Orphanage and Eisley's Flower Bed

We got to go to the orphanage where Eisley was brought to when she was first born today. It is called the Children's Welfare Institute ofZhengzhou. There are 700 or so children here. We didn't see very many at all, but we did get to see where her bedroom was, meet her nannies, see where she played and also saw some other children. We gave the teacher some little file folders that Jenica and her friends made at church. She seemed really appreciative of them and seemed genuinely happy to have been given something other than clothing or blankets. It seemed nice, it was clean, bright and the kids seemed happy. There were usually about 3-4 rows of cribs or beds per room, each one had matching blankets and pillows and the toys were neatly put away. The walls had been painted in children's scenes and bright colors and there are lots and lots of nannies. Part of the orphanage is for younger children and part is for older, almost all of them have special needs. We gave one boy a package of pop rocks and he didn't quite know what to do with them! There is an arts and crafts room, a cartoon room, a play room, a kitchen, an sandplay room and a learning center. There is a nice playground out front and they said the kids can only go out on sunny days! Honestly, I expected it to be really chaotic and busy, but it wasn't. It seemed peaceful and well organized. I asked lots of questions and learned that Eisley was really only there for about a month before they sent her to the Shanghai home and then came back only a few weeks ago. I asked if all her little toys and blankets that we sent went here or if they sent it to Shanghai and they said they sent it there. I was glad for that, and hope they can use that stuff there. We left some treats and some glow sticks and the file folders with them. Eisley didn't want to go to any of the nannies, even thought they were all nice to her. She seemed nervous that I might leave her there. I just held her the whole time and she was fine. I asked her one nanny where she slept and they showed me her room but she said Eisley wouldn't go to just one crib and that she was too smart and that she would pick and choose which crib she wanted to sleep in! That made me laugh, she does seem to be way, way smart!!!! I am glad we went, I am glad we experienced it, and I'm glad she wasn't there very much, I think she was a little bit traumatized by the whole thing.

Next we went to the tiny little courtyard village where she was abandoned. The driver of our van had a hard time finding it, and had to ask directions often to get there. We drove for quite awhile. Lan (part of Eisley's Chinese name) means orchid because she was found in a flower bed. When we arrived at this little place I was pretty hesitant to even get out. It is in a pretty poor part of town, with dilapidated buildings, broken windows, bricks and things laying around, clothes hanging out of windows and on fences, old bikes laying around. The first thing I saw was a huge vegetable garden right out front, there were shoes and clothes on the stick fence surrounding it, and off to the side were a happy kids playing in the street. As we started walking into the lane or street, I noticed along the road were lots of little gardens, surrounded by these little stick fences. Only one had flowers in it, bright red roses. Others had grass and trees and vegetables, but I only saw one with flowers. I don't know if this is where she was, I will never know which one of these little beds held my baby girl for a little while before someone found her, but I know it didn't take long because as we were walking along we were getting more and more surrounded by curious villagers wondering why we were there. There were young kids, older people, teenagers, and people about our age. They all were talking to our guide Rita about why we were there and what we were doing. We gave the kids glow sticks and they were scared to death of us, but when they saw we had treats, most of them came up to us. I couldn't help but wonder if one of them knew Eisley's birth mom, or if one of them was her grandma or brother. I will never know, she will never know, but at least she can say she was there. I can tell her how I felt there. I felt safe, I knew the people there loved their kids, they seemed happy, poor, but happy. I am so grateful I was able to visit there, it is a place that will always hold special meaning to me. I am happy to have seen another piece of history from her life!!!!