. Kendra and I think we are pretty cool because when we hear someone cry, we have started to be able to tell which baby it is.

We love the neighborhood we live in. It snowed the other day and we walked around to see what there is. This is our limo. Apparently it never moves, but just sits near the gate. It's probably just for show, and it's incredibly dirty as is appropriate for Beijing.

Last night, we went to McDonald's near our apartment. Somehow, McDonald's becomes this hot commodity to us when we are in China. It's like a stabilizer for homesickness since nothing is more American than McDonald's, hot dogs, and apple pie. Afterward, we walked to the Wu Mart. When you say Wu, you need to sound really excited. WU! mart. Inside, they have some sort of french bakery. We were really excited about it. We gaped at all the cakes and chose which ones we would buy for our half birthday celebrations until we saw them making cakes in a room with windows. We probably watched them decorate cakes for an hour. It's our new hangout. We want to be friends with one of the decorators so he will teach us how to do it, and give us cake. ;)

We stayed up until midnight last night and both of us were really proud of ourselves. It's a big deal since we've been sleeping at 9 o'clock every night. I can honestly say I've gotten rid of jet lag! YES!!!

Sunday, we went to the branch for the first time. Who knew it would take almost 2 hours for us to get there!? We were late and missed most of sacrament, but we made it. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. We won't really be a big part of the YSA group because it takes so long for us to get to church and other places which is too bad, but we have each other and we get along great. We just need to make some friends who live in the same district as us so we can actually do things in the evenings since the kids go to bed at 7-8 o'clock.

China is great and I love being here! I want time to pass as slowly as possible. I LOVE CHINA!

Home

The first thing I learned when arriving in Beijing: Whatever your expectations are, just throw them out the window. Despite that, things are going so well!

I have to be honest though, when we first got here, it was quite confusing. We rode a train for 10 1/2 hours from Shenzhen to Beijing. When we arrived in Beijing, we met Adam, the guy who arranged for us to be here. He then took us on a 2 hour metro ride to meet Bill, one of the owners of Morning Star, the orphanage where we live. It's crazy to be handed off from one stranger to another and you can bet
that Kendra and I were a little stressed out.

Bill drove us to the orphanage since it's not close enough to a metro station to walk. He took us into our room and I think my jaw dropped to the floor.It's not an awful room or anything. It was just not what I expected.There is an office with a curtain on the far side. Behind the curtain is The Corner. In The Corner is our bunk bed.We sleep in an office behind a curtain. Haha! It's such an awesome concept! They are bringing us a wardrobe to put our clothes in and a refrigerator as well. There is a kitchen here that already has a fridge, but I guess they want us to have our own.

We went to bed really early because we didn't know what to do and no one was really telling us anything. We were both trying to be positive because honestly, it wasn't easy to be at first, being totally in the dark about what was going on.

In the morning, we woke up early and got ready. We waited around for a bit, then Lynsay came and filled us in as well as arranged for us to register our location with the local police as is the law here. We are here to help with all the transitions that are going on at the orphanage in the next few months. There are 8 kids here right now. Each of them has or had heart problem(s). The oldest is 5 and the youngest is around 9 months.We were able to spend the afternoon playing with the kids and helping around the orphanage, and it was the best afternoon I've ever had! I already love these children. They are so darling! They just want to be held, played with, and given attention.I know it's going to be so hard to say goodbye in only 3 months. I'm already dreading it.

Kendra and I also went out and rode a bus and then the metro for a bit to wander around in the area near our home. It was fun and we were really proud of ourselves for being able to go out and not get lost. We went to the grocery store and just wandered the streets a bit.

The nannies that are here right now call me by my Chinese name, 宋佳媛 (Song Jiayuan). It's so great to me! I mean, maybe that's loserish, but I really love answering to them when they say it. It's a part of me, and now, I'm making it a bigger part of me. I hope to really improve my Chinese since I'm living with 8 other Chinese women.

