On our second full day in Xi'an, we all woke up feeling well rested. We had a wonderful buffet breakfast that consisted of American cuisine and Chinese cuisine. I loved having omlettes with cheese and fresh veggies, croissants, and yogurt with walnuts and cereal. It was such a wonderful way to start off our morning. After breakfast our driver/ tour guide picked us up and our first destination was to a place called the Starfish Foster home. This place holds a very special place in my heart, because the first time I came to China, I went through a lot of effort and had to jump through many different hoops and obstacles in order to get there. However, my first visit to this special home turned out to be the most rewarding and life changing visit. I have always had an interest in helping children in the world who are orphaned, however before my first visit to Starfish I never had the opportunity to see what it was actually like for children living in a foster home/orphanage versus living with a family. My first visit to the home truly reaffirmed my passion to help orphaned children left behind. I even ended up writing my college essay on this particular visit, and it got me into the college of my choice! So, yes to make a long story short, I really wanted to show my family this special place, and how much it meant to me. What I was amazed to see is how much it has grown in the number of children since I was last there. I think when I first visited there were about 20 children maximum. Now there are over 40 something to possibly even 50 something children all between the ages of 0 and 4. I was also amazed to see how many little little babies there are now. When I last came the babies were all a little bigger in size, but now the home has some very small babies who were actually moved from a large institution to the Starfish home. The thing that is amazing about this home, is that all of the babies are so well cared for and really are beginning to thrive. However, if they were place in a state institution, they most likely wouldn't be alive. I'm always blown away at all of the beautiful children that are just waiting in these orphanages, while there are so many parents in the US and other countries also waiting for them. However, there seems to be no solution to make this process go any faster. I just think that its sad that even though they are given excellent care at this home, that during the prime time of their life they can't be attaching with a mom and dad.
My family all loved playing with the babies and getting to hold and snuggle with them. They really are just amazing children who will impact so many people's lives in the future. It definitely is somewhat of an overwhelming place with all of the babies and caretakers in small quarters, so that can make it difficult. I think the hardest thing for me is whenever I leave this special place, I don't want to leave without bringing a baby with me. I know I'm definitely too young right now to start a family, but it is definitely one of those difficult things for me because I love the children so much, and I wish I could help at least one of them. I think the other thing that is sad for me, is that I know and have seen how long it takes for families to internationally adopt a child from China; I don't know if I would have the patience to wait so long and go through all of the hardships.. hopefully one day I will! I was so glad that my family got to see this amazing place we went to visit. I think everyone enjoyed it, even my brother had fun holding all of the babies!
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