Hello!

Hello Everyone.

Welcome to the blog of my team's trip to China! I am excited to briefly introduce you to my team and why we are going to China. (We will have a more full introduction to the team complete with photos at the end of the week, so check back for that!) I am part of a group of ten women from the U.S. ranging in age from late teen to mid seventies. We are from all walks of life, but one thing brings us together, our passion for children. On the team we have school nurses, dorm aunties, nannies, physical therapists, etc. Many of us have previous experience working in orphanages overseas. 

Which brings me to the purpose of our trip. My team is going to an orphanage in Southern China for a week on behalf of an adoption agency called America World Adoption Agency. The adoption agency is sending us to an orphanage they have just started partnering with to write stories about the kids. The Chinese officials do a great job of providing all the basics of height and weight, that is not our focus. What we are tasked with doing, is writing stories about who these kids are. Do they love to cuddle? Are they shy and timid or bold and outgoing? Do they like school or would they rather be running around outside? Who are these kids on the inside as well as the outside. The trip we are going on is called a Storyteller Mission. You can look at is as writing a small biography of the child. Then once we have all the stories and photos compiled, America World will take those stories and paired with the children's files start to share them. We will also be sharing some stories some on here. The hope is that at some point the story will reach a man who will read it and realize he just met his son. A girl will read it and see her sister. A woman will find her grandchild. Someone, somewhere will connect and not want that connection to end when they close the webpage, and in this way an orphan will find a family and a home.

Before we get to orphans finding homes though, we have to get to China. We are all leaving super early Thursday morning, with a couple leaving late Wednesday. Most of the team is based out of New Hampshire, but we have some Southern Belles we will join up with at the airport in NJ Thursday afternoon. Then we have a looooooong flight to Beijing where we will get to meet our guide. We will spend the weekend getting to know each other, acclimating to the culture and the new time zone, updating the blog, and preparing for the week. We will start our full days in the orphanage next Monday the 7th.

Goodbye for now.

~Tatiana