27:06 Our visit to the orphanage
		Our Orphanage Visit After a few initial photographs, Bao did not want to have her picture taken at the orphanage. Not that she is ever eager to have a photograph taken! Im sure the experience was complicated emotionally in ways she couldnt fathom; while we had talked about the visit in advance, the experience itself was intense for me, no doubt for her as well. And it WAS boring for her to sit around in reception until I realized that my visit had to be accomplished by stealth. We were told we could not see any children and this was a firm response every time we asked. I was terribly disappointed we might not visit any of the children as Bao had really wanted to visit the babies. So at one point, we stumbled up several flights of stairs, getting lost among the classrooms and baby rooms. The caregivers we met smiled widely when they saw that my daughter had once been Mao Xiao Bao in the baby room with the others. I was very sorry that most of the women caregivers and Mrs Zhang, their director, were off on vacation the week that we arrived. So we could not meet them or the woman doctor who carried Bao in her arms when we met. I think one of the caregivers Bao called Mah may have fostered Bao though this was not clear in our conversation when we adopted. The children were darling. One had a drip attached and was receiving special medical care. The others were bouncing in their cribs The children appeared well taken care of in their shining cribs and the caregivers were sweet with them. There was a pink-hatted nurse who grinned at us and two or three red uniformed caregivers with the babies. We were told that about 50 babies are fostered into the community (this number might be wrong as I was writing notes feverishly and very nervous. Or was it 80? Or was that the number of babies adopted from the Maoming Institute. I was very nervous and excitedforgot to bring my taperecorderso much for any imagined audio career! When I asked, the orphanage chief could not tell me how many children were in the orphanage at the moment without consulting his computer and it was clear this was outside of the realm of possibility. He was a lovely man doing his job, following the rules and telling us what he had to tell us. In the orphanage, we sat in the second floor reception area where there are also classrooms for toddlers, though we saw no toddlers. On this floor while the director chatted with our Chinese friends, we saw about seven children, apparently boys, watching television in a room with a caregiver. We also saw several bedrooms with bunkbeds covered in traditional wicker mats. On the fourth floor, we visited several baby rooms with stainless steel cribs, and several other classrooms. I regret we didnt venture up to the fifth floor. Perhaps the toddlers live there? The orphanage is one of the three best in Guandong, I was told by the "chief"...Later I had dinner with the district head of adoption and he said 80 babies a year are adopted out of this and other district orphanages. Over the past month Ive been in correspondence with a woman who is adopting from Europe. She will be in Guangzhou mid July to meet her baby and so we resolved to visit the baby and other meaningful places for her. I was told that your daughter is well, healthy and happy in a foster family and so we werent able to visit the baby. It was wonderful having an imaginary companion with us on our journey. This little baby and far away family feel close to my heart now. My daughter was abandoned not far from this little girl. When I walked towards the place, I wept thinking of where these children have traveled in their short lives. And of the sad story their families tell. Mrs. Shen told of watching as a woman abandoned a baby, then returned several times, weeping as she played this sad fort da game with such immense consequences. The orphanage head told us that children to be adopted were put in foster homes that were monitored closely. A foster family had taken legal action against the welfare institute because they fell in love with the children they fostered and didn't want to give them back. I'm sure this is sadly true...but the director said that the family care the children receive in a foster home does make it easier for them to adapt to family life. Afterwards we visited the nearby Hedong Police Station: about 10 babies are brought to this station each year, several months old usually, often abandoned near the hospital, the nearby market, in or in front of a department store. In conversation with several Chinese women, it seems that just as in Western culture, potential fathers are more resistant to adoption than women. More on this and other observations later.... We're off to the ocean twenty minutes away by car. Our friends are taking us swimming at "First China Beach"...first because it is apparently "the best"...twenty km of sand and surf...
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