Hope Haven was a HAPPY Visit!

Yes - We got a smile! More on that later tonight. Here is what led up to that smile...

(I promise to post more pictures - blogger is acting a little funky and I don't want to loose what I have written!)

It was a rainy morning in much of China. We saw on the news that many parts of Beijing had flooded and many homes had been destroyed. This was heartbreaking in a way that would have never phased me before. Having been there, seen the people, seen their homes and how they live makes hearing of destruction so much more real. It's no longer something that happened so far away.

At breakfast, Ally sat in Daddy's lap and he fed her. We realized that she was "packing"! This is something that children in institutions will do to store food. I guess it's just a survival thing. We knew to expect it, but just still couldn't believe that she was doing it. It's sort of a private joke with our good friends, the Millers, so we laugh about that a lot! He was feeding her a lot, and suddenly we noticed that her mouth was leaking watermelon juice. That's when we realized that she wasn't swallowing! She had a delicious assortment of watermelon, congee, oranges, and bread. What a sight! Her little cheeks were full and so was the inside of her lower lip. After several attempts she finally swallowed a little at a time! I would massage her cheeks, and a little more juice would leak out and she would chew a little more. Yes, this is normal and expected, but humorous none the less!

Sally and the driver picked us up at 9 AM. I had written a short letter to the nannies and I asked Sally to translate it into Chinese; I made a copy so that I could keep one and give one to them. The drive was about an hour to her "suburb", XianYang City. It looked much poorer than the city of Xi'an (although there is poverty here too) and had a distinct odor from a close-by chemical plant. She was whimpering a little as we passed that; I have no idea if she was reminded of something or not. The road was paved, but it was very bumpy and had holes in the road, that our driver made little attempt to avoid! Hold on tight!

We pulled in and the lady officer (that came with her nanny on Sunday to meet us) was there to greet us and direct us to the Hope Haven floor of her orphanage. Sara noticed the sign on the door that said "No Snoking"! We have seen quite a few misspelled English translations! This one was funny! Anyway, as we entered, she said we could visit the nannies and children, as they were in the playroom, but we could not take pictures in the playroom. She said she would bring the 3 other children out to us to see and photograph in the lobby. We agreed.

So, we went thru a little half door swinging gate and put hospital shoe covers (because of the rain, I think). Daddy's ripped a few times - big feet (yes, he is walking better - just a little limp). We went to the right and saw a wall of cubbies with little shoes in each one. Word was spreading quickly to the nannies that Rui Yun had returned with her new family. Nannies started pouring out of everywhere, smiling and eager to see her (and to check us out, I'm sure). Daddy was holding her at this point. We looked into her "sleeping room" and saw her crib that still had her name on it. It was right by the door and there were about 15 cribs in a small room, but no children at the time. As we turned to go out of this room, a nanny tried to get Ally to come to her, and she turned and put her head on Daddy's shoulder, with a little cry. OK -- I can do this...

On down the hall, on the right, we were led into a room labeled "playroom" and there they were - about 18 children in the room with about 4 or 5 nannies. I'm not sure exactly how many nannies took care of this group, because by this time there were about 8 or 9 in the room - all smiling. At first, Ally just looked around the room. Many nannies gathered around her, touching her and smiling. At this point we were behind another half wall that only the nannies could access. We saw the 3 children that we were hoping to see - all right in the room where Ally would have played. Frannie is the little girl in the picture above with Ally. Her family will be travelling soon to get her. They only live about 20 miles from us in Georgia, so these girls will be buddies in the USA! We gave Frannie a picture of her parents and she held it the whole time. We also gave her a laminated pic of Ally for her to remember her by!

All of the children were a little unsure of what was happening. All of the nannies were so excited and we were the new strangers. We had purchased some little toys at the supermarket to give to them and set them on the counter. We had Sally tell them about the toys and they thanked us and put the toys on a shelf. A couple of little boys saw the box of toys on the shelf and decided to try to get them down by reaching for it (the nannies were distracted). They got the corner of the box, and rocked and rocked the box, until it fell on their heads! They didn't cry at all, but it was so cute to see them excited about the new toys. They were watching a DVD of "Stuart Little" in Chinese. One little girl (again, with the nannies distracted), was holding onto a little shelf with her feet on the wall (a little gymnast, I suppose). That was cute!

Ally did go to one of the nannies and put her head on her shoulder, but went right back to Doug. They then asked us if we wanted to come into the play area. They put Ally right down in the middle of the room. We just laughed as several of the children gathered around her. It was like she was a celebrity and they all wanted to touch her. As we often do, we make up what babies and our cats are thinking, so we did this a little... "Hey, Rui Yun, look at you. You got new shoes and a new dress, and look at your pretty new bow. Where have you been?"

Anyway, Ally looked a little unsure of all the attention. She walked over to a corner and sat down near another little girl. They said she liked to do that. We just let her walk around and "visit" while we took several pictures of the other children. Some of them were nervous with us strangers and the camera flashes. We even made a few of them cry. I tried to touch a few of them and they mainly walked away and went to their nannies. One of the ladies went and picked up Ally and got her to smile and even laugh. I just about lost it at that point. Partly, because I saw how happy she could be and how pretty she was when she smiled. Her eyes just lit up. Part of me was a little jealous because she had not seemed that happy since we had gotten her. I totally understand that she was back in her comfort zone. This made me more worried about the inevitible -- time to leave.

One little girl came right up to Ally and gave her a hug; Ally gave her a kiss (at least it looked like it). That was adorable. Another little girl came over to her and pointed to / touched Ally's hairbow; Ally didn't seem to get mad at her, but she smacked her hand. A little spunk afterall - a sign of things to come!

The nannies told us that she can totally feed herself very well. That little manipulator! We have been feeding her all along... Oh well.

When the time did come to leave (we were in there about 20 minutes), she did come to us just fine without a tear. They gave her the little monkey beanie baby as we left. We tried to return it, but they insisted that she keep it. We did not video any of our visit, as they were reluctant to let us take pictures. We tried to be very observant about the whole experience. Writing it down will hopefully help us remember this day. Our little girl was so brave once again. We are so happy that we went. The facility wasn't the nicest place by US standards - kind of run down and old. But that isn't matters. The ladies loved the children and they were happy. Their clothes and toys were old and somewhat battered. This too was hard to see. I just wanted to grab them and say, "I'm sure we could find them all a home!" I want to send them DVD's, small toys, beanie babys and clothes. If any of you want to "contribute", I'll mail them in a package! I'm so serious.

Today was life changing in so many ways! More to come on our lunch and that adorable little smile!