Back in the USA

It's been a little more than a week since we've been home. Our bodies have returned to Wisconsin time, and we are no longer waking up in the middle of the night.

The weather here has been great - deep blue skies, puffy white clouds, and 70 degree temperatures. The food is familiar - we know what we are eating. There are rules on the road, and drivers follow them (most of the time). Horns beep only when absolutely necessary. When people talk to us, we understand what they are saying, and they understand us.  And all the bathrooms have toilets that actually flush.  It's great to be back with family and friends.

But do we miss China? Absolutely!  Would we like to go back again someday? In a heartbeat. We miss the Chinese people and the yummy food and the bright lights and the ancient sights and the bustling cities and the gorgeous countryside and our many new friends.

But next time, Amanda and Jamie are coming with us.

Going Home

We're on our way home. After more than two weeks of experiencing China, we are heading home to Wisconsin.

We have had an amazing visit to this great country.  It has been educational and exciting and exhausting at times.  We have explored ancient sites,  shopped in modern cities, and eaten traditional Chinese dishes. We have traveled by planes, trains, buses, and boats. We have met special people and made lots of new friends.

But we sure miss Amanda and Jamie. And our families and friends. We can't wait to go home!

Julie with a chocolate muffin at the airport

Our Last Day in China

Last night we arrived at The Garden Hotel in Guangzhou around dinnertime. This is probably the nicest hotel we stayed at - which was great because we were pretty tired. Julie walked into the room, looked around, and said, "Can we live here?"

The two families from Canada, from our original group of eight, were here too, so we all had dinner together.  We last saw them in Chengdu on June 29 so it was great to catch up.

Today we planned a mostly relaxing day since we need to leave tomorrow morning at six for a  three hour drive to the Hong Kong airport. 

We swam in the hotel pool after breakfast and then shopped at a local market. Guangzhou is a huge city - about 13 million people. It is very pretty but quite hot. It would be fun to come back some time and spend a few more days here.

After dinner it was back to the pool for one more swim. As I watched Julie play with Greg in the water and saw her smiles and listened to her laughter, I thought back to that day eleven years ago when she was first placed in my arms. She was so  serious. And so scared. And so sad. First she just stared. And then she cried - as if her little heart was breaking. When we woke up in the morning, we would look over and see her just staring at the ceiling. We tried everything to make her smile - cheerios and cookies and toys and tricks. Greg would have stood on his head to make her smile. And then one day she did. Little by little the tears slowed down and the smiles increased.

People tell us that Julie is lucky. And maybe she is. But I know in my heart that we are the lucky ones... 

Discoveries in Yudu - A Bittersweet Day

Waiting for us in the hotel lobby at 8:30 this morning were the current director of the Yudu Orphanage, Mr. Li, and the former director, DingGuiLan, who cared for Julie. She handed us a photograph of Julie taken when she was 59 days old, which is now the earliest photo we have of her. She was so excited to see Julie and gave us the following information.

DingGuiLan said that in March 2002, she found Julie crying in a paper box under a tree in a vegetable garden near the orphanage.  The garden was located near a salt factory. She took her home for two days and cared for her before bringing her to the orphanage. Julie was at Yudu Orphanage for several months before DingGuiLan brought her to Jianxin Orphanage. She said she would have loved to keep her but had children and a granddaughter to care for at home. 

We drove to the location of the orphanage, but the building was sold and is empty. We visited the new location which only has three children and many elderly people. DingGuiLan took us to Julie's finding site which is now part of the city. The vegetable garden has been replaced by shops. But the salt factory is still there.

Then Mr.  Li, the current director, surprised us by taking us to a nursing home to meet the nanny who took care of Julie. She is 91 years old and was so happy  to see Julie. She gave her lots of hugs and kisses. Her name is YuYuYing. She seems pretty healthy and told us she is a vegetarian. She is a widow and never had any children. We could see that she really cared for Julie. 

We then had lunch with both directors before leaving for the airport and a flight from Ganzhou to Guangzhou.

This sure was an emotional and memorable day. We learned more about Julie's early life than we thought we would. Everyone we met was so kind and helpful. And it was especially gratifying for us to see how much Julie was loved as a baby in China. 

Jianxin Orphanage

We had a wonderful visit to Julie's former orphanage. As we drove up the driveway to the office building, the director set off Chinese firecrackers in honor of Julie's homecoming and then met us at our van. Her name is Xie Fu Xin, and she gave Julie a big hug. She has only been director for two years but has worked at the orphanage for twenty years. We remember seeing her in the hotel in 2003 when we adopted Julie, and she sure remembered Julie. She was so excited to see her. We walked inside, and there was a big banner on the wall welcoming Julie back.

