Our NEW Program in ZhuZhou!!

Thanks to the faithful support of our sponsors, and to events like "Fill Their Stockings With Hope" we are taking a leap of faith, and partnering with an orphanage in ZhuZhou, Hunan to start a small foster program there.  They have given us six children to love and protect while they wait for their forever families!  From the minute we stepped off the train in ZhuZhou we could sense this was going to be a special partnership!

We were greeted at the train station by two assistant Directors at the orphanage.  They were kind and impressive!  They were excited to take us on a tour of their beautiful facility!  They have almost 400 children at the ZhuZhou Social Welfare Institute.   They told us that approximate 4% of them are considered "healthy."  The ZhuZhou Social Welfare Institute is beautiful..  It covers a lot of ground with multiple buildings..  They have rooms for Physical Therapy, Water Therapy, Piano Lessons, School, Foster care, a great outdoor play area, etc..  We saw quite a bit of the main building and we were amazed at how clean and spacious it was.  Don't get me wrong it is still an orphanage, and not one child should have to spend one day here..  But, in the big picture this is a top notch facility for children in China.

They invited us to visit a few rooms with children busy in activities.  The first room was for older children.  Some with severe disabilities.  They were so excited to meet us!  I love this photo of Paige being loved on by one of the ZhuZhou residents!

Next the Assistant Director took us to the Baby Room where they allowed us to snuggle some sweet babies.  It's hard not to be moved when you are with these children who so desperately need to be loved.  Thankfully there were quite a few care givers with these kids.  The ratio was very high of adults to children!  I was drawn over to a little boy crying in his walker.  I asked if I could pick him up and they were so willing to have me help.  It turns out this precious little guy has Thalassemia.  Since one of my daughters has this blood dis-order I was able to talk about how manageable it is with the Director..  I was able to encourage them to consider getting him paper ready as soon as possible.  I will be following up on the progress of that.  He was so sweet and snuggly!  I asked if I could just take him home with me!!  :)

Here are some of the other sweet faces that left us filled up, and broken all at the same time as we said goodbye...

This little girl broke our hearts..   She is actually in one of the foster care rooms they have in the Orphanage.  This is a great set up... It's actually created to live like a family within the Social Welfare Institute.  They have a large living area, bedrooms, and a kitchen.  There are 6-8 children with one set of parents in these "apartments."  This little girl had just lost her best friend a few days before we arrived.  She had been adopted that week..  And, she was sooooo sad.  It just broke our hearts to see her stare at the tv in their room.  It sounded like she is a non-special needs little girl, just waiting for her turn...

Our afternoon was not over at the orphanage..  Next we set out in the SWI van to four wheel through the hilly country roads to see our six new foster children and their families.  It was quite the adventure as we found them all...  We had time to say "hello", and to deliver clothes, shoes, new toothbrushes and toys all donated by generous friends of Pearl River!  We loved giving out the Leigh's Blankies and suckers to all of the children too.  These children are precious!!!    It is my pleasure to introduce you to our newest Bamboo Babies!

Caitlin

Tyler

Madeline

Tinsley

Hank

Jack

*I will do a formal post soon about sponsorship.  If you are interested in sponsoring a ZhuZhou Bamboo Baby please let me know.  And, if you have any contacts that have adopted ZhuZhou children already I would love to connect with them.   You can email be at diana@pearlriveroutreach.org

A few last shots from special ZhuZhou!

More soon on our new partnership in Hunan!