Fame and Finances

Wa-sai!

Today was unique. After two years in Taiwan and now two weeks in ShaanXi, I've grown quite used to the constant stares and odd looks that come with being a foreigner. I was not accustomed to the welcome we received today while taking three of the children -- Angel, Ben, and Jade -- to the hospital to get echocardiograms. Ashley, Jane (our fearless local volunteer, who is Chinese), and I got out of the Taxi and were promptly met by a swarm of onlookers, curious to see the set of "triplets" brought by the foreigners. You can imagine their confusion when they saw that the children were Chinese, and were not the same size or age. A brief explanation in their mother tongue didn't help to dispel the crowd, and I felt bad for Jane, who seemed a little embarrassed by the extra attention. The crowds weren't so bad once inside, but there were still plenty of looks and the occasional side comment, "Oh, that one looks like her mom." I would just smile at my "wife" and continue to hold Angel. :-) (seen in the picture)

It was confirmed that both Angel and Jade have heart conditions, and will need surgery, but it's not a huge worry in the present. Ben, seen at left, was a huge fuss, rejected the oral sedative, and cried like a baby, so he's going back tomorrow after we deprive him of his morning sleep. Then he'll hopefully sleep in peace on the ultrasound bed.

You would think tending babies wouldn't be that eventful, but a lot of exciting things are happening around here. There is a continual flow of new and old volunteers that come to help tend the 12 babies, and people from all walks of life and every corner of the world visit the orphanage. It's not quite up to BYU-diversity standards, but while I've been here in CENTRAL CHINA, I've met people from Canada, Italy, South Africa, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Australia, the US, and the list continues to grow! In the last week I've been on TV once and been interviewed along with Amanda for 3 newspaper articles. People have been generous in offering time and donations, both large and small, to contribute to the cause. It all regards, it has been a phenomenal education for me.

The Three Amigos...Michael, Gabriel, and Sarah

This week I've been focusing on helping to prepare the documents for tax-exempt status in the US. Becoming a 501(c)(3) organization, as they call it, will allow Amanda to get larger and a more steady flow of contributions. We're also starting to work on setting up a simple financial system that Amanda can maintain by herself when I leave. My brother the accountant is helping us to set up an account with a remote server so that the accounts in the US and here can be edited, reconciled, and audited with ease. I've recently wondered about all the weird things I do...I'm a music major, preparing for medical school, setting up financial systems for an orphanage in central China, and anticipating working as a waiter in a Cantina when I go home. I should top it off by going to beauty school! (Is that what they call it for guys?) A little more diversity can't hurt, right?

On Friday Amanda is taking Laura the Stout (right) and Jonas the Drooler (left) to Nanjing, and their cleft palates will get fixed! It's a big week for the orphanage! That means the only older child that still needs help is Susan, who needs heart surgery.

I'll be visiting the big-town next week, Beijing. Two of the BYU girls here and I will take the 9 hour train ride and spend a few days visiting some well-established orphanages run by foreigners. There's quite a few in the East, but I think Amanda is one of the few this far inland. We'll be able to make some good contacts, get a lot of good ideas to help Amanda, and have a break from tending kids! I tell you what, I've gained a lot of appreciation for mothers since being here (especially the ones that give birth to 7 kids all at once). Just caring for one is a HUGE life-changing commitment, and I respect my mom a lot more after realizing she's done it for 5 of us. The world would be rather dismal without caring mothers!

One sickness gone, another come

Well the last few days have been filled with excitement of all sorts. There never seems to be a dull moment...

So Sara was giving us quite a worry because she had gained no weight after a week of being here, and was throwing up everything we fed her. We tried every possible combination of food, and finally discovered that the antibiotics were upsetting her stomach. She started improving at the same time Susan started showing signs of pneumonia. Susan is a miracle baby. By all accounts she should have passed away long ago, due to the holes in her ventricle and lung problems. She's had one surgery already and is in need of two more (or just one, if she can get it in the US). Right now it's a waiting game to see how soon she'll be adopted, then the surgery place and time can be decided. Her normally blue lips and constant sweating combined with the terrible wheezing made Amanda worried enough that she took Susan to the hospital for 5 days. She improved drastically and returned home last night. She gained .5 kg in the last week, which is what she usually gains in a month! Needless to say, it's nice to know that there are no longer life-threatening sicknesses burdening the babies in the orphanage.

So now that those things are checked off on the list of worries, we can finally start to get cardiograms and xrays on three of the new six babies that supposedly have heart problems. The other three have cleft palattes, and will have to wait until they're 1 year old to get the necessary surgery. Hopefully by that time, they'll be adopted! Just a few minutes ago, Amanda met with the director of the provincial orphanage and a governemnt welfare director...the "big bosses" that Amanda answers to. They have great respect for the work Amanda is doing, and got a better understanding for all that is being done in America to help her. Unfortunately it is still unclear how long the six babies that have now been here eight months will stay here. The orphans' paperwork moves at a slow grind in the government offices, and the rarity of working with a foreign foster parent in China hasn't sped up the process that everyone is still learning.

