Next few days in Hefei

Today is Wednesday, November 11 and we just visited the orphanage.  Gonna back track to Sunday when we arrived at Hefei.  Our train ride ended in Hefei around 5:45. Getting off went very quickly and we had to hurry to get all of our luggage off.  I was glad that we took the bullet train because we were able to see a lot of the countryside of China. Once off, we were approached by many strangers wanting to take our bags, but thanks to friends on Facebook I was prepared for this.  Scared Ellen though. Then we approach the escalator that is broken and a long set of stairs that we don’t know how we’ll get our luggage down.  So I tell Ellen to stay at the top and I will go down and come back up for the other luggage.  Ellen very quickly said “No way your’e leaving me here.” So the only thing to do is to carry the luggage down the stairs so I took the heaviest pieces.  Ashley had one suitcase and only way for her to get down was to drag it.  It went flying down the stairs and handle broke at the end.  Now we have lots of luggage and upset Ashley to get to the outside. Happily at the top of the ramp was Jane, our guide with a sign that said WACAP/Lori Yang.  So happy to see her.  Lots of traffic and people, it was dark, lots of honking and traffic, but we got to our hotel, checked in and prepared to meet Jane the next morning to go to the Civil Affairs Office to meet Luke and take custody of him.  

The next morning we were picked up at our hotel by Jane at 8:45.  We missed breakfast just trying to get all prepared to be united with Luke.  We arrived at the office to find another family from the Netherlands there also to pick up their child from the same orphanage.  We worked on paperwork and then just waited.  Our guide made a call to the orphanage to ask when they would arrive and just then they walked in the door. Oh my, our first sight of Shu Chen in person!!! So cute and all smiles when our eyes met.  Once brought into the room though he held onto the nanny’s hand and shook his head side to side.  Coming to us was not going to happen.  We stayed back and just tried to wave and encourage him to come to us.  After not happening, our guide suggested maybe we go to him.  So we took our dum dum suckers and toys and went to the door to where he was.  Still shaking his head he slowly warmed up to us and the toys we brought.  Thank goodness for the dum dums.  He loved the suckers!!!! I think we went through at least 6 in our first hour together  By the time we were ready to leave Luke walked out willingly with us and got into the van and pretty happily rode to the hotel with us.  The binoculars and toy airplane were a big success and made everything a little easier.  The rest of the day was just playing with him and becoming familiar with each other. The first day went well!

Second day got off to a rocky start.  Breakfast was hard, knowing what he wanted, and not really sure, just know that he was not satisfied with anything.  At end of breakfast, screaming and crying occurred and lasted all the way to the civil affairs office.  Once there we were put in a separate room since he was so upset.  Finally calmed down with help of a dumdum and game on Ellen's phone he was back to normal.  While waiting we played a little ring around the roses with him and it was smiles the rest of the day.

Wednesday was the visit to the orphanage.  The facility was cold.  I see now why all the children wear coats all day.  So strange to visit the place where I have seen pictures for the past year.  Once off the elevator we ran into his foster father.  He also works at the orphanage as maintenance worker. He was very happy to see us.  Luke made sure to hold onto my hand, which I felt was a good sign.

We went to the kindergarten class first, Luke's class. So cute, all the kids!  The teachers were glad to see him.  All the children were very shy.  Then we went to another classroom before we left.  There we saw the little boy with microtia that we have followed since we found Luke.  Sweet little boy and he and a friend danced for us.

Then we went to the foster home of Luke and met his foster mother.  Very sweet and shy lady.  Seemed to love him very much.  Luke smiled showing us around.  The foster mother talked to us about Luke.  He was ready to go by the end and didn't seem to mind leaving.

Thursday will be a free day and Jane will take us to a park. Then Friday off by plane to Guangzhou.

 Luke's foster fatther          

 

 

Luke Shu Chen's finding place.  He was left here in a box at 9 days old with a note stating his birthdate.

This is a respected place of business.  When I asked if possible that his parent worked here, the response was no, most likely left here because educated well-off people work here.