Day Two Beijing

Today we met with 10 children currently receiving care at the Hope Center in Beijing. They were napping when we arrived, so we got to hear their stories. They are heartbreaking.

Xing Lin, 7, was abandoned at age 6. He was already blind in one eye, and seemed to have had one unsuccessful surgery to restore sight in his other eye. His pupils are too small for the necessary tools to operate to fully restore his sight.
He can only see a few feet in front of him.

Yuan Yuan has a very large head due to too much water in her brain. She is four months old and has an American foster family. She has already had spinal surgery and will need brain surgery.

Jin Jin also has a large head, again due to water on the brain. She can’t use nor feel her legs due to a puncture made on her spine during surgery. She is 1 year and 4 months old.

Xiao Bai, 2 ½ , was born with a cleft lip and palate and will need additional surgery. He cannot speak yet, but will soon have surgery. He will be available for adoption very soon.

John is nearly 5, but only the size of a toddler. He came from the Luoyang orphanage and has had heart surgery. He will not grow to full size as an adult.

Peter is nearly 4 and has had several unsuccessful surgeries to try to repair the inside of a cleft lip and palate defect. He cannot speak yet, but he loves to be held.

Xiao Ling, 4 ½ has found a family and will be adopted at the end of November. She has had several illnesses, including water on the brain, an injured leg and heart surgery.

Yang, 8, has parents who could not afford surgery needed to amputate part of her leg, so CHI sponsored her surgery. She will be returning home to her family when healed.

So after hearing all of these stories, and reading a note on the wall that said the children may be shy to strangers at first, it was a delight to have the children greet us warmly when they walked into the play room. Many approached us with arms wide open. Peter let me pick him up and would not let me put him down for the entire visit. John quickly approached Chung’s video camera and digital camera, and immediately began using them correctly. Xiao Ling also was fascinated with the video camera and enjoyed seeing herself on the monitor. Karen played with several of the toddlers. It seemed like our visit was over
all too soon. We all are very much looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow.

The tours of the day including the massive and impressive Tian An Men Square in the a.m., the Hutong district by rickshaw, and lunch at a local family’s home. The food was again amazing, and our hostess was charming and answered all of
our questions. I have forgotten to mention that Rick speaks Mandarin, so he’s been a very helpful translator.

After the Hope Center visit, we enjoyed an acrobat show, then walked around the hotel neighborhood. We found a great food courtyard to eat, then visited a 7-eleven.

Friday we will see the Great Wall, visit the Hope Center again, and see the Beijing Opera.

PS MANY computer problems both with the hotel and bank network tonight! Aargh - took at least an hour to get connected to finally send this.