We got up super early so that we could get an early start to the orphanage. It was about a 2 hour drive away. The scenery was beautiful as we drove through the countryside. We had Caroline as our guide that day as Jane needed to get some paperwork finished up for us back in Nanjing. Caroline told us a lot about the farmers and the farm land there and what they grew in their fields. We saw mountains and rivers, people working in the fields carrying those long poles on their backs, water buffalo,fish farms, and fishermen in the rivers. Josh and Katelyn played I-spy as we didn’t realize it was going to be such a long drive as we were originally told it would take about 1 hour. We had not brought anything for Kate to do, but she was a trooper. We had talked to her the night before about how important it was to be a good girl while we were at the orphanage, and she really did a great job at following our instructions.
I just sat and held Emma and kept feeding her snacks to keep her occupied. I will be glad to use a car seat for her at home. I tried to get her to nap, but she fussed a lot and didn’t fall asleep until the last half hour. We enjoyed our drive there very much.
Finally we had arrived. I was nervous as we didn’t know really what to expect. We were told we would be there about a half an hour. We pulled in and the guards opened the gate for us. There were many many tall apartment buildings there for the older people to live in. The orphanage is just a teeny part of this complex. We got out and were greeted by the vice-director, who said that the director had another appointment and could not be there. That was fine with us as the vice director definitely seemed a lot more personable when we had met her before. There was a garden to our right and next to that was a large man-made pond with no filtration or fountain. It was just a quiet and beautiful breeding ground for the many mosquitoes that were buzzing around us.
We entered the front doors and walked into an outdoor hallway. They took us to the playroom first where the children were that Emma lived with. It was a very large room with some huge gym mats on the floor covered with bamboo rugs. The caregivers all gathered around us and were very happy to see "Sha-sha" and her family. One very pretty caregiver asked Katelyn if she could take some pictures of her with her phone. If there is one thing I’ve learned about Chinese people, they are not shy.
The children were all on the mat playing with their toys and books. Their shoes were lined up at the edge of the mats. They were all happy to see Emma and she lit up so much when we put her down to play with the children. It was such a overwhelming and emotional sight to see her with her friends and playmates, who were essentially her brothers and sisters for the first 20 months of her life. I think almost all of the children had a special need of some kind, and the vice-director said that most of their files had been given to the CCAA so that they could be adopted. I will definitely have to keep an eye out on the yahoo groups for different waiting children’s lists to advocate for these children and possibly find out where they live after they have been adopted. Hopefully their parents will join the Yahoo group for the Yixing SWI.
They had originally told us that we could only take pictures outside, but when I asked about taking pictures of our friend’s little boys, they said that was fine. Well, when they started taking pictures of Katelyn, Josh handed her the video camera and said go to it. We figured they all liked Katelyn and would not say anything to her about it. I have not viewed it yet due to a lack of time and the emotional reserve that I will need to do so. They brought Yi Lai (Eli) and Yi Chen (Matthew) over so that we could take pictures of them. After Josh took the pictures, he turned off the flash and continue to take pics with his James Bond style and doing a little cough when he would snap the shutter. I meanwhile was on the floor next to the mat and interacting with some of the children. We asked some more of our questions for the caregivers. The caregivers were all playing with Emma and her friends. We asked who her best friends were, and they showed us who the two little boys were. one little boy’s name was Yi Bai. He had albinism and his name meant "white". He was sooo precious and sweet. He let me show a book to him and talk to him a little. He had the sweetest temperament. The other little friend was named Yi Qi. The ayis had the boys dance with Emma and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. They also had all the children come up and shake her hand. The kids would just giggle and laugh all the while. I walked over to talk to Matthew a little and Emma crawled over to take one of his toys out of his dump truck. He didn’t like that too much, so I told Emma she needed to share. It was cute. I kept making eye contact with Emma and making sure that she knew where Mama was by calling out to her and waving. Caroline asked about what her favorite foods were, and they said that she really loved rice porridge. I think that it is different than the kind at home, because she didn’t like the Gerber rice cereal I bought. This stuff is instant and you just add hot water to it. It has chicken flavor or vegetable flavor, etc. It was almost time to leave that room and continue our tour. Yi Bai came over to me and gave me a big hug. He did not want to let go. It was all I could do to pull his precious little arms from around my neck. The ayis told the children to all wave goodbye. This one little girl who was about 4 was blowing kisses to us and waving and saying Zai Jian (goodbye). She looked like she had some kind of heart surgery as she had a big scar on her chest. Emma came to me when I was hugging Yi Bai and she waved goodbye to all of them. I could have stayed in that room for hours, but we had to keep going on the "official" tour.
