Changing the World

“Hey guys, I’m Addison,”

“And I’m Annessa.”

“And we are the Asher Twins. Welcome to our vlog.” Annessa and I say at the same time. We are twin sisters, We both have dark hair which reaches almost to our butts, and brown eyes. The only differences between us is I have a small dimple on my right cheek and Annessa has a dimple on each cheek. I also have a small mole near the corner of my right eye.

“So this is going to be short because we need to get packing,” I say.

“Yeah, we are headed to China.” Annessa explains, “We are going to visit an orphanage there and our next vlog is going to be on that.”

I nod, “Yes and we will have to take a break to get our video for this vlog ready so our dad will be posting a few videos that we are actually going to film soon.”

“So, sorry this is short but we have to get ready.” Annessa says.

“We hope you liked the video if you haven’t already, go subscribe to our channel by clicking the button here,” Annessa says as we point up to our right.

“And to watch more of our videos click down here,” I say pointing down below, Annessa does the same.

“Thank you bye.” We both say waving. Our dad turns the camera off, and we head out of the room, we had just finished filming the video for Thursday. We walk up the stairs we had just walked down this morning, heading to the main floor of the house. We always film in the basement; it is where we have our whole set up. We also have a room where we watch our videos. Dad and mom help edit our videos.

“You guys should get ready to film the next few videos that I will upload while you are gone.” dad says. As he follows us up the stairs.

“Okay, we just need to go upstairs and change,” Addison says as we head upstairs to our rooms, to change into costumes and then change into normal clothes for some segments.

We ended up filming three videos that would be posted on Thursdays when we were gone. It took almost all day. There were times when we would mess up and then had to restart. Then there were all of the costume changes we had to do. While we were away, our parents would be going through the footage and editing it. Until they would be posted on Thursday.

“Do you have what you need to write this story?” mom asks, the next morning as we stumble down the stairs, still half asleep. It is about 4: 00 AM in Los Angeles. We have a few long flights ahead. Our parents drive us to the airport.

“Okay guys we will see you in a few weeks.” mom and dad say as they give us hugs. We wave goodbye to our parents as we head up the escalator to the second floor. We sit there at gate 35 waiting. It was around 7: 00 when the plane came in and we started boarding the plane. We now have 12 hours and 40 minutes till we get into Beijing. We had first class so it wasn’t going to be too bad, we can just sleep. Or we could just recline the seats and watch movies.

We slept through most of the flight, we did watch a few movies. Beijing is 13 hours ahead of Los Angeles times, we will be staying in a hotel here because we also have a few small conventions we were invited to come to here in China. The air is hot and humid when we walk out of the airport. The street is as busy as a busy boat dock, there are a surprising amount of cars and bikes going everywhere for 11:00 Am Saturday. We walk towards the street and almost get run over by a person on a moped. There is a small car-like vehicle that is waiting for us at the curb.

“Hello,” a small man says with a wide grin, as he gives us a slight bow.

“Hello.” Annessa and I say, bowing back.

“Are you the Asher sisters?” The man says with a heavy accent.

“Yes.” We say together. He then gets out of the vehicle and helps us with our bags and gear. He then opens the door for us. We get in and he starts to head towards our hotel.

“Would you mind if we videotaped?” Annessa asks.

“Th-that is not problem.” He says. His English is okay but it was quite obvious that it is not his first language and that he had not spoken it for very long.

I grab the camera from my bag and turn it on. Pointing it towards us and then hitting record.

“Hey guys,” We say. Annessa takes the camera from me. So she can also point it out the window. Her side of the car has a better view, than my side.

“So we are in a cab,” Annessa says with air quotes, “we are headed to our hotel here in Beijing.”

“Yeah, we will be here for about three days then we are headed to a different province, Hunan.” I say looking into the camera that Nessa is holding.

“Ohh, you go to Hunan Province?” The driver says.

“Yes, we are going there to do a vlog on an orphanage.” Nessa says.

