Visit to Orphanage

We visited Grace's orphanage today. As soon as we entered the orphanage, Grace began to tense up. It was clear she was uncomfortable being there. When we were walking down the hall, one of the social workers saw her and was very excited to see her. She was speaking to her in Chinese and she held out her arms and asked her to come to her. Grace shook her head no and grabbed a hold of me with all of her strength. I felt bad for the social worker, but was very happy that she clearly wanted to stay with me. I felt bad for Grace too because it was clear she was afraid we were going to leave her at the orphanage. I told her Mommy and Daddy will never leave her. I hope one day soon she will be able to believe deep in her heart that it is true and that she will completely trust us and know we will always be there for her. This is our journey of adoption and we are at the very beginning. There are many steps along the way to bonding and attachment and we will do everything we can to ensure Tiffany Grace is securely attached to us and has no lingering fears of abandonment.


As we toured the facility, Grace continued to cling to Joe and me. When we went into the office to meet with the director and three of the social workers (the picture to the right shows the director in the white coat and the three females are the social workers), they kept trying to get her to come to them and she wouldn't. They asked her over and over who was Ma Ma and who was Daddy. Each time they were amazed when she pointed to Joe and I.


The facility was very clean and very nice. The staff was clearly kind and loving. I am so grateful to them for taking such good care of my little girl. Having said that, I am so glad she never has to be in an orphanage again for the rest of her life. Most of the children at the facility are severely disabled. It broke my heart to see all these children who would most likely never be adopted. I'm glad at least that it is a very good facility with a devoted staff.


Grace's best friend, who is completely deaf, was very sad to see Grace leave. She started crying when she said goodbye to her friend. The picture to the right shows us with Grace's Aunties in the room where she lived. Her best friend is the little girl standing up near Grace.


When we went to leave, Grace's social worker began to cry too. It was so special to us to see how much she loved our daughter. They stood at the curb waiving goodbye as our car rolled down the street. None of them attempted to walk away until our taxi was out of sight. From the bottom of our heart we give thanks to the staff and volunteers at the Xining Social Welfare Institute. Xie Xie.


When we returned to the hotel we decided to take the girls to the park across the street from the hotel. Unfortunately, it is just a public gathering place and not really a park for children. So, we decided to just walk on to the supermarket for water. It was funny how much more comfortable we were this time. After all, we'd been there before and that little sense of familiarity made all the difference.


After lunch, we decided to go for another walk. We had no destination in mind, but thought we would just explore. We ended up stumbling upon a fresh market in the middle of town. It was about four city blocks long and was comprised of numerous little stalls selling raw meat, cooked meat, vegetables, fruits, baked goods, sundries and just about anything else you can think of to buy. The fruits and vegetables looked so good. The fresh ginger was amazing looking. So much better looking than what we find in the U.S. The lemongrass was green and soft and fragrant. It was so superior to what we have at home that you can't really think of them as the same thing. Plus we saw either a zucchini or cucumber (we can't be sure which it was) the size of a very large watermelon (I mean the biggest watermelon you can imagine). It was amazing and a little scary at the same time when you consider what they would have to do to produce a vegetable of that magnitude. We saw some fresh wafer cookies for sale and had to buy them. The lady just starting putting them in the bag and I said to Donna, "well I guess we'll just take whatever she gives us." Then she stands up from behind the counter, lifts up a bag almost as large as a big watermelon and says, "okay?" At least that's what we guess she said because she said it in Mandarin. We laughed and said, "okay, how much?" Then she says "4 yuan." Which is roughly 65 cents in U.S. dollars. What a bargain, right? We'd probably get sick if we tried to eat them all, but it was a good deal.


We had an early dinner and are getting Katrina and Grace to bed early tonight. Hopefully we'll all finally get a normal nights sleep. We'll see . . .