First Days in China

First of all, I'd like to apologize for not updating everyone while in China. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to open blogger, along with some other websites. But I'm home now so I decided I'd update you on my trip! It was an absolutely amazing experience, and I'm sure it will take me many weeks to process everything I learned and saw while there. It will definitely take more than one blogpost to share everything I saw, heard, and tasted :) So this first post will serve to tell you about my first few days.
I spent all of Friday the 1st traveling, starting with a short flight from Tulsa to Chicago, spending several hours in the Chicago airport, and then enjoying a thirteen-and-a-half hour flight to Beijing. Because of the time change, we actually didn't arrive in Beijing until 9:30 at night on August 2nd.
By this time, I was already realizing how much I was going to enjoy my team. I traveled with seventeen other team members and two team leaders.
The next morning we got on a plane to fly to Luoyang, where we'd be staying the majority of the time. While waiting in line, I befriended a group of little Chinese girls. They were obviously intrigued by us Americans, and spent time practicing their English with a few of us. One little girl gave me some Chinese Chex snack, which I keep as a momentum of my first full day in China :) Right before we got ready to leave, one girl asked if she could have her picture taken with me. Before I knew it, all of the mothers had their cameras out and I had about seven pictures taken with seven little kids. I knew already that I was going to like the people here :)
That evening, we arrived at Maria's Big House of Hope, the medical facility I would be my spending time in. We learned all about what Maria's is, how it came about, and what it does to serve orphans in China. Basically, it serves to help the neediest children by giving the medical and emotional support they need until they are healthy or are too big for their cribs (they are equipped to serve children up to five years old). It serves as an amazing temporary home until the children are adopted or returned to their orphanages.

Maria's Big House of Hope, the amazing facility I got to spend my time in

That night, I got to spend a little bit of time with the kids. One little girl shyly came up to me and put my hair into two braids. I didn't want to take them out :) It was a great start to my time at Maria's!
I wish I could share pictures of the children with you. But for the privacy and protection of the children, I am not allowed to share pictures online. However, I can and will post pictures of the excursions I went on! I will update more in the upcoming days. Thank you for reading!
~Allie