bracelets…gloves and scarves…perfume and lotions…books…artwork…

I overthink staff gifts every. single. trip.

This trip was no different in that respect.

I gathered cute little tote bags. I gathered bracelets for nannies and handmade sleeve covers for them to wear to protect their clothes when they are working. I gathered chocolate bars and a postcard and a very cool OH HAPPY DAY necklace made by a talented friend on the team. I had all the gifts ready to go and then one week before the trip, it dawned on me.

They are getting ready to celebrate their biggest holiday of the year. We just celebrated our biggest holiday of the year. What if we took a gift to honor the timing of this trip, a gift related to our holiday, a gift that would serve a few purposes perhaps. 

That’s how baby Jesus made it into my suitcase.

Baby Jesus 2 times over.

We gave all the staff gifts I had planned. We gave lots and lots of supplies and toys and therapy tools. Ayis had asked us if they could photocopy some of the games we had used before we left so that they could try to replicate them. They clapped their hands when I told them we were leaving them at the end of the week. We gave them the RMB equivalent to $1000 cash to use wherever it was most needed. But rather than accept the cash donation, the staff requested that we go with them to purchase $1000 of snacks, yogurt, and juice for the children. Apparently, they have an allowance for those things from the state, but they want to be able to give the children more that what the quota is. And, as is the Chinese way, we then had to pose for a picture just to confirm all that I just explained.

Yes, those are directors holding light-saber-looking bubble wands. Yes, that’s me holding some strawberry flavored capsules of yogurt-like substance. Note my daughter’s very large smile as she held in her giggle at the mysterious dried things she was holding.

After that, I took a deep breath and then presented just two more gifts in a very formal, ceremonial way.

You are preparing to celebrate Spring Festival, your most important holiday. WE just celebrated OUR OWN most important holiday. Do you know what it is? Yes, that’s right–Christmas! In honor of the timing of our trip, we wanted to give you something very special. This is a traditional Christmas decoration called a nativity. American families set nativities up in their homes for Christmas to remind them and teach their children about the Christmas story. You already have a Christmas tree which is so fun to see! We brought this nativity as a gift for your orphanage that you can set up under your the tree this year and in the future. We also brought this doll that was made by a friend of mine. It is a baby Jesus doll. In America, at Christmas time, children might hold this doll and rock it like this while they sing. 

And, then we sang. I cradled that Baby Jesus, and the Americans in that lobby started singing. Right there in the middle of the lobby of a Chinese orphanage, we sang Away in a Manger while the staff stood by with big smiles until we sang the last “asleep on the hay” at which point they broke out in applause. Then one-by-one all of us helped set up the nativity under their tree. The tree that had made us giggle a few days earlier now looked like one of the most beautiful Christmas trees I had ever seen in my life.

It’s become a bit of a trademark for our orphanage trips. For months, we research and post on Facebook and email agencies trying to find as many families as we can who have adopted from that orphanage. We contact all the ones we can find and ask them to be a part of our efforts by sending me their child’s Chinese name and current name, where they live as they want shared with the orphanage, a picture of their child from his or her time at the orphanage, a handful of pictures of him or her now, and a few words. I collect it all and sort it all and then spend a few late nights with Shutterfly. A week or two later, a hardcover book arrives that is so much more than a photo album. Each page testifies to why we do what we do and why they do what they do. It’s an ebenezer. It’s a monument.

At the orphanage where we have served for years, they have come to expect the gift and sit on the edge of their seat in anticipation of it at the end of the week. But, at this orphanage, there was sweetly no expectation at all for anything more than what we had already given all weeklong. So, when I presented the gift to the director during our last meal together, she was barely able to speak as she turned each page and then went back and turned each page again and a third time.

She pointed out a picture of a family on the day they received their child. She was in the picture having brought their child to them. She told us that was the first year the children’s section in the social welfare institute had been open and her first year working.

She pointed out a little girl who had some physical challenges and marveled at how she had received what she needed and looked so happy now. That little girl was the first child ever to be in a foster home. The director had fought to start up that program, and she was the first child to be a part of it.

She pointed out a boy who they had sent to a public school but other children complained about him because of his physical differences. In fact, children’s parents called the school and asked that he would no longer be allowed to attend. She told me how she had fought for him as a mother would so that he’d be able to stay there and keep learning until he was adopted.

I thought every page would tell her a story. But, with every page, she told me a story. The book no longer was a monument to changed lives; it was a monument of children who had been fought for, who had people working for their cause when they lived on one side of the world and now on the other side of the world.