Fuling Orphanage visit

Today was an amazing day. Today we were able to visit the Fuling Orphanage. Jade mainly grew up in the Youyang Children's Welfare Inst. but was moved to Fuling on May 20, 2006. We are not quite sure why. They have told us that they are going to do some renovating at Youyang. We have asked if and when it will be reopened but no one can give us an answer. For now all the Youyang babies that are abandoned will be taken to Fuling. The photos that are in my blog already are of Youyang. I feel very lucky to have gotten them from a friend who adoped there before. Fuling is a 10 hour bus ride on a very bad, pot hole, dirt road. I am sure it is a miserable ride for these babies. Our bus ride was only 2 hours from Chongqing to Fuling. The roads were paved but had a ton of pot holes and bumps. It made for a very uncomfortable ride at times.
The scenery was beautiful very green and full of culture. I have sent a copy of the houses set on the hill sides. There is also corn stalks all over. They are brown now but I was amazed at all the corn on the hills. In every nook and craney amongst the trees and hill sides.When we got to Fuling I was very nervous at how Jade might react. She had such a hard time being handed over by her head nanny. I was so afraid that since we had made so much progress in the last few days that Jade would see her and relapse a bit. We went into the court yard and took a few photos.


That is where the picture of the man with children is in tile on the wall. The orphanage is a few stories high. It sort of look like an apartment building.It is not only an orphanage but also a convelecant home. So one side had a room with a lot of elderly people in it. I question why they don't merge the two. The old with the young at least during the day. The old need the young and the young definitly need the old. I saw plenty of hands to help hold and love babies. Anyway since I wasn't there to fix things...


We then went into like a small conference room. They brought in the head nanny and Jade really did not react. She was totally fine. I was so relieved.

We were then taken into the room where our babies were cared for and slept. It was one large room broken up into two smaller areas where the babies slept. On the one side of that room was a room full of walkers and shelves that did have some toys on it . Connected to that was, it appeared, a washing area. It had a ton of cloth diapers.

The rooms with the cribs were full of babies. Some sleeping, some just laying there and some crying. We were shown the crib that Jade slept in and it even had her tag still on it. We asked Michael if we could have it and he gave it to us. I took some photos of how the babies wear diapers. They are cloth diapers that looked like they were being held onto with a cord wraped around the top, around their bellies. There were 3 nannys working.

One nanny seemed to know Jade and came up and asked to hold her. I allowed this and Jade was fine. More importantly Jade was fine coming back. She even leaned in and wanted to have mom hold her. Love that!!

The rooms had approximatly 25 cribs in the large room and 16 in the smaller room. Jades bed had blankets in it. We found out that Jade and Rebecca, a baby in our group, were crib neighbors. I took their photo together. The nannies, bless their hearts, work hard. .We watched one holding a baby and trying to calm another in the crib. I really felt that they love and care for these children. They are just out numbered. The orphanage has about 100 more kids in the upstairs rooms. We were not allowed to go to this area. I am sure there are more nannies up there but I don't know how many. God bless them for the love and care they give to these sweet babies. One important note is that all the babies in the rooms we did see are already matched with families. They must move them from upstairs to down stairs after matching to prepare them to go. From this room we were lead to the hugging room. The excercise room. They told us that the babies go into this room each day for physical excercise. It had toys, books in english, some round water thing, (for physical therapy), climbing toys, a swing etc. We were asked to take our shoes off to go in here. I thought this was a good sign that they are trying to keep it clean.


Across from this room is the Dr. office. If the babies are sick and contageous they are put in this area away from the other children. For instance one of they babies in our group had the chicken pox in the last month and she spent time in there. We did not get to meet the director of the orphanage because he was on vacation. We did not meet the Dr. either. All in all it was a wonderful experience. The orrphanage is planning to expand soon into what appears to be a beautiful facility. .

I inquired about Jade's care package we had sent to her. It was mailed to Youyang who said they mailed it to Fuling but somewhere it got lost and Jade did not receive it. All of the families received a disposable camera at Gotcha Day. I am anxious to have the film developed and see what is on it. Dana is having her's developed here so we will at least get to get an idea before we get home. Brent and I commented today how easy life is in America. We are so blessed to live there. We enjoy so many blessings. The Chinese people have to work so hard and still do not live comfortably and enjoy the freedoms we do.

Such as having and raising a large family if you choose. I am so glad we made the trip to this orphanage and saw the love the nannies try and give these sweet children. I am so blessed to be given he opportunity to adopt Jade and give her a home where she will be loved and cared for. We are so blessed we feel overwhelmed. It was a great day, to top it off when we got back we were able to watch more babies being delivered to the hotel. There are about 25 families from Canada (yeah Lanni) that just got here yesturday to get babies. How great is that!! You should all come and adopt a child. They can be playmates for Jade. Love to you all. Please continue to pray for baby Jade. Her transition is still in progress.

She is affraid of Brent right now. She will play with him and smile but not go to him. Many of the babies go through this. They are not used to seeing men, let alone an american man. I know without a doubt that when Jade sees Bailey, Kyle and Landon playing and loving their daddy she will want a piece of the action. They adore their daddy and Jade will too. One of the babies from Canada has taken to dad and not mom. There is no telling what will happen. We are anxious to come home. The time has been exciting but we miss Bailey, Kyle and Landon dreadfully. You are our life and we love you more than words can say. We are on the down hill slide. Only a week left