Our visit to the Jackson Family Christian Care Center

Wednesday, July 28, 2010


I met my parents for the breakfast buffet in the hotel. I ate a boiled egg, lots of steamed vegetables, steamed buns filled with red bean paste and hot tea. It was very good.

Mr. Chen and his wife and daughter, Shi Shi, arrived around 9:15. They were also accompanied with John Li, one of our workers in China, as well as a translator. We walked across the street to a store and the translator asked an employee there which floor the books and toys were located on. We went upstairs a level and found the books and proceeded to select dictionaries, books for older children with information like history and animals and some books for the younger children. Shi Shi, the Chen’s daughter, helped select quite a few of them. It appears she enjoys shopping!

We walked over a few aisles and looked at sports equipment. Mr. Chen indicated they had plenty. We only selected three hula hoops in that section. We had found a book on the art of origami (folding papers to make shapes) so we asked another employee where to find the colored paper to use and we selected two large packages. Mrs. Chen and our translator also selected ink and calligraphy brushes which the children can use to practice their Chinese writing skills.

Shi Shi pushed our shopping cart up to the register and we started to pay for everything. After paying, I still had LOTS of money left! So I told them we had to do more shopping! We took everything out to the van and it was decided we would go to another bookstore. There was some discussion about purchasing another television for the care center but Chinese children tend to get addicted to tv and the internet so we decided books would be a better purchase for their education.

At the next stop, I walked in with the Chens, John Li and the translator. It was a very large bookstore with a much bigger selection. We selected books which had transfer pages to learn Chinese writing, books on art and music, etc. We also selected about five more dictionaries for the children. We paid for our purchases and I told them I still had money left over! In the van, Shi Shi winked at my mom and I over the seat. She was in the seat in front of us sitting with my dad and turned around to look at us. In the first store, she had pointed out a package of gum to me. I knew I had a package with me so I got it out in the van and her eyes lit up. I handed her a piece and she really seemed to enjoy it.

Mr. Chen said the boys had recently received new shoes from some volunteers but the girls could use new shoes. We drove to another area and walked through several different markets. Mr. Chen started negotiating prices at one booth with a lady. They were bargaining back and forth but it didn’t appear she was going to back down much off her price. We walked on to more booths with shoes but discovered all of them were much more expensive. We came back to our first booth and Mr. Chen bargained some more. Our translator helped some in the bargaining process. The lady climbed up a ladder to get more shoes in different sizes down out of an attic area. A man in the booth pulled boxes off of shelves with more sizes. We ended up with two large boxes of shoes for the girls. Guess what? I still had money left over!!! I calculated the average cost of these dressy shoes - only about $5.00 a pair!

I told little Shi Shi, “We must do more shopping!” As we left there with the shoes, we walked by a beautiful fruit stand. Mr. Chen and John selected green grapes, two watermelons, and a bag full of longyans. Longyans are round brown fruits which you peel. Inside they are white and there is a seed in the middle you remove as you eat them.
I still had more money left over because the fruit stand owner was not reasonable on her apple prices. We went to another fruit stand and they bought apples at a much better price and we finally used up all of the money!

We were hot and sweaty by this time and found out later that the day’s temperatures rose to 98 degrees. We piled into the van with all of our goods and drove to the care center around 12:15. There are winding roads to the care center and the scenery is pretty along the way. We arrived in time for lunch there. A few children came outside to see us and then they were all called out by the “auntie” with a whistle to line up for lunch. I walked around the side of the building to take a few photos after I took group photos out front with the children lined up to go eat.

Lunch was delicious. The children all went to wash their hands before entering the lunchroom. They were all eating while we toured the kitchen area. I came into the lunchroom and took more photos of the children eating.

We sat down and they brought out bowls of food for us. We ate rice, tomatoes sautéed with eggs, sautéed eggplant, tofu, garlic shoots with pork and corn on the cob. I was only cautious about not getting too much of the pork but I thought all of the food was very good. There was a darling little puppy dog wandering around. He grabbed up any scraps which fell from the table and outside we saw he had his own little bowl of rice!

