Saying goodbye, and hello

In  the last week or so we have said goodbye to two kids from the redcross orphanage,

Den,  this cheeky little munchkin is heading to Canada.  I met her new parents and her new big brother (a four year old from the north of Vietnam) at the orphanage on Thursday. 

Interestingly Den is usually a very outgoing and active kid. 

In fact when I arrived on Thursday and they told me she was leaving she was laughing and gave me a big hug.  Once the parents arrived she became very withdrawn and quiet.  She wasn't scared of them at all....  But it was obvious that she knows something big is happening,  and they are involved.  Their first child was adopted at 5 months old,  so the acclimatisation will be very different this time around!

This little lovely has also gone this week.  That day was crazy!  The carers were fussing about giving here a bath and dressing here in the new clothes and saying goodbye,  her parents arrived with two kids and all the other kids by this point were starting to rebel and demand attention.....  Then we turned up with half a dozen wet sandy kids we had taken to the beach and needed to wash and dress.  So a lot of chaos that day!

Then,  I walk into the physio room and discover a teeny tiny baby.  I am told he is 4 weeks old. 

He mostly hangs out in the physio room so they can lock the door and not have to constantly stop curious children from waking him,  or poking him in the face. 

Sometimes I just can't tell if some of the new babies who arrive here are small for their age, maybe due to being born early, being sick or not having enough food..... or if Vietnamese babies are just little compared to the Aussie babies I am used to! 

At the da nang baby orphanage I had to say goodbye on Friday.  Very hard! I just love these kids. We had a fun morning of drawing,  playing in the ballpit (they are not scared of it any more!) singing and cuddles. 

 I noticed a couple of babies sleeping on the baby bed but didn't look to see who they were until the carers pointed them out to me.  Turns out they were new babies.  Twins!  And only 10 days old,  so teeny tiny. 

Catching up with the kids - Da Nang baby orphanage

Here is the line up of kids at the Da Nang baby orphanage, and how much they have changed while I have been here! 

This little guy is about 4 or 5 months old now. He is the little baby who was found at the gate in May and looked a little yellow and jaundice-y when he arrived. Luckily the carers thought he looked a little yellow and took him out for plenty of sun - which did fix him up quite nicely! Now he is happy and healthy, rolling over and starting to sit up (with help).

Here are the three babies in January. On the end is Thắng the little boy. 
In the middle is Hạnh. She must have been about one month old in January. When she was found she was a tiny little premmie baby. Apparently the doctors and carers didn't expect her to survive because she was so little, but the carers her nursed her back to health and now she is doing amazingly! 

at the bottom is Duyên. Another girl, maybe 4 months ish here? It is hard to remember ages of the kids.... especially as often the carers are just guessing a bit when they arrive. 





This is Thắng, the boy who was so flopsy back in May, sitting up yesterday.
He is rolling, creeping around on the floor and enjoying sitting up (with some support). He must be around 10ish months old now, he was a tiny little baby when I arrived in January!

He was very much enjoying sitting up, but has a tendancy to push himself backwards and expect someone to catch him so that ha can be lazy and lean into support..... luckily donks on the head don't hurt too much on that soft mat!

Here is Hanh and I enjoying some cuddle times! She might have had a rough start, but now she is rolling and crawling around, sitting up on her own and exploring the room and even standing with her hands held. Taking steps is a little challenging yet, but I think soon she will be racing all over the place! 

And Duyen, She is walking around and is almost one of the "big kids" now! While I was away for two months she developed a deep distrust of strangers (or of strange looking people!) and starts to cry if I get too close now! And we use to have such nice cuddles! I think slowly I am gaining her trust again, but not sure if I will get a cuddle before it's time to leave! I didn't take any photos of her today as even looking at her too long makes her scared!

This photo is from a couple of weeks ago

"The shy girl", Thanh is still sometimes more a watcher than a doer. She often enjoys just sitting with me outside laughing at the kids who were pushing each other around on the toys rather than playing, but is getting right into the ball pit and liking to be pushed around in the balls.

She also has gotten more brave at sticking up for herself.... not more just letting kids take toys off her. She is probably more likely to do the taking these days! But then when someone takes her toy crying until someone comes to fix it is her default reaction!

She is also much less shy with new people. When some friends brought a collection of toys from Australia and visited the orphanage earlier in the year she was quite happy to go over and plonk herself down in a lap to get a share of that attention!

This one is yesterday, the look of amazement when
she discovered that the puzzle makes noises

She is enjoying cause and effect toys and things like puzzles and drawing. So I am trying to take lots of those type of toys and activities to help up her skills a little bit.

Having fun with drawing

I am not 100% sure of this little ladies name (I meet a lot of children every week - give me a break :P)! She is walking around very confidently, playing, kicking balls, and drawing.
These kids just grow up so fast!

Here she is in Jan

This little dude (yes he is a boy, apparently everyone but me think he looks like a girl - I don't see it, what do you guys think?) is new. He arrived while I was in Cambodia, I am not sure of his age, or name (need to confirm these details on Friday!) He likes drawing, and throwing a ball with me. He can also be a bit of a bully, typically he wants whatever toy someone else has - and will just take it!

I was told yesterday that he is getting adopted by an Italian family and should be taken to Italy in about 3 months time, so he might not have to spend too long at the orphanage!

It seems I don't have photos of the other two children - There are 9 all together at the Da Nang Baby orphanage at the moment. Another new girl arrived while I was away, She is 4 or 5 (different people told me different ages!). Apparently she is also going to Italy in three months. If not I am going to look at supporting her to go to Kindy so that she can learn all those pre-school skills and interact with kids her own age.  

The baby orphanage is an interesting place to go, There are less kids here than the red cross orphanage - a maximum of 10 at one time. So the kids seem more well looked after - It is much easier to keep track of 10 kids and get them all through the bath each day! The carers are on top of nappies, so we never do that, and feeding is a breeze with a couple of volunteers there to hep and doesn't take long at all. 

As such if you just sit back and watch everything ticks over quite nicely. Because of this I think it can be harder to feel immediately totally useful compared to the Red cross - where total Chaos always seems to be a hairs breadth away. I think for some of the volunteers they are not able to immediately see what needs doing (play always needs doing if you ask me!) so find it a little boring.

Taking new toys from our stock so they have something different to play with, helping the kids to colour and draw (trying to do more advanced shapes with the older kids), showing them cause and effect toys and puzzles and watching/helping them problem solve how to work them, kicking or throwing a ball with the kids, supervising so they can go outside into the new play area out there and putting them into an out of the ball pit (I need to get a ladder, they always change their minds about being in or out!). Helping the babies get some tummy time, or sit up, or singing songs to them. 

There is so much to do! I love visiting this orphanage, I think a lot because the kids are just so sweet and happy, and keep to play and interact and partly because I can relax my physio brain and just play with the kids!