Visit to the Orphanage

Day 7
1/06/06

Today we got going early because we had to leave the hotel at 8:30 for the Fuling orphanage where Sydney has spent her entire life. We got on a smaller bus than we normally use for the whole group since only five families went on the trip and Ron went by himself. The trip was about two hours each way on the most horrendous roads you can imagine. At one point we hit a bump that launched Kevin and Greta completely in the air. Sydney was tired by the end and getting cranky. The trip through the country side was beautiful. The fog that we are accustomed to followed us the entire trip to Fuling, but the mountains we drove through (literally in some cases, we went through some long tunnels) were incredible. Most of the people live in these run down cinder block homes with some land around them that they farm. All of this is essentially on the mountain side, so all the sides are terraced. It looked like there was a lot of standing water, so I assume they were growing rice. It must be a mosquito nightmare in the summer. The roofs of the houses are also flat to collect rain water. We crossed some very high bridges and I know we crossed the Yangtze river.

We entered the main gate of the orphanage and immediately went to a conference room to be introduced to the director of the orphanage. He was a small but very happy man who gave a quick talk about how happy he was that the children were going to good homes. We then went to see where some of the babies slept. There were two rooms of cribs, one with 10 cribs and one with 7. All the same thick metal barred type that Sydney was in. The next room had all the babies in walkers like a bunch of bumper cars. It would be funny in a different situation, but here it just broke your heart. It was very emotional to see the kids and think that this is where Sydney spent the first 13 ½ months of her life. The room was chilly, so all the babies were bundled in layers of clothing. I was actually surprised how nice the coat and pants were that Sydney had on when we got her. Sydney seemed fine through the whole thing, many of the caregivers came up to her and pinched her cheeks. They all caller her “Bing Bing”. The only time she got upset was when we were in the walker room and most of the babies started crying, Sydney also started crying very bad. She settled down as soon as I took her out of the room. I think it was a necessary trip to make, but I was very glad to leave.

We got back on the bus to leave the orphanage and I think everyone was a bit emotionally drained, it was very upsetting and Fuling is one of the better orphanages. We hardly got down the road when the bus pulled over and Rosa called my name. We were at the garden gate where they found Sydney. I got off the bus in a fog, Rosa took a picture of Brandon, Sydney and me in front of the gate, I took a few more pictures and got back on the bus. I completely fell apart. I knew some of us would see where our daughters were abandoned, but I guess I just wasn’t expecting it right then. It was just overwhelming to me that someone would abandon our little girl in this city. I also had a picture in my head of a little four foot gate into a beautiful garden. The “garden” Sydney was abandoned at is more like a city park. It is called the Shun Jiang Garden in Fuling and the gate is an arched sign over the street which enters the park. Fuling is a city of 1.1 million people. The garden was within walking distance of the orphanage, which is probably why her Mom left her there. I started a chain reaction crying in the back of the bus and soon Kevin, JJ and Francis were crying with me. One of the things you don’t consider is just how close you get to the people you travel with. You are sharing such and emotional event and you’re not doing it alone, everything is done as a group. So whether you are happy or upset, everyone else is generally sharing in those emotions also. We made one more stop for Woody and Rachael and then went back to the hotel. Everyone else’s location was too far away for us to go see. The Fuling orphanage receives babies for a 1600 square kilometer area. Right now there are about 300 babies at the orphanage and another 100 in foster care. The bus ride home was uneventful, Sydney slept for about 40 minutes, but was happy for the rest of the trip. Overall it was emotionally draining and upsetting to go visit the orphanage, but I’m glad I did it. It was almost like getting closure on the first part of Sydney’s life so that we can get on with her new life.

We got back to the hotel and just hung out in the room for a while. We got all of our final adoption paperwork from the Chinese government including Sydney’s Chinese passport. I eventually put Sydney down for a nap and after some fussing, she slept for about half and hour. She woke up screaming like she had a bad dream. She wasn’t anymore clingy than before the orphanage trip, but for her nap and at bedtime she definitely did not want to be left alone. If I went out of sight she screamed at the top of her lungs. At 6:30 the whole group met in the lobby for a picture of all the babies before we left for Guangzhou. We couldn’t fit them all on the couch and some were not to happy to sit there. Sydney sat there perfectly happy of course and would give big toothy smiles whenever you talked to her. We ended the evening with a trip to the sixth floor of the attached mall to a restaurant called BullFighters. They had excellent steaks cooked like in the US, that is they actually cook them. A filet mignon was 85 Yuan or 10 bucks and it came with a salad bar. The only bad thing was there was no potato! Tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou, the last stop on our trip.

Steven