We left Nanyang and drove up to Zhumadian, where the second orphanage was located. I liked Zhumadian right away. It was a very clean, modern city with a lot of growth happening. The orphanage was a cute pink color and reminded me of a castle. Our translator for the past couple of days, Shu Ping, was the director here and she was so proud to show us around the place. Again, we played with children, took photo/video, gave out suckers and toys and enjoyed our time with the cute kids and their nannies. I was impressed with the care and treatment the children were receiving. They had physical therapists and teachers, impressively decorated classrooms, and an amazing playground outside. Again, the only thing lacking was each child having a family.
After leaving Zhumadian, we went on a train to meet up the rest of our group in Zhengzhou. We shared experiences we'd had. We laughed and cried together. Our lives and hearts were changed for the better. We compiled our photos/videos and gave them to Sandy. We went back to Beijing to get ready for our flights home. And just like that, our trip was over.
Beau and I held it together pretty well while over there, but when we came home, I'd find myself looking at the pictures and crying. I missed those sweet faces. My heart hurt knowing that I'd had to leave them all there. I remember after we had been in China for a few days, we were commenting on how different things were. The people, the smells, the traditions, the mindset, the culture, the laws, etc. But yet, it all felt so familiar. We felt at HOME. We talked about how we couldn't wait to come back. I remember wondering how long it would be before we were back in China. We both felt that it would be sooner than even we realized. We didn't know what that meant, but somehow we were right.