Leaving Zhengzhou

We left Eisley's birth city today. I hope I will be able to remember some of the sights, sounds and smells of her city. It really is a huge place, very very busy, with lots and lots of high rise apartment buildings, stores, industrial type buildings and literally millions of people. It was very very clean for the most part, with nice trees and gardens planted along the roads. The people in general in China are not really polite or happy, they seem hurried and it seems like the attitude is "survival of the fittest", they have no concept of "waiting their turn" or "washing hands " or "using toilet paper" or "staring very very boldly". Even though I find that to be very disturbing, all the people at the hotel, all our guides, all the people I observe with children are very very nice. My favorite part of her city was going to the place she was abandoned, Gaoxin village. it was real, it was very raw, it was so NOT touristy and so "every day life". I hope I never forget the smell of the water, the smell of the haze and smoke, the taste of the dumplings and noodles and pumpkin soup and especially the yummy homemade vegetable and pork purses the orphanage director gave us after we visited her orphanage. I hope I never forget the crazy busy streets with the motorcycles driving in every direction, and the bicycles with their huge boxes and bags and stacks of things piled up on the back of them. I know I will forget some of these things, but I will never forget the most important thing, my daughter was born here, she has heritage and history here, she has a story that began here, and I will be able to tell her about it someday, and let her know she comes from a beautiful place!
We arrived in Guangzhou tonight to begin all the American paperwork to come home. We will be here for 5 days. We are in a gorgeous Marriott hotel with a McDonalds right across the street. I am not normally a McDonald's fan, but I'll tell you what, the Big Mac I had for dinner was delicious! The whole flying things was a little bit of a circus with all the bags, all the babies, all the carts and carriers and paperwork. We are exhausted and ready for bed, I am not really looking forward to the medical exam tomorrow, I have a feeling Eisley won't be too thrilled either, but hopefully we can find some really fun things here, I've heard there's a great squeeky shoe store, that may be dangerous, considering my tendency to over do it when it comes to shoes….oh well, we only get to come to China once right???

Sweet dreams from Guangzhou!!!!!!

Another Beautiful Chinese Day!!!

We got up early today and headed out on a bus to go see the Shaolin Temple which is where the martial art of Kung Fu was founded. I wanted to see as much of Eisley's home province and country as possible, so I'm glad we went. We travelled for about 2 hours to get there and a lot of it was in the city. I can't believe how huge this city is, it just keeps going and going and going. Finally we got out of it and started getting into the mountain regions. They are beautiful. The mountains are huge and there are lots of trees and when the haze from the city cleared a little it was a beautiful day! We stopped for a little squatty potty break, which is one the best things about China, truly !!! HAHAHAHA! Then we arrived at the temple where 8000 boys practice Kung Fu daily. It was really hard to understand our guide because he had a lisp and a very very thick accent but from what I learned the boys leave home and come live at this huge school. They run for two hours every single day and then practice. They are formed in groups where they can move up and then one person is chosen to be the best out of the group. He then can get a really great job as a bodyguard or some other high ranking security type job. It costs their parents lots of money to send them here and they also learn basic schooling and I assume some sort of Buddist religion since there are monks all over the place. We walked a lot and up lots of stairs. We saw lots of big Buddhas and learned that Chinese Buddhas are chubbier and smiling with their arms folded, the other Buddha that is normally seen is an Indian Buddha which is skinnier and has it's eyes closed and hands together in meditation. We also learned that Buddhism is all about balance, peace and serenity and this really was a peaceful place. There were lots of people, pushing and shoving, which we have come to realize is very very normal. I had quite a few Chinese ladies come up and try to cover Eisley's legs and kind of shake their heads at me like I was doing something wrong and I just kept saying "it's ok, it's ok" they are very particular about bundling their babies and usually the poor things are sweating so bad, they must be so hot!!! I even had a monk come up and try to get me to put her down because he thought she obviously shouldn't be with me but then our guard explained why all the American's were here with Chinese babies and then he said "oh, very very good!" I really liked the temples and little pagoda's and statues all over, and the gardens were beautiful. There are big statues all over and incense burning at every entrance to the next phase of the temple. It is surrounded by such gorgeous scenery and it was a nice little oasis from the very busy city life we've been around the last few days. We got to see a Kung Fu Show which was fun to watch. They really are very talented and very very strong, it is obvious this is not an art that is taken lightly here.

Eisley was very good for most of it, her little personality is showing up more and more. She does not like to sit, she wants to stand and be held, when she doesn't get her way, she throws her head back and kicks her little legs as hard as she can so it's pretty hard to hold her. For being as tiny as she is, she is very strong and stubborn! She should fit right in! She is a great little eater and is very friendly and happy and waves to everyone! She uses some sign language which I'm sure she learned at the Healing Home, she says more, hungry and a few other signs that we can't figure out. She doesn't vocally say anything at all, except maybe mama and lala, she tries to sing when someone is singing and dances a little, it is so cute when she does that! I am anxious to see what the Dr says about her cleft palate and lip, I think her lip looks great. She has about 10 teeth, it's hard to tell for sure, and the roof of her mouth is completely wide open. She can't suck a bottle very well, but if I sit her up a bit, she seems to do ok. She is so sweet and so beautiful, I am just so grateful for this opportunity. On the way home from the temple today everyone in our group was singing and talking. We had such a great time, I am with some really amazing people. All of us are so different, but I am blown away by the goodness, kindness and Christlike qualities these people have. I have loved getting to know them and learning their stories and meeting their children. I feel like there is a reason we were all put in this group together and I am so happy to have gotten to know them! I am also so very very grateful for Loreen and Becky. They are troupers, carrying around bags, taking a billion pictures, supporting me in all my craziness and helping me a ton. You would think three grown, very experienced mothers would be able to get it all together and take care of one very small toddler, but we work as a team to give her her bottles, dress her, bathe her, feed her and help each other. I wish I could have them at my house when I get home to help me because they have been lifesavers to me on this trip. We gave Eisley a bath last night (which she really really hates) and we were trying to help her to calm down so we decided to give her a "spa" treatment and I held her with her head over the bath in her towel all wrapped up while they washed her hair and massaged her head. it was hilarious because Eisley was just in heaven. I won't be able to do the spa treatment at home alone ha ha ha! And they help me when I lose my phone and every other new mom scatterbrained thing I'm doing. I will have to get it together when I get home, but for now, I'm very grateful to have them be my brains and my packhorses! They are wonderful and I love them and their sweet families for letting them come with me and sacrificing their busy lives to help me on this incredible journey! I miss my family and home, but I'm so happy to experience all that I'm experiencing-what a wonderful opportunity this is!!!!

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!!!!