“Oh, that is very cool.”

“Yeah,” Annessa and I say. We turn the camera off as we get closer to the hotel. It is a big building probably thirty or forty stories tall. Our driver whose name was Cheng helps us unload our bags and then he waves goodbye. We walk into the large foyer, it has a high ceiling, there is also a kind of terrace for the second floor. We walk up to the desk to check in. The front desk is dark wood, with a cream colored marble top.

“Ni Hao.” The lady behind the desk says.

“Ni Hao.” I say “We need to check in.”

“Oh, yes of course, what is the name?”

“Um, Addison and Annessa Asher,” Annessa says.

“Okay,” She says as she starts typing on her computer. “May I see some ID from both of you?”

“Yes,” We say as we take out our wallets and show her our California drivers licenses.

“Thank you,” She says, passing them back,

“ Now I need the card you are paying with.” Annessa has that so she takes it out and hands it to the lady.

“Thank you.” She takes it and makes sure it is all correct. “Would you please sign here?” Annessa signs the receipt which is a full sheet of paper. That has the room and the services we get.

“Okay, you will be on the sixteenth floor, in room 1610.” She says as she takes the signed receipt and hands us two keycards.

“Will you be needing help with bags?”

“Um, no thank you, I think we have it,” I say, as I take two of our bags and Annessa takes the other two. We head to the elevator, once we are on I push the button with the symbols, 十六, (16) on it, and we head to our room. The room is very big and spacious, it has two queen sized beds and a small sitting area with a couch and a chair. We put all our bags down and sit on the beds.

“Hey, Addi I think we should facetime mom and dad so they know we made it here okay,” Annessa says. I hear Annessa start to open her backpack and take out her laptop.

“Okay. Ooh, Nessa, we should also contact Meng Jun.” I say excitedly coming out of the bathroom. I had decided to take my contacts out and to put one pair of my glasses on. Annessa heads to the bathroom to do the same thing. Once we are all set and ready we facetime our mom and dad. It is about 8:00 Pm in Los Angeles. Meng Jun is a caretaker at the orphanage we are going to be visiting in a few days.

“Hey, girls,” our dad says.

“Hey, Dad,” Annessa and I say.

“How was the trip?” Mom asks as she comes into the camera frame.

“It was good,” I say.

“Are you guys tired?” Dad says with a laugh.

“Yes very,” Annessa says. Flopping back onto the bed.

”Okay, then we will let you relax.” Mom says in her smooth voice.

“Bye guys.” Dad says waving, mother waves goodbye to us as well.

“Bye.” Annessa and I say, waving. Annessa then ends the call, and closes her laptop. She moves back to lean against the headboard of the bed, and sets her laptop on the bedside table. We order some food. When we are done we decide to go to bed.

We only stayed in Beijing for a few nights before we headed to Hunan province. We took a train to get there, it was an amazing trip. We sat by the window and watched the landscape go by. There were many patty fields and farmers out there with their big straw hats the sun beating down on them as they worked.

“Okay guys, today we just got into Hunan Province and we are trying to find our hotel,” I say, holding the camera so that it faces me. Then I turn it forwards, to follow Annessa.

“Yeah, and we are trying to find the hotel,” Annessa says. We look around the streets looking for our hotel. All four of our bags in hand and our backpacks on our shoulders. The epitome of tourists. We decided to stop at a small corner so we could figure out where we need to go to get to our hotel.

“Nessa, I just said that we were doing that.” I say exasperatedly. She looks up from the maps on her phone. confused.

“Really? I didn’t hear you. Then we are going to go and visit the orphanage and start figuring out what we are going to film and what we are not going to film.” Annessa says as we walk in the direction Annessa says our hotel is in.

“Nessa, have you found it yet?” I ask the camera pointing towards her. She looks up, with a look of hatred on her face.

“No,” she snaps. I laugh.

