All Work and No Play?

Things are going great in Chaoyang! It is hard to believe that tomorrow (Thursday) is our last day at the orphanage. The past couple of days have been amazing and each of us has made memories to last a life time.

Tuesday was packed full of fun! We decorated foam visors with the kids, then, decided to decorated ourselves as well! For lunch, we went to "The Hot Pot" which is pretty much the Chinese equivalent to fondue! Everyone enjoy the experience and the delicious meal! Liz (our fearless leader) however, had a more difficult time with this meal and consequently ended up wearing more of the meal on her clothes than actually eating the meal!

Today (Wednesday) has been wild! This morning, we took the kids to a city park that had some carnival style rides! All of the children LOVED it! They were running around with their favorite VO team member, smiling, and having a ball! Jake has made a lot of progress with a special needs boy who lives upstairs. On the first day at the orphanage, Jake learned that the boy could walk with assistance. Throughout the week Jake has been spending time with the boy and today, the nannies and the director brought him in a wheelchair to the park! He was not a fan of all of the rides, but truly enjoyed the overall experience! Jake has really made a difference in that young man’s life! WAY TO GO JAKE! Later in the afternoon, Liz and Ying went and bought a refrigerator and a fax machine for the orphanage. They were in need of a ‘frig for the upstairs and needed a fax to assist in getting more children registered for the adoption process. Apparently, Liz was treated like a Queen and the people in the stores were amazed at the work we are doing here in Chaoyang! Tonight, as group, we went “out on the town” and went on a scenic walk around a Pagoda that is not too far from our hotel! It was quite an experience taking in all of the culture! Overwhelmed by all of the culture, a few of team members decided to provide a little American culture and put on a show for literally hundreds of innocent bystanders! Needless to say, the crowds roared with cheers (and laughter) as they were serenaded with The Dixie’s Chicks, “Good Bye Earl” and The Little Mermaid’s, “Part of Your World”! As if that was enough…the VO performers (who shall remain nameless) ended their triumphant performance with the dance, dance revolution, “The Electric Slide!” What sight Team Chaoyang was this evening!

Tomorrow will be a busy day. Sadly, it will be our last day at the orphanage, but we have great things planned for the kids! We will host a birthday party for all of the children and present our gifts to the children and the orphanage! It will be a wonderful day! Ying is continuing to help us locate the cribs. What would we do without Ying??? We are VERY hopeful that they will make it to the orphanage by tomorrow so that we can set all of them up for the children and nannies. The mattresses have already been delivered; we have a host of beautiful quilts, and lots of cribs sheets…now all we need are the cribs!

Sorry we have not been good at updating the blog, but we promise to do better! It has been quite difficult juggling our touring talent act and visiting the orphans! We hope all of you are doing well back home and we look forward to seeing you soon! Much love to you all!

Cheers and Chopsticks,
Team Chaoyang