The Star of BCH3

His name is Wang KangPing, and he's probably around 2, almost 3, though I never asked the ladies there specifically how old he was. The first day, when we were being taken around by Brent to tour the China Care facilities, we came into BCH2, and Kang Ping was the first to greet us. He immediately walked over, not having seen any of us before, with his arms held up. The only thing I could think of to do was stoop down and pick him up. When I stood back up again, with him sitting in the crook of my arm, he proceeded to play with the light switches, laughing and pointing as he pushed them on and off.

This little boy was the reason I went back to BCH2 for our first volunteering session that morning. I was hoping to get a chance to play with him again, but unfortunately he was outside with another A-Yi at the time. But I did get more time later in the week and throughout our stay in Beijing. Kang Ping was actually from BaoJi, which is why his last name was designated as Wang (all the kids from the same childrens home all have the same last name). He was very active - he walked easily and quickly - and always animated. When other kids fought with him for toys, he would fight back, but when they wanted to play together with him, he would play.

He was really smart too. All the ladies there encouraged me to teach him English words, because he would learn them quickly. One morning, he was eating an apple, and I taught him to say apple in English; the next afternoon, when Erica went to volunteer in BCH2, he impressed her with this new word. It made me extremely happy to hear that he had remembered what I taught him.

It wasn't until the second week that I learned exactly what his disability was. He had a heart condition that caused cyanosis - a blue tinge in his outerextremities like his hands and feet and lips. KangPing was small and skinny, and his body always felt a little cold, and now I realized why. But you would never be able to tell that he was a sick child just by his personality - you would have guessed that he was the happiest and healthiest little boy there.

The saddest part of the story was the day we found out that Kang Ping was actually scheduled to leave BCH. It was the second Wednesday of our time there, and one of the ladies in BCH2 told me that he was getting ready to leave that day. They kept saying to him in Chinese, "are you ready to go see your grandfather?" The news was that his grandfather was coming to get him. I was actually volunteering when they came to get him. Brent was taking us out to lunch that day, and while we were waiting for everybody to arrive, we saw his grandfather come walk into Building 15 where the office was located.

The story, we later learned at lunch, was that Kang Ping's grandparents had abandoned him at BaoJi earlier in the year. They brought Kang Ping to Beijing and were hoping to give him surgery for his heart condition. However, before that surgery could take place, his grandfather contacted China Care and asked to have Kang Ping back. So China Care flew him into Beijing to pick up his grandson. The next step was to inform the grandfather that China Care would also pay for Kang Ping's operation - it would be completely free of charge for his grandparents, and it was something that his grandparents, in their entire lifetime, would probably never be able to afford. All he would have to do was consent. Though I was sad to see Kang Ping go, I was glad that he was being reunited with his family, and hopeful that he would be able to live a healthy rest of his life.

Two days later, while I was volunteering in BCH1, I heard the ladies talking about Kang Ping and discovered that the grandfather had not consented to the surgery. I was completely suprised. It would significantly help Kang Ping's health, and China Care was willing to pay for the whole procedure. The ladies said that it was mostly likely out of fear that Kang Ping's grandfather said no. They guessed that he was probably afraid that China Care wouldn't actually give the boy back to him. It was a choice that I didn't expect him to make, knowing the things that China Care worked and stood for.

Wang Kang Ping was definitely one of the little ones who made my time in Beijing Children's Home worthwhile, though I only got to spend a little bit of time with him. His story is sad, like those of many of the children there, and it made me realize the tragedy that really goes on in these orphanages. But it also makes the volunteer work we do that much more valuable.