“Okay,” While we were looking for our hotel we had also been out looking around and exploring. Once we got into the hotel we could relax a little. There is a small fountain in the center of the foyer, that has seating around the whole thing. It is not quite as big and nice as the last hotel but it is still fairly nice. We head up to our room on the eleventh floor and grab some gear, like cameras, camera batteries. We also have some small mics that hook to our camera, we also grab some water and our bags.

Once we are all set we head downstairs there is going to be a person who is going to help translate and show us around.

“Ni hao.” a young woman who looks to be about 5’3”, says.

“Ni Hao.” Annessa and I say.

“You two must be Addison and Annessa.” She says, looking from Nessa and me.

“Might I ask who is who?”

“I am Addison.”

“And I am Annessa.” Annessa stands to my left.

“Okay, thank you. I am Fa Li.” She says.

“It is nice to meet you Fa Li.”

“It’s nice to meet you two as well.” Fa Li, says, “Now let’s get on with this.”

“Is it okay if we film you?” Annessa asks.

“Yes, that is quite alright.” She says as she gets into a van and turn on the camera and follow.

“Okay so we are headed to the orphanage,” Annessa says as I film her. I then move the camera so we are watching the landscape go by. There are rice patty fields, going by with people working in them with big straw hats to keep the sun off of their faces. As we drive through the province to the orphanage, Fa Li tells us about the province.

“Hunan Province is located south of the Yangtze River. The biggest city and capital is Changsha, which is located near the Xiang River.” Fa Li says as we keep driving through the countryside.

It took about an hour to drive through the countryside to get to the orphanage.

“Okay, here we are.” It was a dark forbidding building. The windows are so dark that you can’t see through them. The front had two doors that were a greenish color. We grab our bags and follow Fa Li up the front steps onto the porch. She nicks on the door, we hear the knock echo through the building. After a few seconds, we hear some shuffling on the other side of the door. A small older lady opens the door. Her grey hair is up in a tight bun atop her head.

“Nǐ hǎo.” Fa Li says to the woman. “Zhè shi, Ai dishēng, hé ānnī shā.”

“Ohhh, Rú zài.”

“Xièxiè,” Fa Li says and steps through the door.

“Xièxiè,” Annessa says as she steps into the building.

“Xièxiè,” I say stepping through the door. The air inside is brisk. I look around, as the woman leads us from room to room, she seems to be looking for something. We head upstairs and she checks the rooms upstairs. Until the very last one, in the room, there are cribs each one with a baby in it. The woman walks over to the far end of the room, two sleeping babies, lie on their backs with their heads turned towards each other.

“Zhè shi yǒng ái hé línnà,” the old woman says.

“This is Yong Ai and Lin Na.” Fa Li translates.

“Tāmen shì jiěmèi, shuāngbāotāi.”

“They are sisters, twins.”

“They are like us Addi,” Annessa says in an excited whisper. We watch the little babies for a little. Then we head back downstairs to the small sitting area that is almost completely barren of any kind of toys. There are a fair amount of small little high chairs made of bamboo.

“Can we film?” I ask.

“Wǒmen néng pāi diànyǐng ma?” Fa Li translates.

“Shi de shi de. Wǒ huì dédào yīng'ér.” The woman says.

“Yes, yes. I will get the babies.” Fa Li translates.

“Xièxiè,” Nessa and I say. She disappears up the stairs as Nessa and I start to set up the cameras, mics, and lights. After a few minutes, The old woman comes down with a baby and then there is another woman, who looks to be about 21 the same age as Nessa and I, who comes down behind her with the other little girl.

“Which one is older?” Nessa asks.

“Nǎhe gèng lǎo?” Fa Li translates.

“Yǒng Ai.” The older woman says handing Nessa the baby she was holding. Annessa then hands her to me. So it is the oldest with oldest and youngest with youngest. We set up two chairs, turn the lights and cameras on. Fa Li tells the nurses that they can say anything and can’t come into the view of the camera until a certain point. We gave a nod to Ada Li to start recording as we showed her how to start and stop the camera.

“Hey, guys,” Nessa and I say at the same time.

