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.