February 19, 2005 Saturday

Today we traveled to the orphanage in Fengcheng where Aysia was until she was placed in foster care. It was a hour & a half ride on the bus to Fengcheng City. The babies did pretty good. Most of them took a nap. The city is very poor. The homes don’t have heating or air conditioning. They wouldn’t allow us to take photos in the orphanage but we could in front of the orphanage. The nannies that work in the orphanage seem to really care about the babies but after being there in the cold you can understand why they keep the babies so bundled up. We met one nanny who came up to me & called Aysia by her Chinese name. I asked the guide to translate & she said the nanny had taken care of Aysia for 3 months. All I had time to say was thank you because we were being rushed away to another wing. She seemed happy to see Aysia & I could have cried & wanted to talk to her more but couldn’t. In the next room we were taken I heard someone say her name but the lady was whisked away & I didn’t have a chance to talk to her either. As we were leaving the lady pointed at Aysia & I made sure to turn Aysia towards her and wave back. It doesn’t seem fair that we travel so far & aren’t able to speak to the nannies hardly at all but we are thankful to have met the one because no one else’s babies were approached or recognized. We returned to the hotel all wishing we could take home more of the children & thankful our little ones are in a warm, loving home now. We ate dinner in the hotel & went next door to the department store & bought an outfit for our newest addition. Then the fun of packing again to leave tomorrow for Guangzhou.