Lasting Impressions

What are the things that keep you up at night? If you have ever read any of my blog, you know what those things are for me. You know that I normally do most of my blogging in the middle of the night. Well, China is no exception.

It's the images of the things that I have seen that has me up at 3:53 a.m. trying to process everything. I am sorry, I told you that I would post about the Tianjin SWI the other night, but I have had complications getting logged it. It wasn't that I couldn't log in, in fact, we have really had no problems with internet connections which is very unusual. The last time the team was here, they had access to NOTHING, except skype. Seems weird to have someone "tell" you what you can view on the internet, huh?

I have always been one to have trouble shutting my mind down. What's weird is that I go to sleep very quickly, but soon wake up and the race is on.. Often times, the face of that little boy that sat in my lap the whole time we were at the Langfang SWI was what I see. I could hear him, in a very sweet, mild voice, turn to me and say "Ni hao" about ever minute or so. Tonight/this morning is no exception. We traveled to Tianjin, which is a coastal municipality on the Yellow Sea. It's a very large, beautiful city and took us about 2 hours from Langfang. We arrived at the Tianjin SWI and were met with 2 beautiful, professional looking ladies and escorted to a conference room up stairs. I was AMAZED at this facility from the walk in the front door, up to the conference room.

We were served tea and were told that the children were napping and we could hang out for just a bit until nap time is over. So, we sipped our jasmine tea and waited. One of the ladies returned and began to give us a short presentation about the SWI through an interpreter. She told us all about the SWI, the school, the care that the children received etc. What a facility. We then began our tour. I ask the M that was with is if this SWI did adoptions out of it and he said yes. As we walked about the freshly painted halls, peered into the windows of the class rooms, play rooms filled with toys and books and saw a few of the children that were living there, it became evident to me that this place was certainly not the norm. After all, I have visited SWI's before, wow, no comparison. It was clean, smelled nice, the children were clean (most all were SN), the rooms were filled with toys, colorful mats on the floors, the nannies were dressed in nice uniforms and many, many other things. They have multiple buildings on the campus and they even took us into the building for the children with the most severe SN. The M said out of all the times he had been there, he had never got to go into this building.

In this building, there were rooms that had about 10 cots on the floor and the children were nestled all snug in their cots and were down for their naps. Most all of the children had CP which was moderate to severe, most being severe. Each room had 3-4 ayi and a smile was on everyone's face. All of the children in this building were not considered adoptable. As we left the building, I ended up at the back of the group walking beside the M. He quietly made the statement that this SWI was not like this 6 months ago. Everything was completely different, from the fresh paint to the multiple playgrounds filled with colorful playground equipment. That statement spoke volumes to me and if you know much about this culture, it should to you too.

The lady that is the house parent of the foster home that is run by the M family that we stayed with had to come to Tianjin to meet the couple that is adopting Caleb, one of the children that lived at their foster home in Langfang. He was a naughty, 6 year old that was all boy that was being adopted by a Chinese family. He did not have a left hand. He left to go be with his forever family while we were here. It was interesting to see how things work in China as far as adoptions go. The paperwork looked much the same.

One of the rooms that we went into was a baby room that had about 20 or so babies and probably 15 ayi with them. All of the ayi had a baby on their lap and they were laughing and playing. They had boppy cushions and play gyms and lots of toys. The babies that were not on the lap of an aye was asleep in a bouncy seat right beside of one. Pat and I were bent over playing with the most beautiful little girl with a cleft lip/cleft palate. The ayi handed her to Pat and I held off as long as I could and took her away from him. She was beautiful and was so sweet. She smelled so good and was dressed in clean clothes - no rag with a bungee cord - and felt like she had on a diaper. (I didn't look to see for sure) Imagine that. The M said that in all the years that he had been coming here that he had never seen anyone get to hold one of the children. I cried those silent tears and prd over this child and the others in the room.

We found out that that particular facility has, at present, 749 children. This facility had been completely redone in the last 6 months and I knew the reason for it. The world has been watching. I am sure that many, many tours have been done in this SWI to show the world how wonderful the SWI system is in China. To let other people see how well the children are cared for in China, especially those little ones with disabilities. To let the visitors from all over the world that want to see a Chinese orphanage get a glimpse. Millions of people have watched this part of the world in the last few weeks. They were relieved to see how well children are cared for. What I had just seen was a showcase orphanage - one that officials want the world to see. But, I kept thinking to myself, why Tianjin? The reason for that can be found if you google Tianjin. Make sense? I hope so. Because of my current location, I can't elaborate much more. But, if you have been around Chinese adoptions at all, you probably get the picture.

That was probably more information than you wanted and I am sorry that the post is so long. It's hard for me to condense everything I'm thinking into manuscripts smaller than War & Peace. I have so much more to tell you, but if I tell you now, you will be reading for days. Good night from China and I will see you soon.

Amy