Lou He, Henan

Let the good times toll..... (as seen on a sign in Luo He)


We left XinXiang after breakfast, the director for XinXiang was coming with us to visit these other Henan orphanages. We were headed for Xu Cheng, it was about an hour north of XinXiang. This was a new facility and apparently a huge improvement over the former space - including a huge improvement in care provided.

We took an elevator to the top floor and visited an infant room. We were allowed to take lots of pictures. There were several newly arrived babies, including one who had been left just the day before, she still had the remnants of after birth in her hair and ears. She had a large tumor on the base of her skull that was almost as large as her head. She will not live long.

We other babies with cleft lips and palate, spina bifida, and limb differences, each one a precious jewel.

We went to room after room, Xia was doing a magnificent job seeking out those babies who could be adopted and advocating for their papers to be prepared for adoption. Beautiful children, a boy with albinism, a sweet girl with down syndrome children with limb differences. Oh my heart!! We were able to hold and briefly love on these kids. How lucky any family would be to have them.

and there was heart break.... we were separated from a room with older toddlers and children by large glass windows. One child was sitting up in his bed. So Beautiful. He waved and Krista waved back. She blew a kiss and he blew one back. Over and over again! You could see so much from his eyes!!

We noticed here and also in XinXiang way more boys than girls in the orphanage. Xia explained that this is unique to Henan. More boys than girls are abandoned. There are also a high number of special needs children here.

We went on to a room with school aged children probably ranging from 7 to 12 years of age. there were sitting at desks when we went in. One little girl there is special to Xia and we could see why. She held her hand out and greeting us in english, “hello” she said, so softly. She is 9 years old and so tiny. She has trouble walking. Krista squatted down and held out her hands to this beautiful little girl, and she walk to her, hands out stretched. “goodbye” she said clearly as we left, it was hard to walk away. If anyone is interested in more information about this little girls, please ask...

Our last stop at Xu Cheng was a dorm within the orphanage, for the older kids. There was a local film crew that interviewed us. They were doing a story about foreigners that come so far away and case so much and that locals should do the same.

The rooms were bright and clean and the kids seemed happy. One little boy we talked to was orphaned when his parents died. When asked if he liked it there, he replied

“yes, it is my home”. There was another boy who was about 8 years old and had the most mischievous all boy grin and a sweet 11 year old girl with cerebral Palsy who wrote her name for us, and showed us a pictured that she had colored.

We left Xu Cheng and headed out for yet another multi dish meal which again included hosts toasting with shots of local rice wine and the culturally necessary drinking if the shots. Luckily it appeared to be .53% so it didn’t seem to have much effect.