Yesterday afternoon we met with the Orphanage Director and got to ask questions through a translator. She was very kind and provided a lot of information. She shared several interesting details about the orphanage. It was built in 1952 and has 60 children currently aged 0-15yrs (small compared to other orphanages in China). They have only had 33 international adoptions and ours is the first group to adopt children from the United States. The other children found homes in Canada, Australia and Spain. Half of the children are under 2-yrs-old and the majority are special needs due to a health condition. The Director said that the orphanage does not have very good hardware (building, fixtures, etc) but they have good software (caregivers). This is evident by seeing Allyson.

Allyson has obviously been held and received nurturing. When I feed her she will look right in my eyes and touch my nose/face. She is very comfortable being held in an infant position when we feed her. The Director also said that the children were taken outside everyday. We could also see this was true for Allyson as she has tan hands and face ....the rest of her is "whitey-white" as they cover the babies up head to toe! The Director also said that Allyson's personality was somewhat quiet and that she would cry if a stranger even walked in the room. This partially explains why she would cry everytime she woke up and saw Mike or I staring at her precious face. We know it will take time for her to understand that we are her parents forever. We have already seen improvement with this starting yesterday after her nap....when she woke up and saw us she didn't cry, and it was the same this morning....no crying. This was a relief as that was hard to see her so sad.

The Director said that one nanny cared for 6 children and that there were three shifts of nannies. She gave us our diposable camera that we had sent to take pictures for us of the orphanage. Boy will we treasure these pictures! I also asked if I could have the clothing that Allyson was found wearing. Unfortunately she said that they don't save the clothes as they are often not good quality and dirty. This was a disappointment as I had hoped to save these for Allyson.

She shared information about Pingliang which was helpful as it is such a rural location that it is hard to find information on the Internet about the area. She said that it is a farming community and there is no industry outside farming at all. She said they farm wheat, corn, pears and apples.

Mike and two of the other fathers are going to make the drive to Pingliang City to capture it on film and camera for our daughters. Maybe Mike will even be able to take a picture of the place Allyson was found. The drive is very difficult. It is a 5 hour drive and only one hour is on a paved road.....the rest of the way is on dirt roads through villages. Of course Mike is thrilled to get the information on the city where Allyson was born, I think he is also excited about the adventure of it. They will be going with our agency representative so I feel somewhat better about that, but it still worries me!

The Director also provided us the newspaper notice where Allyson's abandonment was posted. It has the only newborn picture we will ever have of Allyson so I am really thankful to have it.

We made a trip to the local grocery market here. It's called "Home World" and they sell everything from clothes to books and food. What an experience that was. This area is totally different from Beijing. As I wrote before, there are NO WESTERNERS here....NONE! So when we walk down the street we are quite a scene....especially since we are American and carrying the cutest little Chinese baby you have ever seen! I was really overwhelmed at the grocery store because nobody spoke english at all. Luckily, Mike's Mandarin is good enough to get us around....even one Chinese lady told me how good his Chinese was. I was not going to let Mike out of my sight....if I would've gotten lost there, I would have been up a creek. We bought water, Pringles and baby formula. Amazingly, the Pringles taste just like at home....we bought three cans & I can't wait to eat them!! Between no signs that I could read, everyone staring at us non-stop, the fish and pigs hanging from the ceiling in the meat section of the store and the crowd of people there in the middle of the day, it was an experience for sure. Of course, Mike takes it all in stride and led the way. Luckily God picked us for each other as we are so different and help each other! I also realized while we were at the store alone, how glad I am that we are here with the other families and our guide. The grocery store was the first time that I felt really, really uncomfortable. Having other Americans in our group and someone to lead us around makes a HUGE difference.

Today I'm sending two pictures. One is of Mike holding Allyson in the baby carrier in the lobby of the hotel as we are heading to the grocery store. She loves the carrier and loves being out and about....thank goodness!!

The other picture is of Allyson playing on a blanket on the 18th floor of the hotel. All of our families are on the 18th floor of the hotel and no other guests are on that floor so that is really nice. We put out a large blanket and the babies can come play there whenever we want to. The other baby is 20 days younger than Allyson and they are cute playing together.

Allyson Playing on the 18th Floor

We have four more nights here in Lanzhou while we wait for Allyson's passport to be processed. Then we are off to Guangzhou and then home. Tomorrow, our group is going to a local park that has a zoo nearby. Sounds interesting....we'll send more pictures and updates soon.

Love,
Angela