When traveling back to China for our second adoption we went to Anagrace's orphanage to deliver some donations which had been given by other families who had adopted from there as well.
During that visit the director gave us the rare opportunity to tour the nursery--a nursery which was closed to the general public and most certainly closed to foreigners. What we witnessed was jaw dropping....over 100 babies laying in cribs head to toe without so much as a whisper being heard in the room. They were all laying there awake while the nannies, about 8 of them, were busy changing diapers and proping bottles. This certainly put the pieces of the puzzle together for us, and all of the delays and issues our daughter had.
Have you ever experienced something and knew during that moment your life would never be the same again? That's what I felt as I walked through the rows and rows of cribs praying over each of the babies, and taking the time to love on each and every one of them.
That night, I could not sleep. Every time I closed my eyes my mind was haunted with visions of all those baby laying in their cribs. Finally I got up out of bed and just started sobbing. That night, on the other side of the world sitting in a hotel room I prayed to God, "Lord, I don't know what to do or how to fix it, but if you will provide the way and show me what to do, I will be Your hands and Your feet to help those babies."
Upon arriving home I gathered a handful of other moms who had adopted babies from this same orphanage and we formed an organization called Zhanjiang Kids Organization (ZKO). In 2007 we became a registered 501(c)3 organization. I continue to serve as ZKO's Director and travel to China several times a year to volunteer my time in the orphanage.
Since its' inception ZKO has implemented an infant nurture program, called Open Arms. We have our own staff whom we trained with American pedicatric nurses. These ladies, or Ayi's as they are called in China (meaning Auntie) spend their days holding, playing and loving on the babies in the orphanage. Since its' inception in 2007, Open Arms has had almost 300 babies benefit from the loving care of their Ayi's "aunties".
In 2008 we began the Caring Kids Program. This program provides the funds necessary for the school age children to attend school outside the orphanage gates at the local public schoool. We also provide their uniforms, bookbags and school supplies, as well as an ayi to help them with their homework in the evenings. To date, over 200 children have benefited from this sponsorship program.
In 2011 we worked along side of a Zhanjiang Family to establish the Shining Stars Preschool. This program is designed to give the attention and education needed for our special needs children, ranging in ages 3-7. This is the first preschool program for special needs children in a Chinese orphange. In the fall of 2012 the Chinese government visited the orphanage, and upon seeing the Shining Stars program, they made the decision to use our program as a model to be used for special needs preschool programs in other orphanages throughout China.
To learn more more about ZKO and the work we are doing to help these children, you can visit our website at, Zhanjiang Kids Organization
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