They took us further down the hall into a very large multi-purpose room with play and eating areas where there were about 20-25 older children sitting in chairs. We asked if we could give them the fruit snacks that we had brought, and they said yes. They told us that all of the children, in their words, had something wrong with their brain except for 3 or 4. There was a downs syndrome child in the back row and what looked like a couple of children with cerebral palsy. Most of the others did not have as noticeable of disabilities. Josh and I handed out the snacks and they all shyly held out their hands to get some. The V. Dir. (VD from here on) came in and was wondering what it was we were giving them, so we opened up a packet to let them try some. You could see the light of recognition in the ayis & VD’s eyes then. After that, we went into the room where the little babies were and where Emma had slept with her friends. Josh snuck one photo in there, but we already have photos of her bed from when we sent the disposable camera in a package this past spring. Those are very, very precious to us as they took pictures in the gardens and with some of her caregivers. There were probably 10 babies in there. There was one who was only a month old. Most of them had needs of some kind. There was one teeny cleft baby, and when I saw him/her I was very happy that we brought the cleft nursers with us for the orphanage. The little bitty ones are the ones who really need those nursers to get the nourishment to grow. When they get older they can use regular bottles with a big hole, but it is good for them to get their bottles a little more slowly when they are still small.
They then showed us Emma’s bed and where her two friends and crib mates slept. They all had metal cribs with bright blue mosquito netting hanging over them. The flies and bugs were all over the place in that room which explains why Emma had so many bites. We saw a bigger boy laying in a crib who was about 4 or so and they said he was very, very sick and they pointed to their head. One little baby about 5 or 6 months old was laying with his/her arms behind his back in what looked to be a very awkward position with his back curved backwards. I do not know why the baby was laying like that. I couldn’t tell if the baby was doing that to comfort himself or if there was something wrong with him or her.
After we walked out of the sleeping room, all of the caregivers were all huddled in the doorway to the big playroom. They were all smiling and laughing. Caroline told me that the one in the middle was the one she called "Mama". I guess they will have a main caregiver that they call Mama and then they call all the others ayi (auntie). Her caregiver held out her hands to see if Emma would go to her, but Emma just looked at her and held on tightly to me. She would not budge at all. All of the ladies just laughed and said something to the effect of "See, she doesn’t remember you. She wants her Mama now." I got the impression that they were happy to see her content with me. I can’t even tell you how good that was for my heart as I was a little afraid that she would want to go to them and not us. We said goodbye to them all and waved.
We then left to go to another part of the complex. We first took some pictures in the rose garden right outside the entrance to the orphanage. We walked down between some of the taller buildings towards where the kitchen was. The VD held Katelyn’s hand as we walked. We then walked up some stairs into a kitchen area. We saw one of the cooks and she wanted to hold Emma for a minute. She
started to walk off with her and the girl who worked in the office told
her to come back. The office girl took Emma and we walked into a side room that had a huge table with a lazy susan on it just filled with food. The office girl was the same girl that was there when we first met Emma. We thought she was one of the caregivers, but she is not. That is why Emma called her ayi. We filled our little bowls and ate as much as we could. The pork that they served was delicious as well as the rice and the cucumber salad. It was peeled and served in some kind of vinegar. They served raw julienned potatoes which were in this really tasty sauce. I really liked them. The only thing I couldn’t really get down was the pig hoof. We were told it was a delicacy there, so Josh and I both took one. I tried one bite, but I couldn’t get it down. It was like eating pure fat. The sauce on it was delicious, but I couldn’t do it. Josh fared a little better than I did. They had a winter melon soup that was delicious too. The office girl had been holding Emma for us while we ate, and I was a little nervous that she would cry again like she did the first day. They told me she loved the winter melon soup over rice, so I took her and fed her a bowl full of it. She settled right in and did not fuss one bit.
