A few weeks ago, I knew relatively little about China. To be honest, I still don't know much, but I know more now than I did, and I care now whereas before I didn't even think about China to care about it or its people. About 2 weeks ago, all of that changed. I met three incredible Chinese girls, who made a place in my heart forever. They will always be my Chinese daughters.
I know I only hosted these girls for a week, and that doesn't sound long enough to grow to love someone, but I was in love with these girls after the first day. Sure, at times, it was incredibly awkward, and the language barrier was hard. Google translate helped, but it wasn't always with us. For example, one day when I picked them up, Eve had a huge stuffed animal that she had one at the sports emporium. It was too large to travel with, so she gave it to the boys. She went to put it in the back of the van, and I told her it needed to be in a seatbelt. She got all embarrassed and said, "Ok" and I told her I was teasing. She continued to come around to the side of the van, so I told Annie (who was the best with her English) to tell her I was teasing, but that word apparently wasn't one she knew and said it was ok. I finally came up with the word joking, which they knew, and we all had a big laugh. To be fair though, I have a very dry sense of humor, and a lot of my American friends don't get my jokes.
I didn't think their stay would disrupt our routine very much, but to be honest, it did. Our mornings are the same. The boys wake me up, so I get up and get dressed, and we all snuggle while they drink their milk. Then we go on a walk while they eat their breakfast (cereal). The boys then play outside until naptime. Because the girls were 11, 12, & 13, I couldn't leave them in the house to get ready by themselves, so our morning routine was non-existant, and we couldn't postpone things due to the incredible heat wave. So the boys got almost no outside time this week, which was hard on them. The other way our routine was disrupted was that we had to pick the girls up at the time that we usually eat dinner (5pm- yes, I know that is ridiculously early). So it pushed back dinner, and was hard to get dinner ready because I couldn't cook it until we got home. Side note: I prepared meals everyday, and Thursday I ran out of eggs and didn't realize it until it was nearly time to pick them up. So I couldn't make the chicken potpie like I had planned and was freaking out because I didn't know what I was going to serve them. It occurred to me that we had some hot dogs and french fries, so that's what we had. I felt incredibly guilty about it, but as it turned out, it was their favorite meal. Typical teenager! They were crying out "Delicious, thank you so much!" When every other meal was eaten in silence and I couldn't tell if they liked it or not.
Those were the only issues, if you can even call them that. They adored the boys and the boys adored them. In the morning and after dinner, they would play with the boys and took tons of pictures of them. Most of our conversation was about the boys. I had games planned to do with them for after the boys went to bed, but the girls retreated to their room while I was putting the boys down. Even after I assured them that they could come downstairs, they said they had to study. I'm not sure any studying was done, but there sure was laughter, so I guess they had a good time.
I was happy my sister babysat for us so we could go to the closing program. All of the students took part in singing songs and much to my surprise, Annie directed a few of the songs. It turned out it was Eve's birthday, so we sang to her, but I was sad I didn't get to make her a cake. At the end, each girl presented us with a thank you card. My favorite part of each card was that they said that Andrew and Nephew were like brothers to them. I had no idea that they thought Matthew's name was Nephew- so funny. The cards made me tear up, and when they left, I cried.
It is hard to believe that I will probably never see them again. They impacted my life forever, and China will always be in my heart because of them. In China, you are only allowed to have one child, and if you have a second, you have to pay a lot of money to the government to keep that child. I couldn't bring myself to ask what would happen if you had twins or couldn't afford to pay for the second child. I think I know the answer. In elementary school, you go to school from 8am-4pm and are able to live at home. Once you are in middle and high school, you go to school from 7:30am-9pm, and you have to live at school. I can't imagine the heartache of only being allowed to have one child and then having to send them to school every week throughout the year, except for one month during the summer and one month during the winter.
I'm thankful to have had this opportunity to have my eyes opened to another culture and other people. Too often, I go through life and don't think about anyone else except my little family and our little routine, and become discontent with the little that we have. I am glad that this opened my eyes to the many blessings in my life that I take for granted everyday. Like having the freedom of religion and being able to express that the only way to heaven is to believe in Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. That Jesus came down from Heaven to live life as a man so that he would die for my (and every one's) sins and rose again and now lives in Heaven. And all we need to do in order to have a relationship with Him is to believe this and ask him to be the Lord of your life.
