The next day, we had the opportunity to visit Lianjiang Social Welfare Institute, where Cathryn had spent the first months of her life. Lianjiang is a beautiful city in far Southeastern China. The Gulf of Tonkin and Vietnam are within several hundred miles. The city was very modern and clean, but it was obvious from the crowd that gathered whenever our bus stopped that they don't see many foreigners there.
When we arrived at the orphanage, there were signs welcoming us, and several local government officials as well as the SWI leadership and staff greeted us at the gate. We were quite impressed with the orphanage building, built in 1999. A similar building for elderly people was under construction in the same courtyard. We were led to a conference room where we were served bottled water, and local oranges (famous in Southern China) and dragon's eye fruit (Similar to grapes). The officials and SWI directors made several speeches, expressing their happiness at the sight of the girls with their forever families. Then, the nannies who had taken care of the babies entered, smiling and calling out the names of the different babies. They swooped them up, hugging and kissing them. The babies obviously recognized their "aunties," and were laughing or snuggling with them! It was wonderful to see! We had been told Cathryn had been particularly close to one woman. It was her day off, but she came to see Cathryn and another baby she had cared for. We will always be grateful for the chance we had to meet this woman, and to see Cathryn interact with her.
It was lunch time for the babies, so the aunties took them off to feed them one last time. We were then allowed to view several baby rooms, although not allowed to take pictures. They rooms were clean and airy. The babies we saw were well-bundled and appeared healthy, just like our girls. The SWI staff was obviously doing a great job with the limited resources they had. |