Xie's assistant, Peng Rong Rong, also remembered Julie. They served us fruit , nuts, and tea as we talked. They do not speak English so Wendy, our guide, translated.

 

All of the orphanages from which children have been adopted keep a file on each child so we were able to look through Julie's file. It contains medical information as well as information about the time she spent at the orphanage. The director then made a copy for us to keep.

We learned that over 1000 children were adopted from the Jianxin Orphanage before it closed. Today there are about twenty homeless elderly people who live there.

The grounds where the orphanage was located contains many apartment buildings, walking paths, and a pond. Xie took us on a tour. The building which housed the orphanage is now owned by someone else so we were not able to go inside. But Xie showed us Julie's bedroom window. We also saw the playground where Julie played as a baby.

 

 2003 to 2014

After our tour, Xie invited us to lunch at a little restaurant right down the road. Peng came, too, so there were six of us plus our wonderful driver.  The food was delicious - Chinese food in China is so much better than Chinese food in the U.S. (Well, except for the chicken's head and foot in our soup.) 

Julie was definitely the center of attention today - I really think Xie and Peng were thrilled that she came back to see them. They made us all feel so welcome. Xie asked Julie to please come back again when she gets bigger. And they also asked her to please learn mandarin. After many hugs and good wishes, we began the drive south to Yudu.

Yudu is in southern Jiangxi province and is the town where Julie is from. She was in an orphanage in Yudu for a few days before being transferred to Jianxin Orphanage.  We were told that in 2002, Yudu Orphanage was not processing international adoptions. Julie was brought to Jianxin Orphanage so she could be adopted. Tomorrow we hope to get more information about Julie's time in Yudu from the director of that orphanage.

Nanchang Orphanage

Today we took a second bullet train to Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, where Julie is from. Our first stop was the Nanchang Orphanage where about 300 children currently live. Julie was in the Jianxin Orphanage which is about an hour away. It closed as an orphanage in December 2013 because almost all of the children were adopted into families.  A few of the children with special needs were then transferred to the Nanchang Orphanage.

We visited with some of the younger children who ranged in age from 2 to 7.  We saw their classrooms and gave them lollipops, pencils, and stickers. They liked the candy the best. Many of the children live with foster families who have small apartments at the orphanage site. Each family cares for 5 or 6 children in a homelike setting. The children go to school at the orphanage until 5 and then go home with their families who are paid to care for them.  The director told us that most of the children have special needs, and some are on waiting lists to be adopted.

The saddest part of the orphanage visit was when we went upstairs to the infant room. There were four or five rows of little cribs next to each other with a little baby in each. We weren't allowed to go into the room because all of the babies have medical conditions. It was heartbreaking to see them lying there. I hope and pray that more and more people will consider adoption as a way to grow their families. Adoption isn't always easy, but I believe every child deserves to be part of a family.

Tomorrow morning we will visit the former Jianxin Orphanage which is now a home for elderly people. We will then drive to Yudu, Julie's hometown, in southern Jiangxi province.

Saying Goodbye

From July 2, 2014:

The feng shui must have been great at the Mountain Retreat Hotel in Yangshuo.  We had the best night's sleep so far. We woke refreshed and ready for more adventures.

On our way back to Guilin, we stopped at a 300 year old farmer's house.  An elderly farmer lives there with his wife and sister in law. Their children and grandchildren moved to the city and visit on the weekend. Our guide told us that most young people prefer living in cities today.The farmer told us that he practices kung fu.  His wife showed us how to grind soybeans into soy milk and how to pump water from a well. 

We then drove back to the Bravo Hotel in Guilin where it was time to say goodbye to our friends.  We have had such a great time together that it was really hard to leave them.  But we plan to keep in touch and hopefully get together occasionally.

Our local guide, Cherry,  dropped us off at the train station, and we were on our own in China. Taking the bullet train from Guilin to Changsha without a Chinese guide was quite a challenge so we were really happy to find our new guide, Wendy, waiting for us when we arrived.

A Day in the Mountains

From July 1, 2014:

We checked out of the Guilin Bravo Hotel and headed to the Li River for a 3 hour cruise aboard a river tour boat. The sky was a beautiful blue,  the mountains were a deep green, and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.  The temperature was in the 90s with 95% humidity, but there was a wonderful breeze the entire trip. And the cabin was air conditioned for when we needed some relief from the heat. Our destination was the town of Yangshuo.