I know I only hosted these girls for a week, and that doesn't sound long enough to grow to love someone, but I was in love with these girls after the first day. Sure, at times, it was incredibly awkward, and the language barrier was hard. Google translate helped, but it wasn't always with us. For example, one day when I picked them up, Eve had a huge stuffed animal that she had one at the sports emporium. It was too large to travel with, so she gave it to the boys. She went to put it in the back of the van, and I told her it needed to be in a seatbelt. She got all embarrassed and said, "Ok" and I told her I was teasing. She continued to come around to the side of the van, so I told Annie (who was the best with her English) to tell her I was teasing, but that word apparently wasn't one she knew and said it was ok. I finally came up with the word joking, which they knew, and we all had a big laugh. To be fair though, I have a very dry sense of humor, and a lot of my American friends don't get my jokes.
I didn't think their stay would disrupt our routine very much, but to be honest, it did. Our mornings are the same. The boys wake me up, so I get up and get dressed, and we all snuggle while they drink their milk. Then we go on a walk while they eat their breakfast (cereal). The boys then play outside until naptime. Because the girls were 11, 12, & 13, I couldn't leave them in the house to get ready by themselves, so our morning routine was non-existant, and we couldn't postpone things due to the incredible heat wave. So the boys got almost no outside time this week, which was hard on them. The other way our routine was disrupted was that we had to pick the girls up at the time that we usually eat dinner (5pm- yes, I know that is ridiculously early). So it pushed back dinner, and was hard to get dinner ready because I couldn't cook it until we got home. Side note: I prepared meals everyday, and Thursday I ran out of eggs and didn't realize it until it was nearly time to pick them up. So I couldn't make the chicken potpie like I had planned and was freaking out because I didn't know what I was going to serve them. It occurred to me that we had some hot dogs and french fries, so that's what we had. I felt incredibly guilty about it, but as it turned out, it was their favorite meal. Typical teenager! They were crying out "Delicious, thank you so much!" When every other meal was eaten in silence and I couldn't tell if they liked it or not.
Those were the only issues, if you can even call them that. They adored the boys and the boys adored them. In the morning and after dinner, they would play with the boys and took tons of pictures of them. Most of our conversation was about the boys. I had games planned to do with them for after the boys went to bed, but the girls retreated to their room while I was putting the boys down. Even after I assured them that they could come downstairs, they said they had to study. I'm not sure any studying was done, but there sure was laughter, so I guess they had a good time.
I was happy my sister babysat for us so we could go to the closing program. All of the students took part in singing songs and much to my surprise, Annie directed a few of the songs. It turned out it was Eve's birthday, so we sang to her, but I was sad I didn't get to make her a cake. At the end, each girl presented us with a thank you card. My favorite part of each card was that they said that Andrew and Nephew were like brothers to them. I had no idea that they thought Matthew's name was Nephew- so funny. The cards made me tear up, and when they left, I cried.
It is hard to believe that I will probably never see them again. They impacted my life forever, and China will always be in my heart because of them. In China, you are only allowed to have one child, and if you have a second, you have to pay a lot of money to the government to keep that child. I couldn't bring myself to ask what would happen if you had twins or couldn't afford to pay for the second child. I think I know the answer. In elementary school, you go to school from 8am-4pm and are able to live at home. Once you are in middle and high school, you go to school from 7:30am-9pm, and you have to live at school. I can't imagine the heartache of only being allowed to have one child and then having to send them to school every week throughout the year, except for one month during the summer and one month during the winter.
I'm thankful to have had this opportunity to have my eyes opened to another culture and other people. Too often, I go through life and don't think about anyone else except my little family and our little routine, and become discontent with the little that we have. I am glad that this opened my eyes to the many blessings in my life that I take for granted everyday. Like having the freedom of religion and being able to express that the only way to heaven is to believe in Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. That Jesus came down from Heaven to live life as a man so that he would die for my (and every one's) sins and rose again and now lives in Heaven. And all we need to do in order to have a relationship with Him is to believe this and ask him to be the Lord of your life.
Thank you, Lord, for my freedom. And please help others know You. Help me to live my life so that others will want to follow you too.
I like your sense of humor and your blogs. Thanks for sharing a small part of your experience.
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