Friday to remember

Well, this will probably be a long post because it has been a long day. First I have to say that yesterday and last night were great. Zoey slept and so did I finally. This morning we got up and had breakfast and then met at 8:30 for the bus ride to Poyang County SWI (social welfare institute). Driving in China is NOTHING like driving in the US. For one thing there are no road rules. It's every man for himself, seriously. I can't look out the window in traffic because it is so scary. So on the way to the orphanage we drove a long two lane road through unbelievable landscapes and economic situations. What we would see as abandoned hovels are actually homes and stores. There were rice patties everywhere you looked, chickens, ducks, and a few cows. People walking everywhere, clotheslines with clothes on them in places that you wouldn't expect anyone to live. There was an accident on one of the bridges on our way there and traffic was stopped, when we made it by there was literally a huge piece of the side of the bridge railing missing, a helmet, blood on the road, and no ambulance, some police leaving the scene and that's it. We wondered if anyone went below into the water to retrieve whomever might have gone over the edge. After a 3 hour ride we arrived at the orphanage. It was very nice and clean. The workers were more than hospitable and gave us all kinds of fruits and hot water to drink in a lovely room with hard wood furniture. They were very kind to answer all of our questions. If we ever wondered why our children had on so many layers of clothing the answer was given to us as soon as we walked up. The doorways are all open with no doors, there is no heating and the buildings are stone. It was absolutely FREEZING. We could see our breath in the welcome room. They permitted us to walk through the rooms where the babies were and actually see them in their beds. They actually don't sleep in beds they are all in baskets and completely swaddled in a million blankets. All you could see were their little faces. One baby was only 3 days old. One started to cry while we were there and no nanny came over to calm it, Mom actually leaned down and patted it. It was absolutely the most heart wrenching thing I've ever been through. I couldn't walk all the way through. It was good to see where Zoey has spent her first 7 months of life. And it was very obvious how much the nannies and workers cared for the children, they cried when we left. It was very clean though and at least she was found and had some shelter and care. We are very appreciative for that. After the orphanage, the director and staff took us all to lunch at local restaurant. It was one of the more interesting experiences of my life. We had all kinds of local favorites for lunch including some spicy kind of what looked like miniature green beans, mushrooms, noodles, fish with head on it, pork and sticky rice balls, dumplings, fruit, egg soup, chicken including the feet fried, Chinese beer, and rice wine liquor. After the meal the whole staff at the restaurant wanted their pictures made with all of us and several of the men took pictures with Madison. She was definitely the star of the bunch. Bless her heart, she was such a good sport about it, they even wanted to pick her up. She also was a trooper when it came to going to the bathroom and it was a squat potty (a hole in the ground). The workers and the director were all very kind and we had a really enjoyable experience. Zoey has been such a treat today, giving us lots of smiles, coos, and laughing hysterically. It's been a very long, emotional, but wonderful day.