I met all of the girls here and most of the boys at the care center. Some of the boys are shy or didn’t want their photos taken as easily as the girls did. They are all sweet, kind, polite, helpful, obedient children.
The older children help with the younger ones and they are always smiling and friendly. I fell in love with so many of them.

I went up to one of the boy’s rooms and took a few individual photos of the boys. I had John Li with me to help identify who they were as I took the photo. There is beautiful countryside all around the care center and I took a lot of pictures of the surrounding scenery too.

Upstairs the girls were all in a room sitting on beds together and I began taking photos of them too. They were all cute and seemed to be such good friends with each other. John helped me identify them in my photos too. He will be leaving JFCCC to go to another care center to become a director there. He is a great worker and very dedicated. He is always happy and loves the children. Stephen, our previous worker here, will be coming back to JFCCC. He has recently been in Luxi to search for orphans there for the next care center which will be opening soon - Refuge of Grace Christian Care Center. I brought four packages of “silly bandz” from Woodstock for the children and laid them out on a table for them to each pick one out. The girls went first and the littlest one (#77 Hu Xiao Xia) decided she’d have two! I let the boys pick from dinosaur and animal shapes. They all seemed happy to get a little something. We saved the rest to be distributed to the children who come back from summer break.

The children lined up in the girl’s room to give us their presentation. There were three young girls with handwritten notes to announce the festivities. The entire group performed together and then smaller groups were formed to do different songs and hand motions.
I took eleven videos of their performances. If you are interested in the videos, please email me and I will be happy to send them to you. The youngest little one at the care center walked over to get some attention from my parents. Her older brother and sister also live there and help take care of her.

It was an extremely hot day at the care center. There are fans in the children’s rooms and they were running so that relieved a little of the heat. We met in the office for a little while with Mr. Chen and John Li. I downloaded videos sent from Kevin Johnson and Christina Cruz for their assigned children who were there at the care center during our visit.

Only six children are staying at the care center during the summer holidays. When I told John Li (by email from Georgia) I was disappointed to only be meeting such a small number of children, he and Mr. Chen contacted children who had gone to visit relatives for their summer break and they came back to meet me. They had been practicing for their program for us and I was so happy there were about 30 children there to meet me and for me to see.

We all went upstairs to an activity room since there is more room to present them with gifts from the sponsors as well as an activity we had planned. Peachtree City Church of Christ has a group called, “Little Lambs” and they had each decorated a puzzle piece with stickers, markers and a photo of a child from the church ages 1-8 inside each shape of the puzzle pieces. There were 30 puzzle pieces which would form a heart shape when completed. We gave each of the JFCCC children a puzzle piece since there were 30 children there! The translator and “auntie” called out each number and the child came to the center of the room and put their piece in place each time. When they finished, the auntie got them to circle around the puzzle for a group picture. We think they enjoyed the activity and had fun doing something with us.

Mr. Chen stood at the table with all the purchases we had made that morning and selected four children, two boys and two girls, to come up to receive the gifts. He explained what the purchased items were and these four children thanked us on behalf of everyone. I think they were very pleased with what we had selected and I hope these gifts will be very beneficial to them.

After we met in the office, I wandered around some and took photos of a few boys who were playing in one of the boy’s rooms. I went upstairs and we got the “auntie” to start distributing shoes to the girls in their room. They ran to wash off their feet so they would have clean feet to try on shoes. They were sitting on the edge of the sinks in the bathroom to get their feet clean. The girls enjoyed trying on different shoes to see which ones would fit. The older girls were so kind and patient. They let all the younger ones try them all on first and then when they were finished, some of the older girls tried to see what shoes might fit them. I was so impressed with their actions and polite attitudes.

After distributing everything we had bought and meeting with the director, it was time to leave. By this time it was 5 pm and we were very hot and tired. I did not want to leave these precious children. I told our worker, John Li, if they could install air conditioning in a room for me, I would happily stay forever! A few of the children gathered on the second floor railing and waved down at us. It was a very emotional time for me. I just wanted to run back upstairs and stay!

Thank you so much for your letters, photos, videos and donations for these precious children. I am so thankful to the Jackson Family Foundation for sponsoring this facility and helping out the poor children in China. I love this job and appreciate all the Jackson associates who are a part of this program.