Pictures for Finding Day and Orphanage Day

Here are some pictures of Josie in our hotel room, her finding site, the orphanage, the street side driving by, and Josie and her Baba.

Look at that arm move!

This young gal was so interested in Josie's story; I hope word gets around that Josie has a home!

Josie's bed is at the front. The other empty be is Abbys.

The little girl who's left has a family; we had her on our list to get pictures for her mommy.

Note bicycles and clothes hanging out to dry; these were everywhere!

Orphanage Visit

This morning the three of us who are adopting from Nanjing's Social Welfare Institute, plus a couple of other families visited the orphanage. We discovered Josie and Abagail's beds were in a threesome. Only one little girl is there now and she has a family. We took lots of pictures for them. Seeing Josie's little bed in the corner by the heater and the window was the only time I cried. Most of the time I was shooting pictures and making sure we were getting lots of the kids we had on our list. There is a yahoo group for that orphanage and the hopeful parents sent us their children's names before we left. We saw one group eating lunch in the hall. We saw three rooms for the 0-1 year olds (all in their cribs) and several rooms for the 1-2 year olds (all in their cribs). There are play rooms and learning rooms which we also took pictures of, but there were no children in them. As we left the orphanage director (a different one this time) gave us a little glass ornament with An Hong's name on it, the chicken zodiac, and good luck wishes. They gave us a brocade of the symbol of Nanjing with a card (which I've not yet read because Wendy told me it would make me cry). Josie and Wendy's Abagail shared the same room from the time of entrance (they were born a week apart) until May 8th. They will fly back to the states on the same flight too. The orphanage was clean and the children interacted with us. But it is still hard to see so many babies in their cribs crying. No one responds.

Josie did fine. We took her in not knowing what her reaction would be. We put her in a carrier facing her Baba so she would feel more secure and so the nannies could not take her to hold her (they still tried). She was tired but didn't cry. In fact, she didn't really respond to them at all. But they gushed over her and were obviously pleased to meet her Baba and Mama. And I am so glad for their care of Josie for these last two years. She made it!