Every adoption in China takes place in the capital city of the province where the child is from. Our daughter is from Shaanxi Province, and we spent this week in Xi’an, the capital, to complete her adoption. She was found and cared for in a city called Baoji which is 2-3 hours from the capital. Though we knew this was quite a journey, we thought it would be a trip we had to make. So, we set out today for Baoji to see her orphanage and find her finding place. The drive wasn’t a bad one really. Since there are no carseats here, Lydia enjoyed her freedom in the back of the car with Mark and me. And, we enjoyed looking around and asking our guide many questions. We saw lots of farms with winter wheat, old houses, and lots of cave dwellings right up to the city even. We stopped at a dumpling restaurant for lunch and met up with some American English teachers who know my parents. So nice to meet up with them and know that we have a connection to Baoji through them. 

 

Next stop, Lydia’s orphanage. The director met us at the gate and walked us onto the grounds of the orphanage which was in a sort of compound all gated with the home for elderly on one side and the home for children on the other. They told us that the children’s home is moving to another location entirely come May or June. Their current building will be used for more housing for elderly. We are the first family who has visited since before the swine flu scares and the last one to visit this location. There were no people except for a few elderly folks sitting outside when we arrived. But, we drew quite a crowd as staff came out to see us and dote on Lydia. They all were calling her name “YueYue” and trying to get her to smile which she was doing quite readily. Her favorite ayi came out and held her and told us that of all the children (110 they have, 95% of which are special needs children), YueYue was her favorite. And, you could tell that she was telling the truth. They all were loving on her and giving her kisses. Of course, we were chided once again for not dressing her warm enough despite the fact that I put a footed sleeper underneath her clothes so that no skin would show. The director said we could not go into the orphanage because of the swine flu and fear of hand, foot, mouth disease (really?) but that they would take our camera in and take pictures for us. So, they did while we visited outside with all the doting nannies. I am disappointed we couldn’t get in, but I’m thankful for the time we had there nonetheless. It was wonderful to see how much the staff cared for our daughter, and we can tell her much more about her history than we could have otherwise. They gave us a bag with the blanket she was found in (I was picturing a thin receiving blanket. It’s more like a big, furry blanket for a twin bed or something. I don’t know how we’re going to fit this into our luggage!). They could not locate the dress she was found in because they have reused it for other children. But, they did give us 4 pieces of clothing that Lydia wore when she was younger which was very gracious of them. And, finally, we took pictures by the front gate which is where our sweet baby was left and found. I took pictures up and down the street there on both sides as I know her birthmother or birthfather walked that street to bring her there to be cared for safely. Did they know she would be adopted? Did they live right there in the city? Did we drive right past their home? Did they come from the cave dwellings and bring her into the city to leave her somewhere better than in a remote spot where she wouldn’t be found quickly? We will never know. What we do know is that she was found. And, we are so grateful that we get to be a part of her story and she is such an important part of our story. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, after doing a sightseeing trip, we are headed to the airport to fly to Guangzhou where the U.S. Consulate is. We will do more paperwork there and apply for Lydia’s visa, then we’re coming home. 

Oh, and I cannot forget to mention that Lydia walked today for the first time! She took about 10 steps without holding our fingers! 

Thank you so much for all the encouragement we got after our last blog post. We were miserable yesterday. We have no idea what it was that made us sick. We have been so careful about the water and have been neurotic about hand sanitizer. I can say that it was good that we were forced to be in for the day. Lydia made great strides yesterday with opening up to us. By evening, she was moving around a lot more and showing us a little bit more of an opinion (like fussing when I took away our room key card that she wanted to suck on). She was smiling more readily and even reached out to me once–big progress since she hasn’t paid much attention to me. 

As of 7:20am Thursday while I’m writing this, we have a lot more energy and are going to attempt to eat something at breakfast. Our plans are back on for today–a trip to Baoji to see Lydia’s hometown and see her orphanage and pick up the blanket that she was found in (something I am so thankful we can have as something from her birthparents). We are also hoping to meet up with an American couple who used to teach with my parents who happen to live now in Baoji. It’s going to be an eventful day—pray that our health continues to improve and that we can make it the 5 hours in the car today with no problems for any of us. Also, pray that we see more progress with her attachment to me especially and me to her today and that visiting the orphanage doesn’t set us back at all. 

We’ve taken over 900 pictures on this trip so far, but we took NONE yesterday. But, I’ll post a cool picture we took from the top of the city wall when we walked it the day before last. 

 

 

Thanks again for all the comments—keep them coming. And, just a little plug here for our wishes quilt for Lydia–if you haven’t contributed to it and would like to, we need a handful more. We’d love to have our “commenters” who have become part of this story to contribute.