These women are so amazing to me already. People are still celebrating the Chinese New Year until Monday so several of the nannies went home. That leaves those that stayed to do all the work 24/7. They all seem really positive and happy. They love these babies and they take such good care of them. This is really a great place for these miracle babies.

I am so glad I get to be here. This experience is really going to change me, I can already tell. I know I'm going to come away a better person. I don't know why things didn't work to go to Xi'an, but I do know that this is where God wants me now, and I have faith that it is entirely for the best.

I like living in the suburbs of Beijing. The street food is delicious and I haven't seen any other white people. It's not the Beijing I visited last June, it's a whole new place entirely. Today was really warm and after going to the store to buy food, I walked around without my coat on. The sky was blue and clear. Clearer than the Utah skies when I left. They may not be true, but I don't have anything to compare the sky with really. The only sky I've seen lately has been in Utah and China, and let's be honest, neither place has great air quality.

Tomorrow, we'll go to church with the branch. I'm excited to meet them all. Branches are really fun because everyone is so friendly and welcoming and everyone relies on each other so much since we are in a foreign country away from family.I know I will love it, and tomorrow night, we are taking a night shift with some of the babies to give the nannies a break.

It's firework season right now. During the new year, it's tradition to light off as many fireworks as possible. They are so loud and mostly they seem to be firecrackers. The new year ends with the Lantern Festival on Monday, but I guess Beijing doesn't really have a place they do that at according to my sources, which is too bad, really. I would love to see that.

Even though I've been here for more than a week, I'm still working on staying up later than 9 o'clock. It's pretty hard for me! It's 9:20 now and I'm fighting not to go get ready for bed right now.I just hope the things I have written make sense. I'm not completely with it and I'm real tired! I've probably forgotten some things and if I remember them in the morning, I'll add them in.

Hong Kong -----> Shenzhen

The last day in Hong Kong was great. We went to the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery to start the day. The monastery isn't in operation there, so there are just caretakers, but it has a really cool history. The Buddhas have different faces and some of them are really funny. I understand that there is a lot of symbolism, but I don't actually understand it so I'm a little ignorant. I would like to learn more about Buddhism someday and really start to understand it better since a lot of my Chinese friends are Buddhist.

The Hong Kong Museum was next, and it was good, but I don't really love museums and I've been before so it was a little boring. There are people who really love it though so I think it's good that we go there while on the tour.

We rode the Star Ferry across the harbor and back and then watched the laser light show put on by the buildings in the Harbor. We also had McDonald's for dinner which usually isn't very good, but in China, it's good.

Yesterday, we traveled across the boarder into Mainland China. I got another 2 stamps in my passport and found a restaurant to eat my favorite dish, eggplant!

Our hotel is in a really fun area with lots of places to walk around and a giant street market. There are two KTV places near-by and we are hoping to go one time. Our hotel room is decorated in pink and maroon which is funny. I just love walking the streets here. It really feels like I'm back and I'm already starting to feel like I'm home. Kendra and I get along really well and we have fun together. It is going to be a great 3 months in China!

I have to do my parts of the teacher training today for everyone and I'm pretty nervous. about the whole thing. I just hope I do a good job and help everyone as best I can. I just want to be able to make a difference for these people like others did for me.

After the training Kendra and I take a G train (the fastest train in China) to Beijing. We are taking the line they just completed from Shenzhen to Beijing. It will take 10 hours which is actually really fast for a train. From there someone will pick us up at the train station and the rest of what we are doing is still a bit of a mystery. Here's to living in China!

Biiiiiiiiiiig Buddha!

It is a fact that the sky has been so much clearer this time in Hong Kong than last time.  It is absolutely beautiful!

Yesterday, we went to Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is famous for it's view of Hong Kong Harbor. You take a tram from the ground to the top of the peak and then go up several floors of a giant tourist-trap shopping center to the look-out deck. It boosts a 360 view and it's pretty incredible. Since Hong Kong is made up of several islands, you can see the ocean from almost every side. I hate seeing the ocean and not swimming in it, but I don't really think I want to swim in the ocean so close to China. I'm not sure how safe/clean it is.

