1/4/2002 - 5th day with Anna

It was beautiful day here today. After our normal breakfast, (a great breakfast 5 days ago, now is not so exciting anymore) we head out to Chuzhou. Chuzhou is a small city (population 40,000) about 140 km from Hefei. This is the city not our Anna but 6 of other babies in our group come from. It is a nice city and everything seems relative new. The orphanage director is very friendly man. He welcomed us and gave us a nice speech. The babies were happy to see their nannies but quickly reached to their mothers. It was a big relief to all of us.

We learned from him that there are 140 babies there. Most of them are under 2 years of age. The orphanage was moved to this new location in 1995. Currently he is doing fund raising to build a science/handon facility for children to play. This facility will require 5 million RMB. They already have 3 million and wish to get another 2 million so he can start the project. He also has plan to work on projectors for nannies to visit children in USA and invite adopted children to come back to visit nannies.

We had a tour of the orphanage. It was very nice and clean. There is a hospital and elder care facility on site. We saw two groups of beautiful babies. The assistant director told us that some of the babies are already being referred to families and some are still waiting. I feel sad to see them being in an orphanage, but comforted to see they are well taken care of.

All the families took photos on that famous blue rug, the rug on which all the babies had their referral photos taken. On the way to lunch, we stopped by the people's square. It is a nice open square. It was lunch hour, there were not so many people on the square. It was a great place to take photos. On one side of the square, there are 12 animal pillars, one for each animal year. On the other side, there are 56 tall poles each representing one of the minority group of Chinese people. On each corner of the square, there are four pagodas, each representing each season of the four seasons. All the families had their photos taken under the dragon pillar since our babies were born the year of dragon.

The orphanage director treated us a nice lunch in one of the hotel in Chuzhou. He emphasized that we adopted their orphanage's babies and we are their relatives. We should come visit often. We left Chuzhou with a great feeling of love and friendship. It was great trip.

I also learned that the reason Anna's orphanage (Huainan) is not as good as Chuzhou from Chuzhou orphanage director. Huainan orphanage is located next to a crimination
facility, which is considered a bad and unlucky location. Huainan orphanage director wanted to move the orphanage to a new location. So instead of improving the current facility, they have been saving money so they can build a good facility elsewhere so they can be granted permission from the government to allow adoptive parents to visit the orphanage. I heard from Chuzhou director (both director and assistant director of Chuzhou know the people in Huainan) that Huainan orphanage is a good orphanage. I hope to learn more about Huainan orphanage when we see the director again on Monday to finalize our paper work.

After the trip, our family went out for a walk. We had great time walking on the shopping street. As always, we attracted many by passers. We had Kentucky fried chicken for dinner. After shopping, Anna felt a sleep. Berthold was carrying her in the front, followed by Toby, Joshua then Sue pushing a stroller. At one point, a group people started counting, one, two, three, oh... four. They thought there was another baby under Berthold's jacket on the stroller!!

Anna is still teething, but doing great. We can feel one of the top molars is already out. She was happy most of the time today. She was very happy when we went out walking on the street. She herself attracted a lot attention from the people passing by. However, she did show us her temper when we could not buy the shoes she liked. There were two pairs of black shoes we tried on her, she preferred one to the other. Unfortunately they don't have her size on the one she liked. Little we know, she cried for 5 minutes!! Oh, boy! She is not even 2 yet. What are we going to do when she is a teenage!?

All the adults in our group are doing well now too. All the babies are doing wonderfully.

Tomorrow is another "free" day. We know we will not be staying in the hotel. We will go shopping again. We just don't know how we are going to carry all these stuff. Having been China since 12/18, we have accumulated just too much things. Everything is good here. If you come China now, please pack light