xi'an - children

this time to China has been a journey of new discovery and joy for me. today was no exception. church was held in a small hotel on a local campus here in Xi'an where we are currently staying for a couple of days. while there we met a wonderful woman, Amanda. She has opened a foster care home for orphan babies, most of whom have severe health problems. in the 3 years that she has been open she has successfully adopted out 15 little ones to foreign families who willingly take on kids with such issues as spina bifada, brain damage, hydrocephalus, cleft palates, etc. (featured photo is one of my guy students holding a 1+ month old little guy with a cleft palate.)

her foundation survives on the good graces of volunteer workers, financial donations, goods donations and volunteer medical assistance.

while we were scheduled to see all kinds of 800 year old historical places after church, i instead worked it out with our tour guides to make room for an hour visit to her foster home. we filled the small apartment that acts as the foster care home, it was already teeming with 20 children and their caretakers (aunties). my students asked a few questions of Amanda, who then rushed out the door to finalize an adoption with a couple from Holland. we then spent over an hour holding the babies, playing with them and touched first hand small people's lives who start out with so many difficulties. i have 13 big strong American guys in my group, and the most touching part was to watch them tenderly hold these little ones in their big arms.

on the way to dinner there was much talk of "what to do." so far some of the students plan to come back to Xi'an in November to volunteer work for a few days, we are going to eat as cheap as possible for a week when we return to Nanjing and donate the extra funds to the foundation, and much more. after talking and brain-storming we sat for about 15 minutes of silence on the bus. my thoughts turned to what i could do - the first thing is to invite any who read my blog to consider spending some of your Christmas gift funds in support of Amanda's cause. you can visit her website to learn how to assist:

http://www.thestarfishfosterhome.org/