Grace's orphange (or SWI) is located on a small narrow unpaved lane just off a major thoroughfare. Along one side of the lane are small stone dwellings - some might call them shacks....the other side are cement construction materials and a small river.
After the SWI gate was opened, our van drove into the court yard, where we were greeting with a banner (red with old letters) that said "Welcome Lin Li Tan, Go Home!" This was a literal tranlsation from Chinese to English and what the banner meant to say was "Welcome Home, Lin Li Tan" Grace was fine with this and we had a good laugh about it. I think if she didn't know Mandarin, perhaps her reaction to the sign might have been different.
The SWI also houses the elderly who have no other place. Many of them were in the courtyard enjoing the nice day. We were defientlyh an attraction and aroused their curiousity. We were met by the Director and another women, whose role I am unsure of... We were shown to a conference room and given fruit and water, while Grace file was retrieved. I am not sure if we saw the whole file since rather than a file folder or envelope being brough out, just a sheaf of papers paperclipped together was brought to me.
I asked if I could take pictures and was given the "okay", but shortly after taking a picture of the first 2 documents, I was told that maybe it was better not to take any pictures. Our guide, Rosalind, told me that she thought I had gotten a picture of the two most important documents in what they brought us....at the time we did not think to ask if there were pictures. It was confirmed that no note was with Grace at the time she was found. The paperwork did have one inconsistency in it. One document said "found in the afternoon" andother said "morning". I asked my guide that she had read the "afternoon" document correctly, and she confirmed yes. We both noted the inconsistency, but did not ask the SWI personnel to clarify which was correct. Morning was what the official abandonement certificate documented.
The director was very pleased that Grace knew Mandarin and that usually for returning adoptees that is not the case. They enjoyed the pictures that we had brought of Grace. In the midst of all of this, Grace's Foster mother (NaiNai) came into the room. The SWI personnel had gone to bring her to the SWI.
Meeting Grace's foster mother was GREAT. She was soooo pleased to see Grace. She couldn't take her eyes and hands off of Grace and Grace couldn't stop smiling. Rosalind had a hard time keeping up with translating - everyone was talking so fast and all at once! We got lot's of pictures, we learned a little about her family, we gave her pictures of Grace to her; she remembered the items that we had sent through China Born Kids several years earlier; and we heard a few stories about Grace when she was younger than 1 year.
The foster mother wanted to show Grace (and us) her house, but the director would not allow it, since at some time at the SWI (?) or in Hubei (?) some one had had a bad experience. We asked again later and denied again and they wouldn't even let the foster mother ride in our van with us (not enough room for a SWI staff person to ride in our van, too - so she would be unsupervised with us - I guess). In any case I had slipped in a post card with our email and home address into the envelope of pictures. Later our guide would "secretly" tell Grace's foster mother to look for the postcard.
We got a tour of the children's section of the SWI - we saw the playroom (dusty) and where the babies slept. The SWI is small and has only ever had a handful of babies. Our adoption agency, the biggest China adoption agency has only ever placed ~30 babies from Hanchuan. Since Grace's time most of the babies are placed in foster homes, rather than kept at the SWI. We also learned that the SWI is moving to a new building and that many of the things were already at the new place. On our way out we did get to see a 4-5 mos old baby, who had some kind of issue with one of her eyes. An older blind man was "in charge" of this baby and after a few minutes of our admiring the baby he demanded his baby back ;-)
Before heading to lunch, we went shopping at the local store (We bought 10 boxes of baby milk powder as a donation to the SWI). The foster mother, SWI staff, our guide, driver all joined us in a private room at a local resturant.
After an emotional goodbye at the restuarant, we headed back to our hotel to rest, and the SWI staff and Grace's foster mother headed back to the orphanage and her home.
All in all a very good visit!
Joyce
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