Daddy and Dani playing.
The day started with the girls waking up at 5:20 and playing until it was time for breakfast. Dani had decided that Mike was totally awesome and wanted to be held by him exclusively. It was pretty cute! We headed down to breakfast and then back to the room to grab our bags for the day out and about. I was feeling emotional about our day while waiting on the guide. We were not allowed to see the finding place for Nadia or Amelie and so this was going to be our first opportunity for that. It’s a hard thing to think about – so many questions that we will never have the answer for. Our first stop was at the finding place for Sawyer, and seeing Jaime and Chris out there taking photos made me tear up. Our next stop was a wholesale baby supply market our guide had found for us to buy some things for the orphanage. That was really fun because the Chinese just get louder and louder the more they haggle. While Maggie was negotiating our price she also called the orphanage director one more time to ask if there was anything else they needed. She asked for some large diapers so we bought some and so did Jaime and Chris.
I took this from the doorway of the wholesale baby supply shop.
Maggie told us that Dani was left at the front gate of the orphanage so that is where we were going to stop and take photos. Then when Maggie was talking to the orphanage director she said that we could go onto the grounds of the orphanage, but not inside the buildings to drop off the donations. We had not arranged for an official visit so this was a surprise.
Children live on the grounds here and so do the elderly.
The main orphanage building. Pretty cool.
The building where the foster families live and take the kids in the foster program to sleep at night.
Mike and I were both afraid this was going to set her back if she saw people that were familiar so he walked back by the van while the rest of us walked into the courtyard area. While standing with Jaime and Chris a little boy saw Sawyer and started yelling, “Ya Lei! Ya Lei!” (which is Dani’s Chinese name). Maggie said something to him and he took off running towards the gate with a woman in tow. I realized that they were headed for Mike and so I grabbed Nadia and Amelie and took off after them. Once we caught up to them the lady was already holding on to Dani’s hands and the little boy was looking at her. At that point I figured that it was the foster mom and I was so stressed. On one hand I know it’s good that the foster mom could see that she was with a happy family and sisters, but on the other hand I knew that it was going to freak Dani out when we left.
Dani’s foster mother and brother.
I think the other woman in this photo is one of the day time nannies and she is also the one holding Dani in the video we have from April 2013.
Our guide Maggie came over and we asked her to tell the foster mom thank you for taking care of Dani. And Maggie told us that she said “thank you for coming here and giving her a family.” She also told us that Dani is very smart and eats everything. She said that she cries every time you try to put her to sleep (this was something we had suspected) and that we could say her name and give her a toy like the giraffe lovey we sent and she will hold in and go to sleep. She also told us that Dani was one of 6 kids that she took care of at night. Once it was time to go the Foster Mom grabbed the foster brother, said goodbye and the booked it away from us at lighting speed. It was clear she knew what was going to happen and knew they had to go and not look back. Dani started to scream – she was hysterical. It went on and on and on. It was the most heart-wrenching thing for Mike and I. She was inconsolable and it was so much worse than Gotcha Day.
This is the front gate of the orphanage and where Dani was found. Nadia and I talked about it and with wisdom beyond her years she said, “This was probably a good idea because they knew she would be found and that they could take care of her in there.” Crying, crying, crying from Mommy.
Nadia and Amelie were asking what was going on when we got back on the bus and I explained it to them and Nadia said that “it was so sad to see her so confused and scared.” Dani continued to cry and scream and cry some more and Mike said that there was no way she could handle going shopping like we had planned, so he needed to go to the hotel or get a cab back. The bus kept going and pulled up in front of the porcelain shop and Mike was like, “I need to go to the hotel.” Our guide said something like, “It’s just 10 minutes.” What?
So Mike went ahead and got out hoping that walking around would help. I was near tears again and told him that I didn’t feel like shopping because she was so upset, so I pulled out a milk box for her hoping that would calm her down. It was like magic – she sucked the entire thing down and then started playing with the box and straw with Mike. The first photo of this post shows her when she had finally calmed down. So Mike just played with her and I felt good enough to go into the shop. Inside I picked up a set of porcelain jewelry boxes for each of the girls and some for gifts. Nadia and Amelie had a blast running up and down the wide sidewalk in front of the shops. They have needed some room to run and get the wiggles out so that was really good after days of walking along tight streets and dodging cars and scooters. Amelie came in and used the squatty potty in the store and we cheered for her! She was so scared, but Mike had the brilliant idea to tell her to pretend she was peeing in the bathtub or the ocean. It worked, which just made me laugh. In the end I was also glad to get to shop since Jiangxi is known for its porcelain.
`This is in the Guinness Book of world records for the largest piece of eggshell porcelain. It was amazing and the photo doesn’t do it justice. They pulled down a smaller piece for us to see and when you tap the side it makes the sound of a temple bell. That is what makes it so special. Also the artist who created it is 90 years old now and when he dies it will be worth even more money than it is now.
After the shopping Maggie asked if we were hungry and we all said YES!!! As we were driving to the restaurant Nadia yelled out, “MOM!!! Did you see that candy shop???? They had so much candy!” I like the 7 year old eagle eyes for the candy shop when there are a million things we are flying past. Dani cried a bit when we got back in the bus, but when we got out again she perked up again. The restaurant was so nice and I love that in China you can go somewhere totally swank for an acceptable amount of money. The girls (especially Nadia) thought it was totally awesome that we had a private dining room with fancy chairs and our own bathrooms and sink to wash hands. They loved the lazy Susan spinning in the middle of the table and how the food just kept coming and coming. Maggie ordered us an amazing amount of food which was so fantastic. We had some local dishes (most were too spicy for me, but Mike loved them). Authentic Chinese food is fantastic and this was the largest meal I have eaten since leaving America. YUM!!!
I feel like I ate this entire plate of shrimp on my own. SO GOOD. They also brought a bean soup for the toddlers and they both gobbled it up.
Our private dining room doors and glimpse into the bathroom.
Happy girls after lunch.
Once we left the restaurant we had to walk a block or so to the bus and we saw one of the awesome candy stores and stopped to load up. Maggie made recommendations and the girls think they are awesome. We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon and let them sleep 2 hours and then we got them up so they would sleep at bedtime.
After getting up from her nap, Dani was mellow and sad and she laid here on Mike for about an hour. She fell asleep for a while and then just laid there. By the end of the evening she was up and playing with toys again and even played with Amelie.
It was an incredibly emotional day all around and I was ready for a good nights sleep.