Orphanage Visit

Tuesday was not much to talk about, we went to Civil Affairs in the morning and signed papers, got Ivey’s passport photos taken and were soo, soo tired. It was a bit of a rough day. The most interesting part of the day was when we went to a “real” Chinese restaurant for dinner. Our guide, Susan, had recommended a few things, so we got the dumplings at her recommendation, which were great, but deviated by ordering what “looked like” sesame chicken from the picture. It was actually fried chicken grisel, mainly, chicken feet ground up and breaded!!! It was awful and after choking down a few bites I gave up and ate plain rice. Live and learn!

Tuesday night we slept a lot better and Wednesday proved to be a good day. Wednesday was Orphanage visit day. Again, it’s hard not to have expectations going into this. Our good friends had just been to this exact orphanage a month before to pick up their son, so I felt like I had a bit of an understanding of what we would see from their pictures and descriptions.

We arrived and were surprised that it was in the middle of the city.  Somehow we both had Kenyan/Ethiopian orphanages in our mind, which tended to be in the country. This complex is very large, many buildings. It is very, very clean and well taken care of. It is bright and colorful with lots of toys and playground equipment. BUT IT IS NO PLACE FOR A CHILD TO GROW UP. And that was the thought that kept running through my mind. No child deserves to grow up in an institution, no matter how well they are cared for.

Toddler Play Room

 

We were able to see all of the different age rooms, multiple of which Ivey lived/played in. We were able to meet nannies that recognized her and wanted to hold her, take pictures of her. We saw pictures of her up on the walls (the walls in the hallways were decorated with pictures of the kids from the orphanage, very cute). One nanny in particular was so excited to see her and grabbed her from me to go feed her Congee one last time.

These are the cribs in the baby room.

Special Nanny

 

It was so great to see that people knew and cared about her. They kept telling us how beautiful she was (we agree!). But my favorite part honestly, was getting to touch and smile at the children we saw there. At one point in the baby room there was a little boy who was crying really hard and everyone was busy. I was able to rock this little boy in his bouncy seat, holding his hands and telling him over and over, “Jesus Loves YOU!”.

There weren’t as many children as you might think in this large facility. We only saw maybe 45. That is because Kunming only keeps children at the orphanage until they are 9 months old and then they go to Foster Care. That was Ivey’s story. For some reason, the identity of the foster families are kept very secret, they won’t let us meet them or know much about them. Of all the people we got to meet, I wish we could have met them and thanked them for taking care of our girl for the last 5 months.

The last notable thing is that Kunming is one of the few orphanages that has a “Life Box” outside its gates. It looks like a small shack with a bed/box inside that you can leave your baby in if you want to abandon it and ring a bell that alerts someone inside and then you can run away. This way you don’t have to leave your baby in a park or a ditch. What was most interesting to me was what it said on the outside (in Chinese of course). It said something to the effect of, “Think hard about what you are about to do. It is much better that your child grows up with a mommy. Remember, when you are old, if your family abandons you, what goes around comes around”. Wow.

This is the Life Box

 

It will be a day that is not soon forgotten in our minds.