Saying goodbye

Tuesday was our final day in Chifeng. We got up and went to the orphanage to pick up the director to take him shopping with the orphanage donation money some of the team members had collected. Sammye was not feeling well at all so she stayed behind to rest. We had to fly back to Beijing Tuesday evening so we were praying she'd feel better by then. She stayed at the hotel and went back to sleep, the rest of us went shopping. We first stopped at a store and were told to stay in the van - Lily said they were going in cause the director wanted to get something for us. We totally didn't want them to buy us anything but knew it'd offend them not to let them. As it turned out, they bought a CD that has songs from the night before about "the Grasslands" on it. Lily made us each a copy of a few of the songs before we left - neat! That'll be fun to listen to and reminisce. That was a perfect gift. Then we went to a department store with multiple stories. We had just over 5000 yen left - we were able to get them 3 washing machines (see photo of us poising by one) and 4 microwaves. The store even threw in 4 microwave dishes for free. The director was so appreciative and excited. We were excited that the money went that far. And that we were able to not only pay for the kids at the park, at KFC, take several kids out to Chinese dinner the next night and also get them such useful items for the orphanage. Totally awesome!
After shopping, we dropped the director and microwaves off at the orphanage and went to lunch. We then loaded up our luggage in the van, our driver took it to the orphanage, unloaded it and then came back to get us. We then went to the orphanage to see the kids one last time and say our goodbyes. We started in the baby room - we got to spend about 45 minutes in there. As soon as we walked in, they were running to the door to greet us and were all pointed at the wall with excitement. We had taken some of the best photos of the trip of us with them and printed them out at a local photo shop. Lily and the director made a great collage for each room of these photos and hung them up. The kids were totally excited to show it to us. They loved it. Jordan was sitting at the table in her usual spot with her mouth stuffed full of cheese puffs. All the kids had a mouth full when we came in. I greeted all the kids and gave them hugs. They put Jordan in the walker - this was the first time I had seen her in there. I was interested to see if she might be able to walk or not - it was hard to tell when she was sitting - it looked like her toes were curled under and since with her arms - her elbows don't really bend - I didn't know if her knees did. But they seem to and she was getting around pretty good in that walker. Shortly before we were needing to go - I went up to her and put my arms out to see if she wanted me to pick her up. She just looked at me so I put my arms down and waited a second. Then I did it again and she put her arms up toward me which totally melted my heart. YAY - she let me pick her up again. I got to hold her for about 20 minutes. Then they came to tell us it was time to say goodbye and move on to the next room. I so didn't want to say goodbye but knew I had to. I spoke quietly to Jordan and prayed blessing over her again and then handed her to one of the older girls who helps out there. I kissed her head and say goodbye. And I went around and said goodbye to all the kids. And I kept waiving to Jordan as I walked out. And as soon as that door closed, the water works came. I needed a moment so I stepped aside and waiting a few minutes before moving on to the next room - sometimes you just need to cry. It was hard to walk out of that room and say goodbye. The others had a hard time too. We each had a certain kid or a few kids that we fell in love with specifically and had a hard time leaving. One of the little guys that Sammye fell in love with was so cute - he was just snuggling right up to her - the picture of them face to face is one of my favorites. And the other picture of him holding on to her legs - he didn't want her to go and was holding on to her legs as she tried to go out. He even tried coming out the door after her. So cute and so sad. I know she wanted to bring him home.
After we sort of collected ourselves, we went into the special needs room to say goodbye to those kids. There were lots of hugs and smiles. We had a short amount of time with them and I don't think they understood that our goodbye was any more than it had been the previous days where they'd just see us again the next day. Which may be better. Goodbyes are hard. Got a great picture of Christine hugging a few of the girls. So precious.
We then went downstairs to try and catch the school kids as they got home from school. We had to head to the airport shortly after. We decided we were too full from lunch and didn't need to go out to eat so that gave us a little more time. The kids got there around 5 and we had a group photo in the entryway and gave them all hugs and said our goodbyes. The directors wanted to see us off to the airport so they came with us. We had all our luggage in the back of the van so there were less seats so we also had to take a cab for the rest of us. We got to the airport way early - hardly anyone was in there. We couldn't even check in - there wasn't anyone at the ticket counter. But better earlly than late and we were the first ones to check in once the ticket person got there. We gathered in a circle with our team, Lily and the two directors and Lily translated as we thanked them for welcoming us in and told them how much we appreciated how loving they are to the kids, how we know they are being so well taken care of and that makes it easier to go home knowing they are in good hands. They thanked us for coming such a long way to love on their kids and for being so loving with each one of them. And for the gifts. It was really sweet. They gave us hugs and left. And we headed through security to our terminal. Our flight out was thankfully much smoother than the one on the way there - which was good for all of us. Sammye was feeling better - not great but better. And she did ok on the flight. We got to Beijing and ate a late meal at McDonald's. I don't even like McDonald's back home but I tell ya what - it hit the spot after so much chinese food. I got a burger and man, those pickles tasted good. I also got fries with ketchup and a strawberry sunday. Yummy!!!! Then we all went to recheck into that hotel we stayed at the first 2 nights and we crashed. It was a long day filled with lots of emotions and activities. It was hard to say goodbye to those kiddos - I miss them already. And am praying my photos can be recovered off my laptop cause there are so many great ones that were on there. Thankfully I had saved a lot of my favorites onto a memory card and all the other team members took pictures too - so either way - I will still have some great shots.

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