http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org/Bob-and-Amy-Meeker.aspxRain, Crystal and I (
Paika) arrived at the orphanage Sunday morning. Apparently the orphanage has relocated in the recent years and we were actually first brought to the original location (address for some reason hasn't been updated - basically both locations have the same address). I am noting this in case Amy and Bob are interested in visiting this orphanage one day themselves. Director Chan (Mr.) greeted us at the front entrance of the building. He is the current head director of
Huazhou Social Welfare Institution. After welcoming us, he led us to his office and chatted with us while we waited for Director Li (Ms.), who oversees the babies and toddler group at this institution. As we waited, Director Chan gave us a brief history of how this institution got started (during the French colonization of
Huazhou and was started by a group of Catholics) and chatted with us about many orphans having been adopted out of this institution. He even showed us a binder full of letters received from the parents who have adopted from this orphanage and from the children who've been adopted. Some also had photos attached to show the new life of the child and how much the child has grown. Eventually, Director Li arrived and we follow her out to go see
Ji. I cannot remember how many floors this institution has but the toddlers and babies were on the second to highest floor. We get to that floor and this floor is shared with orphans who I guess to be from age 5 to 10. We make a right onto a hallway that led us past a few rooms until we got to the last room where the babies and toddlers were (see pics). There are 26 of them and one of them was of course little
Ji laying in her crib (see pics). Director Li quickly points us to
Ji and starts to tell us about her current condition. We find out during our discussion that Director Li is a doctor. She tells us that
Ji is showing signs of delayed responses to things that a 2 year old is expected to have developed a quicker response to. In some cases, she may not even respond. She seemed to respond during certain times when Director Li would speak directly to her and then at other times she didn't seem to have any response. We, obviously, cannot vouch for any of the things Director Li said to us but these were the observations she shared with us. She also mentioned that
Ji doesn't have much of an appetite (cannot say yet what she likes to eat) and that's caused some constipation issues. She says the workers have taken extra care to make sure she's well hydrated in hopes that that can help with the constipation. As Director Li continued to talk and I took pictures, she comments to me that our visit should be able to provide for the American couple (Amy and Bob) a more detailed picture of
Ji's condition. I quickly respond that we appreciate her sharing with us all her observations and that I'm sure Amy and Bob will appreciate as much information as possible about their little girl and that they are anxiously waiting to bring her home. I believe that response made it pretty clear to Director Li because she then said, "Oh, they've accepted this little girl as theirs already?" I said, "Yes. They are just awaiting for the paperwork to be done to bring her home." We, then, asked Director Li if we could take
Ji out of her crib to spend some time with her. Director Li picked
Ji up and brought us to an area right outside of that room. We took some pics of
Ji sitting up (during this time Director Li notes to us that
Ji hasn't yet been able to sit up on her own and we also learn later on that,
Ji can't stand up on her own but she can stay standing if someone stands her up and helps her to grip her hands onto the railing of her crib).
After taking some pics, Rain picked up
Ji in her arms and we sat down to talk to
Ji in Cantonese (this is the dialect spoken in
Huazhou and at the orphanage). We told her that she has a mommy and a daddy waiting to take her home and that we three are here because her mommy and daddy wanted someone to pay a visit to her. We also mention to her that we're praying for the paperwork process to go through smoothly and that soon enough her parents can come pick her up. We also tell her that we're praying for her health and condition as she continues to stay at this orphanage. We tried to emphasize as much as possible that Amy and Bob are thinking of her and that she is loved very much from far away. At this point, Crystal takes notice that
Ji's nails are rather long and she asks Director Li for a nail clipper. Crystal is an expert at clipping children's nails so as she did this Rain and I took the opportunity to see the other babies and toddlers. After Crystal finished, we spent time praying with
Ji. We each took turns praying for
Ji's health and condition, for Amy and Bob, for the adoption process, as well as thanking God for the opportunity to visit
Ji. We also pray that though this time
Ji may not know or be able to see that she's being loved that the Lord can let her know and most importantly, that behind all of this is the doing of our Great Father who is the one who loves her the most. We also prayed for the other children there - we were told that so far only one other child is in the process of being adopted. We pray that these children could be matched to families like
Ji has been so they can too have a family of their own. Amy and Bob, we will continue to pray for this whole process and for
Ji. We really look forward to hearing good news very soon!
After prayer, Director Li came back out looking for us to tell us that Director Chan is waiting for us in his office if we were done. We said
ok. We headed back into the room and put
Ji back into her crib, but we wanted to stay a bit longer there in hopes to get a bit more time with
Ji and the other children. We were able to take some more pictures, but then we were approached by Director Li again saying that Director Chan is waiting for us. We headed out of the room and headed back downstairs. During our trip back to the office, we learn that this institution has allowed orphans with special needs or ones who never got adopted and aren't able to lead a life outside of the institution to stay. It seems as though the institution is willing to care for the orphan up to their old age (according to Director Chan, there has only been one orphan who wasn't adopted and has been able to leave the institution for an independent life). Breaks our hearts to know that many end up staying at an institution like this their entire life, but we're at least grateful this institution is willing to keep them rather than throw out onto the streets like some institutions do.
We thought that our visit would end the moment we returned to the office, but Director Chan was actually waiting for us to have a further discussion. He asked us what we thought of the institution. We encouragingly said that we're glad that there's at least an institution there to take in these orphans. Director Chan tells us some more about the institution. He was rather open and talkative which we were grateful for since we were interested in getting a better understanding of government run orphanages. Eventually, we thought we may be overstaying our time so we mentioned that we probably should get going to which Director Chan said that we should have lunch with him and Director Li. After some persuading, we decided that we had enough time to stay for lunch before having to catch our bus back to Guangzhou. After lunch, Director Chan drove us to the bus station. He was a very kind man and even mentioned to us that we are welcome to return for future visits. Rain, Crystal and I want to thank Amy, Bob and Julie for allowing us this opportunity. As much as we were going there to visit
Ji on behalf of Amy and Bob, we three were also very blessed by this trip. It was truly a great opportunity for us to visit a government run orphanage and get to what it is really like at this particular institution. We three have been visiting orphanages in China together so we are glad to visit one in an area we've never been to before. Most importantly we love to visit the children at these places. Though our visits are often short seeing them serves as good reminders for us to keep praying for the orphans in China and to most importantly find ways and resources to help better their conditions.
