i'm back.

the last day before we came home, we stopped in BJ for a few hrs before heading to the airport. it was quick but BEAUTIFUL!

some of my teammates and i were being silly in front of the official Olympics counter FOUR years ago. i think it said 1473 days left (or some # like that) before the start of the opening ceremonies...

and here's the exact same counter this year, SIX days before the opening: (kinda cool, eh?)

as i was saying, they did a really terrific job of scrubbing the city, getting rid of a LOT of traffic, and even clearing the skies (although the smog has recently come back...)

look, BLUE skies! i've never seen that over BJ before!!

and here's the famous Bird's Nest:

if you zoom, zoom, zoomed up the pic, you can see ppl still working on finishing the construction... crazy!

anyways, i'm actually quite excited to see them pull all the stops for the world to see...!

as far as my adjustment to LA...
this wk, Saturday, Monday, and Wed nights, i laid in bed for hours not sleeping a wink, while on the other nights, i slept 10+ hrs! at this point, it doesn't even feel like jet-lag anymore - just weird-lag.

and my priorities are all off. for example, on Monday after sleeping 12 straight hours, the only thing i accomplished was getting a car wash and then hand-waxing my car. i've never waxed a car before and i had NO idea why it was so important to do so now, but i just had to do it. it took me nearly 2 hrs, but i had to do it! what's going on? there's a million other things of more importance that actually have to get done... arg.

someone come fix me!
it's strange to go from serving others 100% of the time to 0%, and it's as though my body and mind are in a complete meltdown in attempts to adjust...
at least it's good to be home.

Week 2:
what a week!

it started out a bit rough - all the volunteers got sick sometime this wked...and then i got "volunTold" to go pick up a grp of kids from an orphanage on Monday... the 7.5 hrs roundtrip was a bit boring, but it ended up kinda nice b/c my kids this week came from this grp in Luoyong.

here they are on the bus on the way to camp! our bus driver got lost a few times so we were about 1.5 hrs late picking them up. as soon as we pulled in the gate, they ran out onto the bus. i was sad i didn't get to see much of their orphanage, but these kids seem really well taken care of. they're from the biggest orphanage (600 kids) in the Henan province.

it was really cool b/c many of the kids were alumni! Tim (on the end) and Ethan (in the middle) got their names from their Amer. buddies last year. Brian was our other kid, and Nina & Alice were our translators.

it was totally different having a grp of boys, esp. ones between 12-14 yrs old. (strangely, our camp this wk was about 75% boys!) but yeah, i was unsure of how to "bond" - i had brought make-up and stuff to do during free time and umm...not really useful w/ them!

but it ended up okay, we did a lot of other things, like lots of card games and playing in the game room of our dormitory...

here i am trying to play pool w/ them

Brian and Ethan temporarily lost their clothes after the pool so they had to walk home w/ just their little boxer-brief swimsuits on. it was cute.

what's absolutely amazing is how caring the kids are to one another. it's not typical to see teenage boys be that way, but they really do become a family. it KILLS me at the end of every week when we load them on the bus and say goodbye - just how different their lives are from ours. a week of fun is a week of fun, and i know these boys from this orphanage in Luoyong are fed, provided for, and well-educated, but i wonder...how much affection do they receive? how much individual attention? how much must they yearn to be known??

my favorite night of the wk was when we let the kids perform stuff during evening assembly.

here's Brian and a friend playing Edelweiss on their trumpets. it was really good! and it's sooo neat to feel proud of them!

but even cooler was this grp:

these kids are all from different orphanages, and doing hand motions to a famous national song.
btw, do you recognize the little girl bending forward? it's Bean from last year! it was so neat to see her again and to receive the biggest hug from her when she ran off her bus into camp!

a large majority of the kids this week had special needs. i think most of the volunteers and translators were overwhelmed the first few days - most weren't trained as caretakers for special needs children. but the wk ended up being one of the most beautiful wks i've been a part of. it was SO neat to get to know them, really spend time with them. and then to CELEBRATE them in the assembly - to love them and applaud them. it was a glimpse of heaven where the weak will be lifted up and exalted!

here are some of the ones that stole my heart this week:

Stone was one of the most smiley boys ever. But he was more than that, he was incredibly giving - his translator said that when he (the translator) fell asleep during naptime, Stone put his own blanket on him. I saw him all wk doing similar things... even with so little, he was always thinking of others.
He's with a wonderful sister who does work for orphans all year round and has been w/ the camp since the beginning.
this silent little boy (i never did hear him speak the entire week) had the most dead-pan expression for the first 3 days. totally stoic, even when i tried my hardest to make him smile. but somehow, Wed evening i broke thru. i was one of the lucky few who did, but after that, every time he saw me, he gave me the sweetest smile. i'd never worked so hard to earn something so precious! I LOVED seeing him gain more and more confidence of "safety" during the wk. that is the priceless gift we offer them, though only for a very short week - the safety of love. i wish so badly that these kids would get adopted...they need more than a week of this love.

and these two ladies were the cutest things ever! Marie (on the right) has something wrong with her limbs - she's 12 yrs old but no taller than 2.5 feet. but wow, they were so alive with excitement. i don't ever want to forget their voices calling out "sister sister" to me . =)

and here's a random shot of my family at night. i liked the intimacy of simple things - like grabbing my boys' hands and walking w/ them.

The hardest one for me to reach was Tim...he kept walking ahead of us, not wanting to participate in the activities. I wasn't sure why he was so distant, but I kept pestering him w/ affection anyways... I was sad, I felt like I didn't get thru, but his letter proved to be the very reason why I keep coming.

He wrote (translated by Nina):
"During these days, sometimes i feel happy, and sometimes i feel sad. When I was sad, you can make me happy and let me show my smiling. Although there is only four days we get together, I understand that it is different when you have friends and family. I have no parents, but I feel warm when you are here. Now i want to cry at this time; however your encourages make me feel warm, so I'll smile when you leave me. So won't you, right?"

no, i cried a bundle as they were leaving. i always do, but i can also keep lifting them up to the F@ther who can love them a LOT more than i can.

now i'm exhausted...and yet so full at the same time.