“I am Addison,”

“And I am Annessa.”

“And we are the Asher Twins. Welcome to our vlog.” Annessa and I say at the same time.

“Today, we are going to be talking about our little friends here and where we are,” Annessa says. As we bounce the babies on our knees.

“Before we go any further, please subscribe, and like this video, we know you will like it,” I say.

“And follow us on Instagram and Twitter.”

“Also hit the bell notification, to get notified when we upload videos,” I say.

“Or you can just check every Thursday you know because that is when we upload them and all,” Annessa says looking at me with a small smile.

“Yeah, that too.”

“Okay let’s get on with the video,” Annessa says, turning to face the camera again.

“Yes.”

“Okay, So we are joined by two cute little babies.”

“Who are actually like us,” I say looking down to Yǒng Ai.

“Yes, and their names are Yǒng Ai, and Lin Na,” Nessa says.

“They are twins like us. Nessa is holding Lin Na because she is the younger of the two. And Nessa is the younger of us two.” I say.

“Only by like six minutes,” Nessa says with a small frown.

“Yes, but I am still older,” I say, smiling.

It took a few hours for us to film the video. We had to stop a few times so the nurses could change their diapers, and give them some food. But we did finish the segment. Next stop an adoption. We had heard of this adoption and we asked if we could film it, we asked all of those who were going to be there, only a few said no. So we just have to be very careful as to where to point the cameras. For this part we take head back to the hotel with a few of the babies and go into a banquet room they had rented out. We are in the back room, with the babies and the nurses, there are a few babies that we will be heading out with. We are heading out with the first little baby and the last. The looks on the parent’s faces when they saw their daughters for the first time is unforgettable. This takes a few hours then they take a photo with all of the families.

After the adoption, we head up to our rooms and decided to call our parents again.

“Hey, girls.” Dad says as the camera connects.

“Hey, daddy.” Nessa and I say.

“How is the trip going so far?” Mom asks as she comes into view of the camera.

“It is going great. We went to the orphanage today and we did all of that filming and we just need to edit all the segments.” Nessa says.

“We also still need to write the story. About what is most likely going to happen to Yong Ai and Lin Na.” I tell them.

“That’s good, if that’s all you need to do. Then when you get home we can film it.” dad says.

We stay on the call for a few hours. Until it gets too late for us and mom and dad have to go to work. After that, we get ready for bed and go to bed. It takes only a few minutes for us to fall asleep.

“Hey, guys it’s about 5:00 in the morning in Changsha,” Nessa says.

“So we had to get up early because we need to pack.”

“This is our last day here in China, we are going to pack, and then we have a trip back to Beijing then we have a small layover.”

“Small? It’s like two hours.”

“Yeah, it’s not that long. But anyways we are going to walk around the airport and shop for our parents.” Nessa says. We start to pack up all of our stuff, and some of the stuff we bought. It takes us about thirty minutes to pack all of our stuff. We then head down to the lobby to check out and get a shuttle to the airport.

“Okay, so we are in the airport just waiting for our plane to come,” I say as I turn the camera around to show the window of the gate.

The plane came in, a few minutes late so we had to wait a little longer for everyone to deplane and then so they could put our luggage onto the plane. We sit on the pane. We have first class again. We are so tired we fall asleep once the plane takes off.

We get to Beijing airport and deplane. Our gate for our final flight is all the way across the airport. We walk all the way over to the gate. Stopping every now and again to look for gifts for our parents. We find a few things that would be perfect for our parents. When we finally get to our gate we look at the screen, it takes a little for it to come up in English. But when it does we read what it says.

‘Flight cancellation. The flight to Los Angeles has been canceled.’

“Hey, guys so our flight was canceled. Addi is trying to book us on another flight that might not go straight to Los Angeles but we can get another flight into LA.” Nessa says as she holds the camera out to see her.

We found a few flights into LA. It took a few changes of planes but we made it back. We were so tired we couldn’t film we went straight to bed. We slept for almost the whole next day.

