Visit to the Orphanage...AND the Foster Family!!

What a great day!

While the night was short: Kai woke up at 0100 and needed to go potty...and sleep was on and off after that. Since I was up any way, I decided to slip out to the treadmill while Kai and Jay were laughing it up on the bed. Unfortunately, he gets pretty distressed when I leave and though Jay knew he could text me to come back...he decided to take the opportunity to bond with Kai. When I got back to the room, I was greeted by the first picture below...precious!

After breakfast, we met our guide for the 2 hour drive out to Shenzhen where Kai's orphanage and foster home were. Apparently, Shenzhen is one of the fastest growing cities, and up until a few years ago was just a fishing village. Now there are more than 10 million people living there. The area between Guangzhou and Shenzhen has the factories that produce more than 50% of the "made in China" goods that are shipped abroad.

When we arrived at the orphanage, Kai stuck to me like velcro (it was very heartwarming!) The teachers and nannies who had cared for him showered him with hugs and kisses. Every room we walked into were cries of, "KaiQiang! KaiQiang!" Then lots of candy was given and received.

The pictures below are just a few of the many that we took and show his classroom, eating area, and sleeping room. If you look at the picture with the long eating table, there are three boys sitting together at the end of the table. They were laughing and joking. Then turned around and started calling me "Foreigner Mama":-) When we walked out of the room, they asked our guide if they could come to America, too? (GULP. My heart ached and I wanted to scoop them up, then and there!)

Next, we had heard from our guide that Kai's foster mom was willing to meet us and was expected any time to pick up her other charges to take them home for lunch and nap time. As soon as she walked in the room, I knew it was her. Kai actually wiggled out of my arms and ran to her. She was very gracious and invited us back to her home to see where Kai lived for the last 9 months (literally, until Monday when the orphanage brought him to us).

As was our experience when meeting Cael's foster family, we arrived to a spread of candy and nuts. The foster parents were preparing lunch for the children and, despite our attempts to decline, they insisted that we stay for lunch with them (noodles, fish, turnips, something brown and something green...all delicious!). These people are NOT reserved in their outgoing love and care for these kids...all FIVE of which had pretty significant special needs. You'll see in one of the pictures, that Jay has a new fan! This sweet girl (about 12) with Down's Syndrome clung to Jay the entire time. She was so sweet!
Both parents continued to smother him with hugs and kisses...and this explains Kai's outgoing personality. Obviously, I started to worry about departure time and if Kai was going to willingly go with us. But, in the end, he smiled, blew them kisses and waved "bye-bye". WOW! I was a wreck and both his foster mother and I cried and hugged. She thanked Jay and I for providing him a permanent home. We thanked them for caring so very much for Kai until we could get there. They then walked us to the door and stood there until we were out of sight. Every few steps, Kai would turn around and wave, "bye-bye"...it was nothing short of a miracle!

On the drive back with Kelly, we asked again, how rare it is for an adoptive family to meet a foster family...she said it is rare...and now we've done it twice! Thank you, Lord, for that tremendous opportunity.

Tomorrow morning, we are going to hike White Cloud Mountain...then maybe visit the purse market.

I think the pictures below are otherwise self explanatory.

Ferlands Out!