Thursday, October 16, 2008

Today was a very long but very rewarding day. We woke up at 5am to get ready for the day. That SOUNDS early but we were already up! Logan slept really well last night and only woke up once! When he woke up for the morning he simply sat up in bed and smiled! We met our guide Chai at 7:30am to begin the drive north to XuZhou (shoo-joe). They warned us that we may hit traffic going across the Yangtze River Bridge. And yes, we did. Almost 5 hours later we pulled up to the orphanage in XuZhou. What a charming city! The orphanage looked like a villa with lovely landscaping and an ornate fence. When we pulled up Ms. Tang (the orphanage director) met us on the front steps. She was so happy to see us and immediately reached for Logan. Some other orphanage staff came out to meet us as well. We unloaded our suitcase of orphanage donations and our gear and Ms. Ta ng led us into a reception room. It was nice and air conditioned! She offered us grapes and bananas. After a quick snack she led us on a tour through the orphanage. Our guide told us that XuZhou orphanage is the #1 orphanage in Jiangsu. The orphanage was super clean and there were many caregivers. Our guide told us that the orphanage and adjacent buildings employ 100 people.

The first room we saw was the dining room. The next room was the playroom. This is the room with the green walls where all of our pictures of Logan have been taken. It is much smaller than I imagined. All of the toddlers were in the room playing. We were able to take pictures for all of the waiting families and we were also able to meet Logan’s 2 best friends. When we walked into the room the caregivers swarmed Logan . His favorite caregiver had meet us in the reception room when we first got there and she proudly carried him around the playroom. Brandon and I were taking pictures the whole time. We were then shown the toddler sleeping area and they showed us Logan ’s crib. The sleeping area and playroom were joined by doors with a bathroom area in the middle. The beds were very clean and the room was very organized. The next room was for the 6 -12 mth olds. They were taking naps during this time but Ms. Tang allowed us in to take pictures of 2 children. The last room was for the 0 – 6 mth olds. There appeared to be about 6 babies sleeping in this room. We were so happy that we were able to visit the orphanage and meet these people who played such an important part in Logan ’s life. XuZhou mommies: I will write you all separate emails about your little sweeties.

After the tour we went outside to take pictures in front of the sign they made for our visit. It read: Welcome Chen Mengwen Back Home. Wow! I had seen other families greeted by a similar sign but to see our son’s name…. and for it to say “back home”. I realized that to THEM… his home was the orphanage. And to US… his home has always been with us… and the orphanage was just a temporary place he was staying UNTIL he came home. It was very surreal. They loved and cared for him very much. It was so evident.&nbs p; Each caregiver would come up to him and touch foreheads with him. A loving gesture that the must have frequently done.

When we first got to the orphanage it was obvious that Logan was very confused. I was holding him in the reception room when his favorite caregiver came in. He went to her after she prompted him 3 times. I felt so bad for the caregiver’s heart. She had taken care of him for 19 months and now after 3 days he was hesitating. When the caregiver held him he kept looking over at me and I would smile. He came back to me without any issue and for the rest of the time at the orphanage he would go back and forth between us all without issue.

Ms. Tang invited us out to a traditional Chinese lunch. We all drove to a local restaurant and they ordered TONS of food. We were so appreciative of their generosity but we felt very awkward. We do not speak any Chinese (although we have adopted 3 children from China !), we don’t eat with chopsticks (so the restaurant staff turned the place upside down looking for 2 forks and 3 spoons!) and we were not familiar with ANY of the foods that were ordered…. except the fried rice!