“Addison, Annessa, we need to get filming.” I hear my father yell at us. I roll out of bed and get ready. Annessa is not really a morning person so she stumbles down the stairs.

“Okay, guys you ready,” Dad asks.

“Yep.” Nessa and I say unenthusiastically.

“Okay, well let’s get this done with.” dad says as he turns the camera on.

“Hey, guys.”

“I’m Addison,”

“And I’m Annessa.”

“And we are the Asher Twins. Welcome to our vlog.” Annessa and I say at the same time.

“So as we said we were gone for a little while,” I say.

“We took a trip to China. Where we visited an orphanage there and we got to see an adoption,” Nessa says.

“Yes, it was very sweet. We also got to meet these two twins named Yong Ai and Lin Na.”

“We decided to tell you their story.”

“One of the nurses told us what might happen to them so we decided to tell you,” Nessa says.

“This was an amazing trip we had so much fun,” I say, “So let’s get on with the story.” Annessa starts to read off of the paper she is holding.

“There is a room in a building, that has rows and rows of cribs. In every crib, there is a small baby. All fast asleep. The room is dark, with only a little bit of light coming through the windows, from the small sliver of moon that was out that night. There is an old nurse rocking back and forth in an old rocking chair in the corner of the room, her rocking slows as she starts to fall asleep. Her eyes grow heavy with sleep. Until the small cry of a baby wakes her up. She rushes over to that small baby and tries to quiet her before she wakes up the other babies.” Nessa says.

“ The nurse knows every baby by name. She holds a young girl as many here are, her name Yong Ai. She, like her sister Li Na and all the other little girls in the room were abandoned. The nurse quiets the baby and lies her back in the crib. She slowly walks back to the old rocking chair. The room is small and filled with as many cribs as can fit. The smell of diapers and baby powder hang in the air, as the morning sun starts to approach. In the morning the babies are taken one by one, to change their diapers, and to get some food. Then they are put back in their cribs. They are given a rice formula. Many of the little girls were small. All they knew was the cold metal bars of the crib, the crying of another baby in another metal crib. They did not know much love. Many were silent, not making a sound. There is a small changing table in the room. Every baby has a small toy in their crib with them. The babies are small they look to be only a few days old though many were at least four months old. Yong Ai and Li Na were both found when they were only six days old, they were left outside of the orphanage they are in right now. Many of the girls in the orphanage were very small.” I say.

“This day would be the one that would change their lives. Though they didn’t know how this day is going to change their life. Today, September 1, 2002, the day that the twins Yong Ai and Lin Na, will be separated. They may never see each other again. If they were lucky they might but that is not likely.

“Here is Yong Ai.” A nurse says handing a young mother to be, a small frail little thing, she is about fourteen months old. Still barely a hair on her head. And as small and thin as a baby who is about three months old.

“Oh, she is beautiful.” The young woman has light brown hair, she is fairly average height and a normal build. The father stands about four inches taller than the mother.

“There are a group of other parents waiting to meet their children for the first time. Once all the parents got their children they decided to take a picture. all together. After talking with each other they all head back to their hotels and start to get to know their new daughters. The new room was small, but it is big to a small baby.” Nessa finishes off the story.

“That is the end of the story and we just wanted to tell you about this. We wanted to tell their story because we as you know are twins and they are as well. So we felt a sort of connection with them and to learn that they are going to be broken apart was very sad. Because we relate to them and we wouldn’t know what to do with each other.” I say

There is also another thing we wanted to mention. There is a book called ‘Bound By Love’ by Linda Droeger. It is a great book that talks a lot about adoption and life in China, with China’s one child only law.” Nessa says.

“Okay, so that is all for the video. Please go like and subscribe to our channel and click the little bell notification to get notified when we upload a new video.” I say.

“We upload every Thursday. We hope you liked the video, go follow us on Instagram and social media.”

“We will see you next week bye.” Nessa and I say at the same time.