We drove about the roughly 350 km trip from Changsha to Chenzhou City to visit Amelia’s orphanage. We made great time until just about 3 kms from the city where we got stuck behind a huge multi-car accident.
After waiting about 1.5 hours, we got out and walked about 1.5 kms (yes, along the highway) where Anna, our guide, sweet-talked a traffic control officer to drive us to the exit about 2 kms away (so, yes we got a ride in a police car); the orphanage director met us at the exit. The last part was pretty uneventful.
We next took a tour of the new Chenzhou Children’s Welfare Institute. It’s a beautiful glass building just finished in December. Little Ting Yu spent the last month or so in this new facility.
We got to see her crib room and playroom. It’s a very nice space and the staff is rightly proud of the new facility.
The nannies had a field-day with her. She had some orphanage congee for old times sake. They put a little chicken soup and pureed pork to flavor up the rice. You can tell she loved the taste.
The visit lasted about 1.5 hours; about the time we were ready to walk to her finding spot the van driver showed up and we were able to pass along some gifts of clothes and formula. We then walked to her finding spot at the Suxian Theater on South Street. It’s the largest theater in Chenzhou. It’s about two blocks from the orphanage and is a location on a busy street with regular passersby. It was emotional to see where she spent part of the first day of her life but we took heart in imagining the great care her birth-mom took in ensuring she was found quickly.
The ride back (only three hours this time) was uneventful. We got back to the hotel about 7:30 pm pretty much exhausted but in the end it was something we had to do. And, we're glad we did.
That is our daughter's finding place too! We were not able to travel to Chenzhou due to the travel restrictions in place at the time of the olympics.
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