We then proceeded to ask the rest of the questions that we had for the VD. One of our questions was whether or not we could have a copy of her orphanage file or not. They said no, as the regulations were getting stricter about that, but that we could look at it. Office girl went to get the file while we sat and talked for a little while. When she got back, Caroline looked it over and translated any information that we did not already have. We were able to get some valuable information about her finding which was very very precious to have along with the entire opportunity to visit her orphanage. Meanwhile Katelyn had to use the squatty across the hall and Josh ended up having to come back to the room for some tissue paper. It was crazy timing as we were into this in depth once-in-a-lifetime report about our Emma. It all worked out okay. Even the toilets there had mosquitoes buzzing around them if that tells you how thick they were. They did let me take a picture of one of her passport-type photos from when she was younger and one of her footprints.
We left to go back to the office so that we could get the e-mail address of the VD and the director there. Once again–this is priceless information. The VD held Emma as we left, but then we were walking to the stairs and she reach out for Mama. She knew where to go. The VD smiled and was glad that she was wanting me. It was hard letting other people hold her, but I knew that they had such an important part of the beginning of her life and that they were so gracious to let us come and visit. Our guide had worked very hard for us to have that opportunity. Before we went into the office, we stopped and read a sign that said something to the effect that "If we do not take care of our old people, who will come and take care of us when we are old?" We then went and had our picture made with the VD.
We then went to the office and waited for them to get the e-mail addresses for us. They gave them to us, and I once again asked if there was anything that the orphanage needed. They had already told us in the questions that I had sent ahead of time that they need an incubator for the little ones that come in. This is the only thing that they seemed to really need. I am planning to see if I can raise some funds for this when I get home with some of the other Yixing families. If any of you are interested in contributing to this, let me know and I will give you the information as soon as I know how we are going to do it. I know there is another organization doing something at Yixing in July, so I will check with her as well. I plan to talk with our China adoption coordinator as she is very knowledgeable about these things and has done things like this before. I figured if we all chipped in a little, we could probably get enough for the incubator. I told them it was too expensive for us to do on our own, but that I would do what I could to help them with getting the incubator.
We then said our goodbyes. I once again thank the VD for taking such good care of our daughter and for all that they had done for her. I put my hands together and bowed to her and she bowed back. Right as we went to leave, it started pouring down rain. It was a monsoon of rain coming down. The driver pulled the van up as close as he could to the building, and we made a dash for it. After we got into the van, I could just feel Emma melt into me. It was like she was totally relaxed after that point, like she totally trusted us. I can’t explain it, but she just felt different. It was so amazing and emotional to feel that in her.
We then traveled to the place where Emma was found before she was brought to the orphanage. We were able to get some photos of the site, despite the pouring rain. Yixing is a very pretty town and it was so wonderful to be able to see this place that our daughter is from.
We then headed from the finding place to the Yixing teapot shops where we met a lady whose family crafts the teapots and she took us to tour their workshops and show us how they were made. This family is famous in the Yixing teapot making business, and they have won several awards for their work. It was all so fascinating to see and learn about. We then traveled back to the teapot master’s shop where she performed a teapot ceremony for us. We enjoyed it very much. The teapot lady has been to a university in California to teach about how to make the teapots and serve the tea, and she is going back again next year.
Then we loaded up and enjoyed the 2 hour ride back to the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel, Jane had some pizza waiting for us that we had asked her to pick up and she had all of the paperwork that she was able to get completed that day. We then went back to the room and just collasped with exhaustion from the emotions of the day.
Here is a picture of Emma’s little friend dancing with her and then hugging me. Warning, it could make you cry!
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