Anyhow, I'm doing great!It's getting hotter and I'm beginning to wonder why I chose to leave Alaska during the hottest part of the summer. My home has AC though, so things will work out. The other day we went to a backstreet night market that rarely sees any foreigners. We could tell because when we stopped to buy food, there were about 50 or 60 people stacked five and six rows back, watching with wide eyes and listening to the "outside nation people" try to speak their language. It was pretty neat to get so much attention! On Saturday we went to the mountains with a local person and picked cherries. I guess the place we went to rarely gets white folk, because when we were picking cherries, we were interrupted by a pair of reporters. They took our picture, but not before I took their picture! I bet they'd be surprised to know they are now on a blogsite available to millions of people throughout the world.

Amanda has a TV reporter coming to talk with her tomorrow. It's a common thing to have them come and talk to her. Many of the Taxi drivers and other people I've talked with have heard of her on television. Wouldn't that be cool if I could get my face on ShaanXi television, broadcast to 40 million people? This is my chance for fame...

Peace out.

Welcome to Starfish orphanage!

(Disclaimer: In China I can edit the blogsite but not view the finished product...sorry if it looks funky)

This is Jade. People tend to think she is the most pretty of all 12 babies. She has longer eyelashes than most adults. When we first arrived 4 days ago (which was 4 days after she arrived in the orphanage), she just stared at the ceiling, mostly unaware of her surroundings. Because of understaffing and lacking funds in the government orphanages, thesicker babies are often malnourished, and their cries go unanswered, so it takes time for them to adjust to proper care. Jade smiles more every day, is increasingly aware of what's happening, and has started to cry! She has a heart condition, and we'll get a cardiogram on her sometime soon.

After everyone adjusts and learns the feeding and caretaking schedule, we'll start organizing all the things that have to be done. Medical examinations need to be done on all the babies that have heart conditions, since the government orphanage knew nothing more than the fact that they had heart conditions. We'll bring babies to hospitals near and far, help the orphanage become an established charity China, coordinate with medical missions from the US to here, lay groundwork for future volunteers and interns, etc. Until we get official nonprofit status in the US (which is an ongoing project), the funds are mostly from private donators.

Weak Sara- This was right after she threw up in three large swells, ALL over my strikingly hot hot-pink shirt and jeans. Her weight has hovered at about the same place for a week, due to the fact that she continues to throw up all the milk we feed her. She has a terrible hacking cough that makes a sound that even adults shouldn't make. We're worried about her, but many Chinese hospitals are not close to having US health standards, so we just keep trying different combinations of apple juice, diluted formula, and antibiotics. It requires tons of time to drop-feed her and just hold her when she cries relentlessly.

Xian has around 8 million in the immediate city area (I've been told). Traffic lights have little meaning, especially to the ancient men who ride old rusted oversized tricycles, loaded 10 feet high with scraps. I don't know what they do with the stuff, but they're all over the place. If it weren't for the pavement, modern buildings, street lights, and occasional Audi, you would think we were walking through the China of 100 years in the past. Our apartments are in the ritzy part of town…around $300/month, and the whole complex, which covers an entire city block, is patrolled by dozens of security guards that occasionally march in rank and file. The streets really aren't that dangerous, but they do a good job of making us look protected.

Who What When Where Why?

If you forgot what I look like, here's a stunning reminder...

For the next two months I'll be living at an apartment in the same apartment complex as Amanda's orphanage. The BYU group and I will be helping with adoption paperwork, coordinatting medical procedures, cooperating with government orphanages, fundraising, tending and caring for children, and a participating in a host of other unknown adventures!

Amanda de Lange is the foster mother of Starfish Foster Home. Through contacts in Shanghai, she emailed BYU's Kennedy Center looking for summer interns to help, and she found me! Through a bit of talking and contact-making, I found a group headed up by Professor Steve Hawks that had plans to go to China and do Health-related research, but lacked a "home-base" to do things from. So, putting two and two together, I hooked everyone up. So now there are 4 students, a professor, and two of his family members traveling to Xian.

Amanda takes care of "special needs infants," i.e. those infants most likely to die in the government orphanages, due to malnutrition, medical conditions, and lack of appropriate funding.

Through a rare bureauratic miracle, Amanda (who is actually from South Africa) overstepped what is usually mountains of paperwork, and was given permission to care for the babies. She received her first 6 babies in the fall of 2005, and received 6 more April 29, 2006.

The second batch came days before the BYU group (that's me) will arrive around May 3rd. I plan to be there until July 7, and the rest of the group will be there until the 28th or so.

Being unable to renew her Taiwan Visa after being there 7 years, Amanda moved to Xian, Shanxi Province, China to work. There she got involved with friends who were friends of the orphanages, and when the opportunity came to help, she couldn't pass it by. Xian is in interior China, home of the Terracotta Soldiers and about 3 million folks. We will be cooperating with government officials and overseas agencies to place these children in safe and loving homes, and helping to lay the groundwork for an organization that can help many babies in the future.

In the beginning, Amanda used her own personal savings to fund expenses. Since, she has received donations from various foundations and people around the world, but is still working to find any that can contribute to the effort. Before the children can be adopted, their immediate medical problems must be taken care of, which can only happen as the money comes in. Among other problems, the children have serious cleft-palettes, heart conditions, spina bifida, jaundice, and are malnourished.

There have been many miracles already, and I'm sure there will yet be many more. I think the man upstairs has a special place in his heart for these children. Stay in touch to learn more...