Sunday

Today I, Heather Ballard, ate black fungus for breakfast.  Yes, applause is appropriate. 

After breakfast, we had a bible study in our hotel room.  Our translator, Jean, is a Christian and she joined us. 

At the orphanage we went into a room with babies.  There were about 10 babies in the room... some had Down's, a blind child, several CP children....  There were 3 small infants wrapped up in blankets and lined against the wall.  The first baby was 1 month old and she had a cleft pallet.  Her eyes were alert and she had a full head of black hair.  She would engage your eyes and smile.  One of the nannies said that her coloring was bad and she was not healthy.  She looked beautiful to me.  Her fingers were the size of matches and she would grasp my finger tightly.  The second baby was 20 days old and she had a cleft pallet as well.  She looked like she was working herself up for a fit.  I was anticipating a loud cry and instead she squeezed one small tear from the corner of her eye and it slipped down her cheek.  I lay my hand on her tiny chest and rocked her until she closed her eyes and slipped off to sleep.  The third baby was 4 months old and she had Down's Syndrome.  One of the nannies showed me how to make her smile.  You move her arms back and forth across her chest and say, "Gagagagaga!"  Her entire face would light up.  Oh, joy in my heart to see her pretty smile!  I would rub my fingers across her cheek and she would turn her face into my hand.  All of the infants were abandoned at police stations. 

We had a great time with some older children on the playground.  We were made into "horses" and led by jump rope all around.  The kids thought this was very funny.  "Faster!" they told us.  Unfortunately, we are not in the best of shape and this game could not last too long! 

After lunch we took 6 of the older children to a park.  It was not like American parks.  They had amusement park rides and a zoo.  Lee took one of the girls on a stomach-turning-rusty-upside-down-inside-out-torture-ride.  Ahhhh!  I was praying hard on that one!

The kids had a great time and so did we. 

The top 10 most interesting things we saw today:

10.  a Great Dane dog at the zoo

9.  people eating black fungus (myself included, it was quite tasty)

8.  a man on a moped with 3 large goats in baskets on the side

7.  a taxi ride over a bridge on the wrong side of the road

6.  a maze of bamboo that led to a pagoda

5.  inside the pagoda a gathering of people singing and playing instruments

4.  Lee upside down on a rusty ride holding a sweet little girl's hand as she quite possibly regretted her choice in rides!

3.  a plastic baby holding a machine gun on an amusement park ride

2.  a huge section of park with 100's of people sitting in groups of 4 around tables playing games and drinking tea

1.  how quickly we fell in love with the children and how much love they are willing to give us, strangers who look different and talk different.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your supernatural love in us that we can overcome all differences and give it freely to Your precious children.  Amen.

~Heather