Picture of the DAY!!!
How on earth do I begin describing one of the most extraordinary days of our lives? I guess in a dramatic manner like that! Ha. Yesterday, Thursday, was the day we visited Graham's hometown, ChongYang. When we asked the guide what size was the city - she replied, "Oh, it's a small town...less than a million people". We laughed. Oh yeah, he's a small town boy!
After an early breakfast, we met our guide, Vivian, in the lobby at 8:15. It was really cool (65 degrees) outside and raining. I ran back up to the room and grabbed our jackets. We finally left around 8:20 and entered the fray of Wuhan city and Chinese traffic. As I have mentioned before, the traffic here in China deserves its own post along with pictures...so maybe over the weekend I'll take time to describe. In the meantime, suffice it to say I've never seen anything like it in the world. Imagine exhaust spewing cars and trucks (honking madly at every opportunity), bikes, 3-wheeled scooters, mopeds, people walking and the occasional animal all using the same roadway. There are no stoplights or crosswalks to speak of, and as Tom described it...it seems the only objective is to never stop...it's the survival of the fittest...for 3 hours as we drove south to the very southernmost tip of Hubei Province. Oh, did I mention no car seats or seatbelts either?! Amelia laid down and slept, and I held Graham sleeping in my arms almost the whole way there.
The pictues of the countryside are on the way to ChongYang. About an hour south of the center of Wuhan it turns into rural countryside with waterbuffalo and farmers working their rice paddies. Forests of bamboo and miscellaneous trees interspersed with hundreds and hundreds of rice paddies up and down the hills. All available land seems to be used for agriculture. Almost all are tended by hand with very little evidence of anything mechanized to help.
We arrived in Chongyang around 11:15am, and were met at the outskirts of the city by people from the orphanage. They guided us to the building. We got there, and the officials were waiting with umbrellas out - and escorting us into the building. The area around the building is very rural and green. It was raining fairly hard, and we all got wet, but as you can see from the pictures, everyone was game for the experience.
When we got there, we were given a tour of the children's building. There are no kids living there since the Chongyang facility has only 30 children, and they all live at homes with the workers...which, as well as I can understand, the workers must be "workers" because they take care of the children at their homes. The children are brought into the facility about 4 times a year to get medical checkups, and vaccinations etc., to make sure all is well with them. We learned Graham was in a home with 2 parents in their early 40's, as well as a big sister, about 4 years old! Amazing. We did not meet the family.
After the tour, they took us upstairs and into a conference room with a table laden with fruit, water, and the giving of presents. They had prepared a speech for us, which our interpreter read to us. It was very moving...(I think it's the same speech for any family who comes to the facility, I'll tell you why later). Anyway, after that, we took pictures. We went outside and got the picture in front of the orphanage. The picture shows the place Graham was found - at the front gate in front of the sign that says "Senior Care Facility" in Chinese. (This facility is both an orphanage and retirement home for seniors.) Their official photographer was there photographing everything. They got quite a chuckle from Amelia too.
After the pictures, we all headed to a fancy restaurant. It was quite a large contingent together for lunch - and we both felt like we were characters in a Peter Hessler book. (He is one of our favorite authors - he wrote River Town, a story of when he lived for 2 years as a teacher in Fuling, the city where Amelia was born.) The officials included were the Senior Director in charge of all the children's facilities in the county, the Director of the Orphanage, the 2 vice-directors, 2 care-givers, and another man we couldn't figure out what he did, plus our driver, "Mr. Wong" and Vivian our interpreter.
We all sat down around the round table in the private room at the restaurant, and they immediately asked if we wanted "wine" with our lunch. We said sure (silly us). As they began pouring the "wine" I noticed it was in a bottle much like our liquors, and it was pouring out suspiciously slowly for wine. I motioned for a small amount only, but the Senior Director indicated "fillerup"...., then did the same for Tom's glass, and then the rest of them. As I lifted the glass to my mouth for the first toast, the fumes made my eyes water and I knew this wasn't wine - it had to be the strongest tasting liquor I had ever experienced in my life! At my tearful response to the toast, everyone laughed and they poured me some Sprite. Toasting continued intermittently (every 2 minutes or so) for the first 20 minutes of the lunch. The officials were enjoying this lunch immensely! And we were too. It was just overwhelming experiencing this event in Graham's hometown, with people who had really loved him.
What was Graham doing during lunch? He was whisked away by the restaurant workers who took him out and played with him while we ate...they fed him and played with him, and he was game for it all. About 1:00pm, we finished up, and Vivian whipped out a paper she had to go over with us. It listed all the things that were supposed to happen when a family came to visit. 1-5 we had covered all on the list...
1. Meet at gate and show the facility
2. Read letter from staff, and allow us to ask questions
3. Take pictures
4. Show family finding spot
5. Take to lunch
And then there was a place for me to write down our comments on our experience. I filled that little box up with accolades for the officials and their facility. I don't care if they were just "doing their duty", it was a red-letter day for our family. And our Graham is a happy, well-adjusted, loving little boy who has been given an amazing first year of life. How could we ever say thank you enough to them and to China for giving us this child in such stellar condition!
Around 1:30 we piled back in our little van and headed home. The children fell asleep - Amelia loved stretching out fully on the backseat, and Tom and I re-lived every minute of the extraordinary adventure as we raced our way back through the countryside to Wuhan.
