Our first full day with Lei and the Orphanage visit

Yesterday was a day full of much happiness and some sadness. We began our day eating breakfast with our guide Bruce, then meeting Director Liu, her assistant, another nanny and our Lei. We then first visited the orphanage and took many photos. Visiting the orphanage was a very humbling experience but still brought us so much joy. We couldn't help but feel sadness for the beautiful children still waiting for their families and especially for those who will never know one. Despite residing in a facility that only provides the bare necessities, We have never experienced so much genuine love before, both from the children, nannies, and director Liu. There was no sugar coating of words during our visit, only the direct truth as we were told the expected fate of many of the children and shown the living quarters and bedroom of our new son. I can't really think much more about the orphanage visit right now, but I will post more later. I do want to mention that it was so very obvious to us that the children of the orphanage were and are very important to Lei. He just shined with happiness as he played with his friends for the last time. The children of Jiaojiang CWI are so much a family in every since of the word.

After the orphanage visit, we took a tour of Jiaojiang and surrounding areas in Director Liu's minivan and took alot of video and photos. We also had the privledge of visiting Lei's finding place, but only took pictures from the Van.

We saw the old orphanage which the children left in 2001 so Lei was never there except to visit it with Director Lei because her office is still there today.

We visited the site for the building of the new orphanage which Director Liu is so excited and enthusiastic about. She just beamed with joy as she showed us the new site and earlier showed us pictures of the plans for the new facility.

We ate lunch at a restaurant and we ate some of the best seafood I've ever had. Since we have visited Jiaojiang, I've overeaten at every meal. I guess that just says it all. Director Liu has made sure that we have never had the chance to become hungry ;-)

After lunch we were invited to visit Director Liu's home where we were given a tour of her house, watched some TV and ate Chinese plums (a local favorite), and drank some very delicious Tea. Lei has been living with Director Liu for awhile now and he was very comfortable in her home ;-)

Director Liu also provided us with another trip to a beautiful park where Lei often was taken to play and we watched him feed these amazing white pigeons. The pictures we took there are going to be amazing as well as the video.

We then went to dinner for another delicious meal where we also had the privledge of meeting Director Liu's boss, the bureau chief and his wife. After dinner, the hard part came .....

Director Liu took us back to our hotel and Bruce gave Lei a piggyback ride into the hotel. As soon as Bruce, Alex, I and Lei were in the building, she made a quick getaway and there we were, alone with our son and Bruce for the first time.

During the entire day, Lei was so happy and content because director Liu was with us. He was very friendly and sweet to us, but it was obvious that he is very attached to director Liu. When we were first left alone with Lei in our hotel room, he was ok and watched some TV, tried to converse with us in mandarin some, and was just checking everything out a little. When we tried to get him to change his clothes is when he started getting upset. The next thing you know he has went and grabbed Director Liu's business card and he is insisting that we call her. Bruce's hotel room is across from ours so I went and got him and he came and called Director Liu for Lei. She spoke to Lei and reminded him that he promised he would stay with us tonight and that was that. After the phone call, Lei told bruce he wanted to take a bath before he put on his pajamas. The bath was the final straw and then came the saddest meltdown I've ever seen. After Bruce was gone and I was trying to help Lei get his bath, he just started crying and crying and speaking to me in mandarin. He got in the bathtub and was trying to wash but just couldn't stop crying. He was trying to tell me something and I had no idea what it was so I just kept telling him "don't be afraid", "dont worry", and "it's ok" in mandarin, some of the few phrases I know. He was so upset, that I finally just helped him rinse off, picked him up and put a towel around him. He let me help him get dressed and then we just put him to bed and he was asleep in no time. He is a fantastic sleeper and slept last night from 9pm until 6am at which time we woke him up just in getting ready. This morning he is like a new kid and very happy and content. I'll post pictures when we get to Hangzhou because we leave at 8am this morning, very soon.

Lei is truly a dream come true and I just wish I had more time to post. He has the sweetest, kindest nature with just a little "swashbuckler" in him. He is perfect for our family in every way.

Final note: I brought a book called "Chinese for adoptive families" made by an adoptive mom and this book has become my security blanket. I cannot thank amy kendall enough. It has kept us from feeling helpless in communicating with Lei. We have also learned pinyin pronunciations which is invaluable.