Orphanage visit

Today we visited Annie’s orphanage in Shaoxing.  It was very emotional for me to visit the place that my daughter spent her first nine years. I was basically a puddle of tears. L The orphanage is a VERY good one—the children are obviously loved and well cared for, and the place is bright and cheery. But still—the rows of beds with bamboo sheets for mattresses, the baby room with a dozen adorable babies laying around on the floor—it is just heartbreaking that these children do not have families. (They asked us not to take photos, by the way, so we cannot show you the adorable faces we saw.) And more heartbreaking is the thought of what will happen to these kids if no one adopts them. Life here is very hard for orphans. This orphanage just started doing international adoptions this year (which is why Annie had not yet been adopted.) In China, there are over 500,000 orphans by most accounts, and only about 15,000 are available for adoption.  Many orphanages just don’t bother to prepare children's files--they lack the resources to have the medical evaluations done, to prepare the files for the government, etc.  

Annie was thrilled to show us around her home, introduce us to her nannies and friends; she told them that she was already very happy with her new family.  I had some time to chat with the director and her assistant and they told me that they knew Annie would do well---that she is very kind-hearted and adaptable. I have seen that already—she is unbelievably kind and considerate of Ellie---honestly, I couldn’t have hoped fro a better start for the relationship between these two.  

After we got back to the hotel, we again went to the girls’ favorite spot---the POOL! They make women and girls wear bathing caps here (but not men and boys---ahem!). Oh well, it did make for adorable pictures! (of the girls, at least—not so much for Michelle and me. J)