Chopsticks for 8: Day 13

We were up bright and early again for the orphanage visit. We had to leave early so we didn't get stuck in rush hour traffic and so that we could make it to the orphanage before nap time for the kids. We had a different guide for this day - Nancy. She was also very nice and agreed to take us to the orphanage so that Denise could stay in Nanjing and take care of the paperwork that needed to be done for the adoptions. Denise said she was the "expert" with the paperwork. :)

It is a 2 1/2 hour drive to the Suzhou SWI from Nanjing. The car ride went very well compared to the past two days. Josh and I each got to sit with E for a little while and giver her our complete attention. We made some good eye contact, which is not something that had happened really at all yet, sang some songs with her and helped her do some actions to them. Songs like "Popcorn Popping" and "Book of Mormon Stories". I also got her to sign 'please' a few times. I really wanted to give her a way to be able ask for something - my intention was not to start her out being polite or anything. She did it a few times on her own and would mimic a lot of things with me. She is a sharp kid!

This is a typical road sign in China. This 'no trumpeting' sign always made us smile. I'm pretty sure it means no honking.

I'm not sure what cities we drove through but there was very little open areas in between them. All the cities ran together so it kind of felt like we never left Nanjing. I could tell we were getting close after we pulled off the freeway.

We saw a few of these signs - not exactly sure what the heck a welfare lottery is?

There were lots of people wearing masks everywhere we went. Not sure if they were sick, were protecting themselves from getting sick, or if it was more to do with the pollution?

We pulled of another main road onto what felt like a little alleyway.

And then all of a sudden we were at the gates of the orphanage.

We pulled in and found a parking spot. The ladies that brought E to us were waiting outside this building for us. This building was more of an office building.

We were taken into in the building and led up to a big boardroom. They served us big plates of watermelon while we waited to meet the orphanage directors. We found out that this SWI (Social Welfare Institution) was getting ready to move to a new location far away so they were in the process of changing the directors too.

You can see our guide, Nancy, in the background of this picture.

M, C and I all needed to use the restroom after the long car ride and had our first experiences with squatty potties. Well, M's second since she already had that privilege at Walmart. :D It was very clean though. Just weird.

E was anxious to get some watermelon!

After we had eaten the directors came in and presented us with a gift. This is a framed piece of artwork that is very common in this province and a book that was illustrated with pictures drawn by children in this orphanage.

This is the new director. (E had dropped her cup and the director picked it up for her right as we were taking the picture. You can see E trying to get it back. The director only had it for a few seconds as we snapped the picture but she was desperate to have it back.)

After a quick meeting we gathered everything up and headed back outside to see where the buildings that housed the children were. It was a nice little walk. The grounds of the SWI are very nice with several pretty gardens and ponds. The SWI is not only an orphanage but has some nursing homes as well.

There was another little gate and guardhouse at the entrance to the orphanage part of the SWI.

Right beyond the entrance gate there is a little playground. We didn't stop to look at it much on the way in but I got a few pictures on the way out. Let's just say I hope all the kids are vaccinated for tetanus. Yikes!

We walked a little farther to another building and had to ditch the strollers and hike up a couple of stories to the floor where E lived.

E grabbed C's hat and put it on. She looked pretty darn cute in it and he didn't mind a bit to share.

The hallways were all decorated with American cartoon characters and everything was very clean. We finally made it to E's floor and made our way down to her room - the toddler/older baby room.

The room was dark and quite as it was nap time but they were happy to have us. Only Mom and Dad and E could go in the room. All the other kiddos stayed in the hallway with our guide. It was much cooler in the room than the hallway so I was glad to find out that she hadn't been living in the sweltering heat all the time. The room was very clean and orderly. You can see the bright stickers on the ceilings and there were hanging decorations over each crib. E definitely remembered this place (she was only here two days ago!) and looked much more at ease there than when she was just with us. The nannies in the room were all very friendly although none of them spoke English. None of them seemed happy or excited to see E (sadly) but they were very interested in Josh and I. This picture is to the left of the entrance to the room.

This picture is straight ahead of the entrance to the room. It's a pretty big room.

This was E's crib. (This was one of her nannies and she was taking pictures for the orphanage's records.) Notice the mat she had to sleep on. There was no mattress under there. Nice comfy bed, huh?

When E saw that teddy bear in her old crib she immediately started making her "gimme" noises/grunts and reaching for it. The orphanage said it had been hers and they gave it to her. It was pretty old and looked very worn. They said she had had it for quite a while. Why they didn't send it with her is a mystery to me!!

These two little cuties were in the cribs directly across the aisle from E. The nannies said they were her friends. They said the little girl (the second crib) was in the process of being adopted but that the little boy was not able to be adopted because they knew he had a mother and they couldn't say that he was an 'orphan'. Sadly this happens more often than it should. He was such a little cutie with his big eyes. Neither of them made a peep but the little girl was all smiles. I don't think this little guy ever cracked a smile though - even after I talked to him for a while. Saddest place ever.

Josh and E are standing by her crib. There were three main rows with eight cribs in each, so 24 cribs, and 5 nannies to the room.

