Day 3 in Changsha

This morning we went back to Changsha #1 to revisit some children we wanted to get more information on and let them get more comfortable with us. We were able to visit a Half the Sky classroom that had 4 kids from our program in it. Let me just say that it was awesome to see the kids in action! They were all so comfortable in their class, that they readily interacted with us and let us take photos. However, they don't want us to post the photos on our website, so those will, unfortunately, have to be saved for the kids' files.

One part of that, which was really neat for me was I was playing with a really cute and sweet child who was very personable with me. After I had played with her for a while, I asked her name and it turns out not only is she a child on our list, but she's one that I have tried to place with several of our families before. We haven't found the right family yet, but now I can allay many of their fears about her special need. It was not at all clear to me that she even had a special need.

She shared half of her cracker with me at snack time, grabbed my big nose and seemed to understand that I couldn't speak much Chinese, so she found other ways to communicate with me. It was really neat because I could just see how she would do with the adjustment to a family through those interactions.

Another child in our program kept giving me tiny pieces of his cracker:-) I really wish I could share photos, because the class was decorated, wall to wall, with the kids' art projects and creations. It was a bright, cheerful classroom and the teachers handled all the kids very well. The children we were a bit worried about really seemed to blossom in there.


We also took some time individually with some of the kids' that we got rushed through the other day, so I got photos to document each of their special needs. One girl, who cried the entire time on our first day, today came in calm and responsive and even smiled several times for me. I might share that smile with you.

FYI, tomorrow we have a day off so they can prepare for Children's day, so there is unlikely to be any updates tomorrow, but June 1st should bring wonderful photos of the Children's Day performance.