So let me tell you about Starfish Foster Home. It was founded about 7 years ago by Amanda de Lange, a BYU alumni. Chinese adoption policy requires that major surgeries be completed before kids can be adopted, so Starfish takes children from the mainstream Chinese orphanages who are in need of medical attention. They raise money for the surgeries, accompany kids to the hospital, and care for them post-op until they can be placed with a family. Currently, Starfish has 35 children ranging in age from about 5 months to 4 years. The past few months at Starfish have been a bit unusual at the leadership level because Amanda has returned to the States for treatment on her cancer (originally in her uterus, now spread to her lungs and bladder). Naomi is the interim director now, but Starfish is not taking in any new children until things have become more stabilized. Gill—one of my favorite people here so far—is the volunteer nurse at Starfish. She has been so welcoming and wonderful company for Anna and me.
The Starfish Facility is located about 16 km outside of Xi’an in a village called XiaoLiuZhai. Starfish was formerly an unused building in a gated area called ChangLeGong—a community for the elderly. It’s really an ideal situation for the kids, which allows us to take them out for walks without worrying for their safety on busy roads, etc. Plus, the YeYes and NaiNais (They call all the old people Grandpa and Grandma) love seeing the kids and will wave and smile.
Starfish has two large courtyards, several bedrooms and bathrooms, a communal kitchen, laundry room, volunteer dorms, an office, and a huge room for storage. The orphanage is very well funded and the children want for no material comforts. Also, it is well staffed: about 15 nannies, several night nannies, a (wonderful!) cook, maintenance man, plus administrative staff. Anna, myself, and Kaitlin (from Taiwan) are currently the only live-in volunteers; however, volunteers are plentiful here. Depending on the day, there can be as many as 20 people coming into help with the babies, the cleaning, building projects, etc. Volunteers come from all over the world, but many of them are locals—students, couples, and more. We do our best to keep Starfish clean, but—as with everything else in Xi’an—a layer of dust is continually present! :)
Today, a volunteer medical team from the Netherlands came again to visit. About two weeks ago they funded and performed 10 successful cleft palate surgeries for the Starfish babies, and today the came with an incredible donation: a playground for the children! Hearsay is it cost upwards of $4000. What an incredible service! This afternoon, the team brought workers to lay the rubber mats and install the playground in the back courtyard. I can’t wait to see how the children love it. I asked Elise, one of the team, how their foundation Care4Tina started and she said, “I was just like you—volunteering at Starfish—and the first baby I held was named Tina. I fell in love with her and ended up funding her surgery and forming the foundation. So, be careful!! This will change your life!” Already, I feel she is right.
This afternoon, Anna, Kaitlin and I took the bus into town to get some groceries at WaErMa (Can you guess?? Yup, it’s WalMart!) and a bite of American food. {Thank you, good old KFC} Unfortunately, after waiting for nearly an hour to catch the bus on the way home, it pulled up and didn’t have room for us! Just picture it: a bus with seats for 13 holding probably 55 people! They barely squeezed the door shut around some poor old man’s back as 5 or 6 of us were still left behind. Consequently, we grabbed a taxi, and the driver gave us a discount because he got completely lost on the way back. All our taxi drivers get lost—we really live in the middle of nowhere. In addition to giving us a discount, the driver asked Anna for her phone number, promising to give it to his very handsome son, and admitted he could divorce his wife to move and marry an American woman. Hm… Anna said she didn’t have a Chinese phone number, and Kaitlin said Anna had a boyfriend. :)
I’m riding in a taxi while an old man flirts with my sister because she’s a white girl? Yes, I’m in China. :)
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