Next we walked down the hallway a little farther to the playroom.

E walked right in there like she knew what to do and had lots of fun. She was way calmer here than we'd ever seen here. It was obviously her territory.

The other kids made themselves right at home too.

When we walked into this room we recognized it as the room where E's video was filmed. Even the kids recognized it.

E found this car (stationary) and sat in it for most of the time.

While we were in the playroom we were asking the nannies some questions (through our guide). One of the questions we had was how E was bathed because she was clearly terrified of the bathtub and we wanted to know what she was used to so we could ease her fears a little. They took me into this little tiny room between the little babies room and E's room. It was basically just a big sink with a shower head.

We tried using the shower head with a tiny bit of water in the bathtub the next time we bathed her but that didn't seem to be any less terrifying to her. She still hates it!

This was the view from the windows outside E's room. Bars on all the windows.

Then we gathered everybody up and got all shoes back on so we could make our way to the building where we were having lunch. The orphanage provided us with very nice lunch. Here are some closer pictures of the playground I snagged on our way out. SCARY!

We stopped to get a quick picture in front of the orphanage gates before we left.

We had another trek to the next building. It was back up towards the first building we were in and then farther down the road opposite it. I have no idea what direction (east, west, etc.) we were at anytime! We walked past a few more little gardens.

We ended up walking the entire width of the complex. The gates at the end of this lane are the original gates to the SWI. It is a very old one and the gates are centuries old. They aren't in working condition anymore. It turns out that E's finding spot was just on the other side of these gates.

This was the building we ended up at for lunch. it seemed like a building where they would put on shows or have dances or something. There was a small room off of a big dance/ball room type place and that's where we ate.

E's nanny, the orphanage worker that accompanied her to Nanjing, another orphanage worker that we didn't really know, our driver for the day, our guide, and the old orphanage director (who we were introduced to at the lunch - the new director had to leave right after we met her for a meeting about the move) were all the people who we had lunch with.

The lunch was the best Chinese food we had the entire trip! There were a few weird things that the kids and I were not adventurous enough to try but I think Josh tried just about everything. Our guide kept serving up a steamed egg dish with some kind of shellfish in it for the little girls and they weren't too excited it about that. We tried but they really didn't like much but the rice. G did eat some of the dumplings and some soup too. They had Coke and Sprite for us too - warm, of course. No one uses ice in China. So strange!

Sawyer was holding E's bear (how he got it away from her without a fight, I don't know) and he wanted me to take a picture of it.

And now I'm glad he wanted me to because this bear has since made his way to the trash can after an unfortunate incident involving E's tantruming and a mall water feature. :(

After we wrapped up lunch we made our way out of the complex and tried to find E's finding spot - the place she was abandoned and found by someone. The abandoned babies are investigated by the police. The police try to find the parents and usually place a "finding ad" in the local newspaper. We got a copy of her finding ad and the orphanage was able to tell us where she was found - or at least gave our guide an address. It wasn't easy to find and our driver had to stop at several places and ask if they knew where the street was.

We got as close as we could to it in the van and then we had to search on foot. We decided that it was too hot and we didn't know how far away we'd have to walk so Josh stayed in the van with the driver and the kids and the guide took me, E and M on the quest to find the spot. We walked down a fairly nice looking alley with lots of trees but don't let the way it looks fool you. Be glad smell-o-vision isn't invented yet. Think: sewage on a hot day. VERY hot day. I tried really hard not to breathe.

As we got farther away from the main road, where all the businesses were, we got closer to the more residential area. There were several buildings where people lived but they didn't really look like houses and not apartments either. They were maybe two stories and on the bottom level there were some factories or workshops. There were residences scattered throughout though. There was trash everywhere. This scene struck me as so sad. I just stopped and could barely control the tears. (No surprise there, though.)

After much walking, several wrong turns, talking to a few people to ask them if they knew where this address was, we finally found it. It was a little doorstep on a bridge that overlooked a pretty canal. (Suzhou is known for it's many canals and is called the Venice of the East.) We couldn't tell what was behind the door and no one around could tell us. It is located right near a busy place on the small street so I'm sure that's why this place was chosen. That and its close proximity to the orphanage.

This is the canal on the opposite side of the street.

I can't even imagine leaving my days old baby in front of this door at the end of October and just walking away. I don't believe her birth mother wanted to do that. It HAD to be hard. You don't carry a baby for 9 months and go through the process of giving birth without that little baby having some impact on you. It's just not possible. It's such a heartbreaking thing to think about. It may not seem like it, but i do believe her birthmother loved her and gave her up because of that. I wish she could know where her little one is now.

I snapped these pictures on our way back.

M is so good and was happy to carry E so I could get lots of pictures for E to have someday.

The ride back to Nanjing was pretty uneventful and almost everyone fell asleep.

We ended up going to Subway in the mall for dinner again. It turned out to be one of the easiest and best places to eat in China. Everyone liked it and it was fairly cheap and filling.

We played around a little after dinner. E is copying S more and we're seeing a few smiles from her.