The Orphanage in Zhengzhou

     It was with mixed emotions that we demonstrated how to work with the children in the orphanage to the staff.  Roe and Eileen also screened hearing.  The nannies bombarded us with questions and poor John was like a ping pong ball trying to translate all their questions and interpret our answers.  It was stunning to see that in the midst of apparent poverty—little if any heat, no hot water, limited staff to child ratio, and 800, yes 800, special needs babies, children, and teens—that the staff was so obviously caring, nurturing, and loving of all the children.  The children refer to each of them as “Ma Ma” and their affection for all of the children was touching, yet heartbreaking knowing that each one of them had been abandoned—with so, so many of them with little hope of ever having a “forever family”. 

     As we moved from room to room, nannies held little ones out to us, pleading with us to tell them how to help each child.  Was she autistic?  How do we keep him from hitting himself so much?   How can we get him to eat?  How can we get her to talk?  He cries all the time, what can we do?  Why won’t he crawl?  They want so much to help and we could have spent weeks and weeks and weeks with them and still not answer all their questions.  You can imagine how hard it was to leave them knowing we saw only a few of the hundreds of children there.