Wo Ai Ni

Today was the last day of our first week of camp. Tomorrow at 7:45 a.m. the children will be off to the train station and the reality will set in that I will most likely never see them again. Tonight each family group got up during assembly and the volunteers got to read the letters that they had written to their orphan buddies. Some stood tall and serene, but most shoulders sagged under the weight of broken hearts as tears poured down their faces. I cried as I watched Cathy and Jane stand up with Fanfan, and I realized I was jealous. They had hardly seen her during the past three days… she was mine. I felt like I was the one who should be up there. But then Cathy tearfully began to read the letter that she had written. After she was finished, Jane attempted to translate what Cathy had said, but was overtaken with emotion and had to ask another translator to take over. By that point I was humbly repenting in my heart for being so ridiculous. We all loved Fanfan, and even though we each had different experiences and possibly even different kinds of love for her, we all wanted her to be happy. Fanfan started to cry as Sharon (the translator who took over for Jane) finished reading the translation. She hugged Cathy, who she had been rather cruel to during the past three days, and lovingly patted her hand. She understood that Cathy loves her, and that we all love her. After awards, letter reading, and limbo we had a cake fight! I have never had a cake fight before and it was loads of fun! Once all the kids went upstairs to shower, we staff had the fun task of cleaning up the cake, silly string, and confetti in the assembly hall. It took us about an hour to clean up the floor… the boys even started to joke that they were model Proverbs 31 women as they scrubbed the floor on their hands and knees. We had a fun time building memories as we danced to music with our brooms and mops as well as made up funny nicknames for each other.

As Michelle was tucking Fanfan into bed I stopped in their room. “Wo ai ni, Fanfan.” I said to her as I kissed her good night. “I love you, little sister.” “Wo ai ni, jie jie,” she answered. I stood their shocked. She had said she loved me. Up until that point, every time I told her I loved her she would shake her head no or roll her eyes. Tears welled up in my eyes and I left the room, my heart full of joy. God has so blessed me this week, and I am so thankful that He has given me this time with Fanfan and all the other kids. I know it will be a very sad time when we send them back to the orphanage tomorrow morning, but I prayerfully look forward to seeing them again… maybe not on this earth, but I am confident that we will sing praises to Jesus together in Heaven one day.