Once we docked in Yangshuo, we had an hour to shop at the local street market.  It was so hot and humid that most of us spent the hour at McDonald's with cold drinks,  ice cream, and air conditioning. As  we were walking to our bus,  it started to pour.  The rain came down so hard and so fast that we ducked into a local grocery store. All of the stores at the market have open fronts so we stood and watched the rain flood the street. Within minutes there was several inches of water in front of us. We waited until the rain stopped before boarding our bus.

Following a harrowing drive  up the mountain along a narrow winding road through more pouring rain, we reached the beautiful Mountain Retreat Hotel as the sun broke through the clouds.  The hotel is set in the mountains alongside the Li River. Unique, rustic, and tranquil are words to describe our stay here.

After dinner, we drove back into town for a very cool water and light show on the river. The show, called Impressions, was produced by the man who created the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Over 600 people were part of the show - most of them were local farmers and fishermen. 

Tomorrow is our last day with our group. We leave in the evening for  the first part of our journey to Julie's orphanages.

A Very Long Twenty Four Hours

From June 30, 2014:

Our flight last night from Chengdu to Guilin was delayed until 9 pm. When we were probably 2/3 of the way, we had to turn around due to severe weather and land at another airport.  Most of the announcements were in Chinese so we weren't sure what was happening. We sat on the plane for awhile, refueled, and finally reached Guilin around 1 am, arriving at our hotel  a little after 1:30. Fortunately, we had a free morning and were able to sleep in.

After breakfast,  we got on skype with Amanda just as severe thunderstorms were hitting southern Wisconsin. As we were talking, the tornado siren went off and then the severe weather radio, telling everyone in the area to seek immediate shelter. Amanda went down to the basement, and we texted Jamie who was at a bowling alley. After an hour of prayer and lots of texting, Jamie told us that he was home and Amanda told us the storms had passed.  It sure is hard to be far from family.

The girls had a blast swimming in the hotel pool today. We did visit a really beautiful local park but spent most of the day washing our clothes in the bathtub, straightening out our suitcases, and relaxing with our new friends.

Today was a reminder for me to never take things for granted and to be thankful for little and big things every day.

I'm sure we'll sleep well tonight.:)

How to Comment

Hello all, this is Amanda dropping by with a more administrative post. Several people have informed my parents, my brother, or I that they've been unable to comment on this blog. While blogging platforms like Blogspot/Blogger definitely give preference to other bloggers and those with websites, it is still possible for anyone else to comment as well.

So, because my parents would love to read your comments about their trip (as would I), I have put together a little tutorial about how you can comment on this blog without being logged in to any account.

There are a few ways to access the comment form:
1. From the main page, you can scroll down to the end of each individual post. Each post lists comment information, including whether any comments have been made, and how many. The screenshot below shows where this information is located.

If you click on that link, you're transported to the post's individual page, which can also be accessed by...

2. Directly clicking on the post's title.

3. From either step, you'll end up viewing something similar to the screenshot below:

The comment form! 

4. To leave a comment, simply click on the down arrow next to "Comment as." My Google/Gmail account is currently logged in, so I have the option of commenting from that account. If you don't have an account with any of programs/platforms listed, there's an option to comment anonymously (basically all this means is that you won't need to provide any user/login information). 

Once you've typed your comment, simply hit publish (and enter in an alphanumeric code to prove you're not a robot). 

My one suggestion for commenting anonymously is to add your name to the text of the comment so we know who you are!

I hope this provides some clarification! If not, please don't hesitate to ask me any further questions.

Pandas

The city of Chengdu in Sichuan province is famous for its hot, spicy food, its pretty girls, its beautiful mountains, and its adorable pandas.  Bordering on Tibet to the west with mountains to the north and west, Sichuan province is home to 80% of the 1600 pandas still living in the wild.  Today we toured the  Giant Panda Breeding Research Center.

The giant pandas can be seen in a setting approximating its natural habitats.  The base focuses on getting the pandas to breed with a goal of eventually returning them to the wild.

 

On a more personal note,  30 years ago today Greg and I were married at the Presbyterian Church in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.  We never would have guessed then that 30 years later we would be spending our anniversary in China with our youngest daughter, Julie.  It's been a great 30 years, and we are looking forward to the next 30 together.

Our 30th Anniversary Dinner at the Chengdu airport McDonald's