Monday, February 20, 2006
CHENZHOU!

What a day it has been. I spent much of the drive back to Changsha trying to gather my thoughts and figure out a way to describe in words what we experienced today. I will try but I can't imagine being able to do it justice. It is something that Michael, WenYan and I will never forget. We are so happy that WenYan's carsickness seemed to be cured by a combination of dramamine and ginger... well she thinks it is just mommy's medicine and not the ginger but I wonder. She refused the ginger on the way home and was just fine so maybe she is right. It feels good to be able to meet a need of hers and have her look to me to fix something.

It was another rainy day but we made it to Chenzhou thanks to our two wonderful drivers. It seems that long-distance driving is not big here so our regular driver had an assistant today and they took turns driving which is just such an amazing thing here.. lots of horn honking and weaving. Wen Yan had a hard time going to sleep last night as I could tell she was very excited to return to see her friends and take them gifts. She slept for part of the way to Chenzhou and woke up happy and not sick which was a huge improvement and a big relief.

We called the orphanage as we got into town and invited them to lunch and so we were able to go and pick up the director, supervisor, doctor, head nanny and the other 5 older girls and take them out to eat at a nearby restaurant. When we walked into the courtyard the older girls came running out to greet us. We could feel their joy in seeing WenYan and we felt so welcome and like we were visiting old friends. Looking into the beautiful faces of those 5 older girls made me want to just scoop them all up and take them home with me. We began to walk the same path that WenYan would take to school or wherever else they would go to, but when it started raining we all piled into our mini-van together. We all got to eat at a large round table in a private dining room and the first thing we did was take a group photo of the girls and the female staff.. you can see how close they are. These women obviously love and care for these girls more than is just necessary in their "job". We decided this was WenYan's party so we had her tell everyone where to sit so she positioned her friends and the adults around the table. The girls sang us a few songs and we learned their names and ages and tried to break the ice a little. We learned that a couple of the girls have health problems that seem to complicate their ability to be adopted but our goal when we return home is to see if there is anything we can do to fix that or at least fix their health needs. We were served dish after dish of local specialties and again, Hunan food is the best. Spicy! We toasted to WenYan and enjoyed our meal together.

We returned back to the orphanage and began to hand out gifts and treats to the teachers, babies and younger kids who were in a pre-school built by Half the Sky. The older girls slipped out and returned to their afternoon classes at the city school. WenYan's English teacher came by to visit and stayed with us until we left and one by one we got to watch WenYan go around the orphanage and connect with the people she loves. She handed out chocolate bars and suckers to everyone and many of the small children were clutching several in their little hands. We visited the babies and their nannies who obviously knew WenYan well. She went around to every child and touched some cheeks of babies special to her and spoke to all the adults who all came out of their rooms to greet her. We then went to WenYan's room which was a very emotional thing. We saw where she has slept and she wanted us to take lots of photos. When our guide asked her to describe her life here for us while Michael videotaped, it became very emotional and we were so happy that she was able to begin to grieve for all that she is losing.

Another difficult good bye was for Grandma who was WenYan's first friend at the orphanage and has been surrogate grandmother for many years. This tiny woman looked me straight in the eye with tears in her eyes and told me how much Wen Yan has meant to her. While I could not understand the words, I could feel the depth of what she feels for WenYan. All too soon, it was time to get going and we again walked the same path that WenYan would walk every day to her school.

There is a large gate at the school that we were told we could not enter but the timing was miraculous as her classmates from the city school happened to be passing through the courtyard just as we arrived. WenYan called to them and they all rushed over and reached their hands through the bars to touch her and many of them began to cry. The school director came and let them come out of the gate so they could hug WenYan and we took another group photo. Again, the love shared by these girls for each other was so evident and powerful. All of them were crying as they had a group hug.