Kelly the Overthinker, Author at My Overthinking

Strike a pose

1.11.17

Candid shots are so overrated. Striking a pose is wayyyyyyy better.

#ohhappyday Day :)

1.9.17

{the emoji in the post title seemed imperative.}

Sharing a few of the shots we have seen of our friends back home standing with us. keep ’em coming.

a very warm and happy welcowe

1.9.17

Walking into a room and seeing this sign would make anyone’s heart melt.

I’m up early. I shouldn’t be. But, that’s what jet lag does–it makes you feel like you are so exhausted you will fall asleep in seconds (which you do) only to wake before the sun and the old ladies who dance in the park do. I know it’s not going to help me to be awake so early. It’ll be more hours than I care to acknowledge before I can be back in this hard bed. But, it does give me time to think, time that I don’t seem to get during the day.

I’ve been pouring through pictures from our day yesterday. I felt like a took so many and yet I’m wishing I had taken more. They aren’t the post photos. There’s not enough space or the coloring is too dark or something is not in focus. Yet, there’s something I see in all of them, something warm.

We had no idea what the day would be like. But, we woke up to a warm morning and went. Everywhere we went, there was warmth. In the laughter when I tickled the neck of a 6-month-old baby under all sorts of puffy blankets. In the pleasure of the ayi practicing her English with Ashlyn and encouraging her to practice her Chinese. In the Director of Adoption and Foster Care’s eyes when she told me she’s bringing her own daughter tomorrow to be with us. In the laughter and friendship between our group and their’s when they offered us chicken feet soup and took food off their own plates and put it on Ashlyn’s to make sure she had enough. In the initiative of a team member to support a child who couldn’t stand so she could still play the game the others played. In the rush of an ayi to tend to a baby crying and hearing his crying cease as soon as she scooped him up. In the WeChat exchange late last night with the Director of the children’s department, before I collapsed in bed.

(note: I don’t think when she said something that translated to “sleep early” she meant that I should be awake at 4am.)

Every bit of the day felt warm. And, I bet today will be even warmer.

#ohhappyday.

#Chinalove

1.9.17

We said we were expecting the unexpected. We said we were ready for surprises. We had no idea that the element of surprise would start before we ever left the country. Six of us met up at the Philadelphia airport and boarded a plane to Chicago to meet up with the rest of us and then fly to Shanghai and onto Guangzhou. As we were preparing for take off in Philly, the de-icing truck clipped the right wing of the plan rendering the plane unable to fly at all. We all got off the plane, thankfully were first in line at the ticket counter to rebook and still spent 45 minutes working out alternative plans that would still get us where we needed to be. The result was a plan that meant sending our team on three (yes, three) different flights to China–5 on a flight from Chicago to Shanghai and then to Guangzhou, 3 on a flight from Philly to Washington to Beijing and then to Guangzhou, and 3 on a flight from Philly to Chicago to Tokyo (yes, that’s right) and then to Guangzhou. Everyone dashed to get to their respective flight like a seen from Amazing Race (which we lost, mind you, after we missed our connecting flight in Beijing). It was nothing short of a miracle that all 11 plus the 3 team members who live in China and took a train here arrived here on Saturday night WITH all but one piece of luggage (which just so happened to be poor Ashlyn’s).

It was a crazy, crazy travel day which took about 36 doors door to door.

But, isn’t it just like China to put me on this emotional roller coaster with plenty of loops and upward climbs of anticipation?

After a whole 4 hours of sleep, we were all reunited over a noodley and fried eggy breakfast after which we were greeted by our friend who works at the orphanage here. She offered us bottled waters and fresh hot potatoes then we boarded a bus for a day of shopping, a posh outdoor lunch, and a walk all afternoon and well into the evening that made me nearly forget that crazy travel day that had ended only hours earlier (and the associated jet lag).