After an early breakfast, we met our guide, Vivian, in the lobby at 8:15. It was really cool (65 degrees) outside and raining. I ran back up to the room and grabbed our jackets. We finally left around 8:20 and entered the fray of Wuhan city and Chinese traffic. As I have mentioned before, the traffic here in China deserves its own post along with pictures...so maybe over the weekend I'll take time to describe. In the meantime, suffice it to say I've never seen anything like it in the world. Imagine exhaust spewing cars and trucks (honking madly at every opportunity), bikes, 3-wheeled scooters, mopeds, people walking and the occasional animal all using the same roadway. There are no stoplights or crosswalks to speak of, and as Tom described it...it seems the only objective is to never stop...it's the survival of the fittest...for 3 hours as we drove south to the very southernmost tip of Hubei Province. Oh, did I mention no car seats or seatbelts either?! Amelia laid down and slept, and I held Graham sleeping in my arms almost the whole way there.
The pictues of the countryside are on the way to ChongYang. About an hour south of the center of Wuhan it turns into rural countryside with waterbuffalo and farmers working their rice paddies. Forests of bamboo and miscellaneous trees interspersed with hundreds and hundreds of rice paddies up and down the hills. All available land seems to be used for agriculture. Almost all are tended by hand with very little evidence of anything mechanized to help.
We arrived in Chongyang around 11:15am, and were met at the outskirts of the city by people from the orphanage. They guided us to the building. We got there, and the officials were waiting with umbrellas out - and escorting us into the building. The area around the building is very rural and green. It was raining fairly hard, and we all got wet, but as you can see from the pictures, everyone was game for the experience.
When we got there, we were given a tour of the children's building. There are no kids living there since the Chongyang facility has only 30 children, and they all live at homes with the workers...which, as well as I can understand, the workers must be "workers" because they take care of the children at their homes. The children are brought into the facility about 4 times a year to get medical checkups, and vaccinations etc., to make sure all is well with them. We learned Graham was in a home with 2 parents in their early 40's, as well as a big sister, about 4 years old! Amazing. We did not meet the family.
After the tour, they took us upstairs and into a conference room with a table laden with fruit, water, and the giving of presents. They had prepared a speech for us, which our interpreter read to us. It was very moving...(I think it's the same speech for any family who comes to the facility, I'll tell you why later). Anyway, after that, we took pictures. We went outside and got the picture in front of the orphanage. The picture shows the place Graham was found - at the front gate in front of the sign that says "Senior Care Facility" in Chinese. (This facility is both an orphanage and retirement home for seniors.) Their official photographer was there photographing everything. They got quite a chuckle from Amelia too.
After the pictures, we all headed to a fancy restaurant. It was quite a large contingent together for lunch - and we both felt like we were characters in a Peter Hessler book. (He is one of our favorite authors - he wrote River Town, a story of when he lived for 2 years as a teacher in Fuling, the city where Amelia was born.) The officials included were the Senior Director in charge of all the children's facilities in the county, the Director of the Orphanage, the 2 vice-directors, 2 care-givers, and another man we couldn't figure out what he did, plus our driver, "Mr. Wong" and Vivian our interpreter.
We all sat down around the round table in the private room at the restaurant, and they immediately asked if we wanted "wine" with our lunch. We said sure (silly us). As they began pouring the "wine" I noticed it was in a bottle much like our liquors, and it was pouring out suspiciously slowly for wine. I motioned for a small amount only, but the Senior Director indicated "fillerup"...., then did the same for Tom's glass, and then the rest of them. As I lifted the glass to my mouth for the first toast, the fumes made my eyes water and I knew this wasn't wine - it had to be the strongest tasting liquor I had ever experienced in my life! At my tearful response to the toast, everyone laughed and they poured me some Sprite. Toasting continued intermittently (every 2 minutes or so) for the first 20 minutes of the lunch. The officials were enjoying this lunch immensely! And we were too. It was just overwhelming experiencing this event in Graham's hometown, with people who had really loved him.
What was Graham doing during lunch? He was whisked away by the restaurant workers who took him out and played with him while we ate...they fed him and played with him, and he was game for it all. About 1:00pm, we finished up, and Vivian whipped out a paper she had to go over with us. It listed all the things that were supposed to happen when a family came to visit. 1-5 we had covered all on the list...
1. Meet at gate and show the facility
2. Read letter from staff, and allow us to ask questions
3. Take pictures
4. Show family finding spot
5. Take to lunch
And then there was a place for me to write down our comments on our experience. I filled that little box up with accolades for the officials and their facility. I don't care if they were just "doing their duty", it was a red-letter day for our family. And our Graham is a happy, well-adjusted, loving little boy who has been given an amazing first year of life. How could we ever say thank you enough to them and to China for giving us this child in such stellar condition!
Around 1:30 we piled back in our little van and headed home. The children fell asleep - Amelia loved stretching out fully on the backseat, and Tom and I re-lived every minute of the extraordinary adventure as we raced our way back through the countryside to Wuhan.
2 comments:
Christy: That post was beautiful!! I can't wait to squeeze that little boy... Love, Lynn
Christy....you are writing a book with these experiences. We are so proud of you and Tom, and Amelia for going through what you are going through. Fortunately we have all of this on record, as so much will happen over these days that it will all kind of blend together.I can just see Amelia sleeping in the van...with the little guy in your arms. He is really cute.
Audy has done a great job in getting all onto the blog...what a great story.
Love, Dad
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