Off to XinXiang

The van from the orphanage arrived to pick us up at the hotel and we were sure we would not all fit with our luggage. You see there was the driver and translator, plus Cathy, Angela, Ian, Krista, Moya and her daughter , Andie. Plus two duffel bags of donations, 4 large suitcases of donations, two carry ons, Ian's camera equipment, each of us had a backpack and four large boxes with baby gyms -made in China but brought from US ( can't buy them here). Whew and we got it all in. Not that it was safe or would have been okay at home. There was no seeing out the back and even the view from the middle seats to front was completely blocked. But we made it!

We were brought to the hotel and settled in and after an hour, our translator, Zhang, came to get us. We thought we were off to the orphanage but he brought us to a room in the hotel where the director and assistant director were. It was a gorgeous welcome lunch with much great food ; all beautifully presented. The most striking was the whipped yam with blueberry sauce which looked like the tops of three twirled ice cream cones with blueberry sauce, Delicious too! The clear square noodles which were almost gelatinous and served with a lot of garlic and peanuts was also a favorite.

After our meal, it was finally time for what we were waiting for: babies!!!!

We went to Gracie's room noticing there were new mats on the floor ( we had bought some in Zhengzhou, having noticed in pictures that they needed to be replaced). We were immediately fully immersed in beautiful kids. We were snuggling babies, playing with the toddlers and asking questions of the ayis. A reporter from the local paper came and interviewed Moya and there were some pictures taken of the whole group with nannies. We hope to get a copy of that issue!!

Krista , our Gracie's Room coordinator, went through each file we have for kids in the program according to our January reports. We asked for questions and clarifications and also asked about each child whose waiting parents had asked us to. And of course took plenty of photos.

Tomorrow we will visit a foster home ( of a child who has a family waiting in the US). We had thought since she was in foster care, we would not get to see her and check on her for her parents. Now we will meet foster parents and see her in their home. Hopefully we can find out some things that will aid this little one's transition to her forever family.
Dumpling dinner and then off to bed. More tomorrow from XinXiang!