It just never gets old. These sweet faces. These giggles. Babies that we saw last trip that are now toddling around. Toddlers that are now longer and leaner… and talking like crazy. Their confidence and personalities blooming more and more each trip. Elementary aged kids that amaze us with their silliness and growing math skills.
Seeing kiddos who we know have a family working to bring them home. And we get to deliver care packages! It never gets old to see that look in their eyes when they see photos of their families, their houses, their dogs, their cats. It is a true honor to get to be the ones who bridge the distance from the US to China with so much love.
And then there are the new ones, the ones we have not yet met. These little people—some of them babies, others toddlers or even school-aged. Before we came, we knew them as a name, an age and a diagnosis. Or maybe, for a few, we even knew them as a profile. We knew the paper version of them. But it never gets old to meet them, to hug them, to play with them, to really start to get to know them. It never gets old to hear them cry, laugh, and hiccup. It never gets old to listen to their little hearts or see how much they weigh. It never gets old to ask what their favorite color is, who their best friend is, or what comforts them when they are upset. Knowing these kids will never get old.
But it does get sad, sometimes. It gets sad when you do start to know them, when you start to really love them. It gets sad when you find that one in a million, truly special thing that makes that child perfectly unique.
And then you have to watch them get six months closer to turning 14-years-old with every passing Superkids trip. Landon is one of those kids. It never gets old to see this amazing boy. But it does get sad sometimes.