This next picture is of the last time I was here.

HUGE difference right?

While on top of the mountain, we ran into Hermione, the girl who set up the service project we did in Zhangye last June. How bizarre is that? China has over a billion people and we just happen to be in Hong Kong on the same day, on top of the same mountain, at the same time. I just can't express how crazy I think that is! People say, "It's a small world," but it seriously became so much smaller to me when we saw her. I literally saw the world shrink in my head.

Today, we went to the Cantonese ward sacrament meeting. It is really a unique experience that is just incredible to me. Someone translated into a microphone that goes to the little radio head sets that all of us had. It was a little hard to understand or hear, but the spirit compensated for that. The spirit really was so strong in that room. We sang the hymns in English while the rest sang in Cantonese. It sounded a little weird, and it was no MoTab but it was definitely awesome in its own way. The people were all so welcoming, as well.

 After church, we went to the Po Lin Monastery and Big Buddha. Once again, the sky was SO much clearer. To get to the Buddha, we took a cable car ride. Last time I was here, it was broken so we had to take a bus along a really windy road that made you a little car sick, so this was a much better way to get there.

Of course, Tony flirts it up with all the girls here and they all just love him. All the girls tell me how cute he is, etc, etc. Tony is quite the charmer, that's for sure. He won't admit it, but he is also really good at teaching people Chinese. He accents his tones really well so it's easy to hear and repeats it for you when you say it wrong. He is a big reason I learned so much in China when I was here before. In the cable car we took, Tony was the only guy and the girls teased him the whole time. It got weird really fast and I think Tony was a little embarrassed, but he joked along and teased everyone anyway.

The most exciting thing happened when we got off the cable car. There were DRAGON DANCERS! I can't tell you how excited I was! I never saw the Chinese Dragons here last time and I wanted to so bad. There were 3 dragons and then some creepy person wearing a creepy head dancing. They were dancing to Gangnam Style and some other party rock song and it was seriously the coolest thing! Tony was also really excited so it's not a just a foreigner thing.

This picture is awesome because they are jumping

from that platform to another one and I got them

in mid air! Woot woot!

Sorry for the poor quality of this video, but I just

really wanted to show you how awesome this was!

We climbed the 8 million stairs to the Big Buddha and then walked the "Wisdom Path." Once you walk all of the Wisdom Path, you are supposed to have gained wisdom. I didn't feel any different afterwards so I assume it's because I was already very wise.

The Wisdom Path ends with several trees chopped in half

with carved blessings from Buddha on them.

Now look at a picture from the last time I visited the Big Buddha.

This was a long blog post, but I put up a lot pictures as some of you requested, so I hope you are happy! Until next time, 再见！

Hong Kong Round 2

You can all laugh at me, but I literally cried when the plane touched down in Hong Kong. Words do not express how happy I am to be back in China!

When we arrived at the Temple Patron Housing where we are staying, there was someone waiting at the gate. I freaked out and screamed because it was Tony, my friend from Nanjing! Brad invited him to come to Hong Kong and tour with us. I was SO excited! I can't wait to see everyone else in Nanjing, but it is so great to see Tony and travel with him again. I just love this!

I am weirdly nostalgic. I got in the shower and thought, "Wow, it smells like a Chinese shower." I'm just weird.

Hong Kong is beautiful. There are trees with blossoms and Chinese New Years decorations everywhere. The weather is nice, but humid. It's raining a bit and we are about to go out and tour, so I hope it's not too bad.

I slept really well last night, but woke up really early. I'm so ready to be completely adjusted. A few more days and it will all be over. I love China!

The Hong Kong Temple is really beautiful. It's small, but the spirit is the same. I have done baptisms 3 times on the trip already and it is so nice to feel the spirit and enjoy the temple.