January 23, 2003 (sorry... pictures and text posted on 24th but events happened on 23rd) 

Great day... we played in the playroom (just Daddy, Lily and Jonah for a little while) while Mom and Jeremy went to a local department store.  They spend a month's wages (China local average) on some toys for Lily and some snacks... also lots of baby food, crackers etc.

January 23, 2003, afternoon... playtime!

January 24, 2003  update 4:13 p.m. China time.  Today was a big day, we learned that Lily can walk all by herself and she loves music... she got real animated for the first time.  She loves taking walks and sometimes like to walk holding hands and other times she just walks by herself.  We have been playing a lot... Lily does NOT like the following:  Changing, diaper changing, taking a bath and being without Melissa!!!  She woke up at 3:00 a.m. and cried until Mom brought her in bed... needless to say we had a cute little girl with us till we got up to go to breakfast.  One of the television stations plays music (traditional Chinese) and Lily LOVES it, she rocks her head, moves around and dances.  Whenever we go out of the room to go play or do anything else Mom always grabs a bottle of water, so... our smart little Lily wanted to go play so she grabbed a bottle of water, grabbed mama's hand and took her to the door.  Right now she is helping mama put the cap on the water bottle.  She is INCREDIBLY CUTE.  Yisha () tells us Chu Ben Yan () Chu is for the city she is from "Chuzhou" pronounced choo-joe.  We will be visiting the orphanage in Chuzhou tomorrow and the city, maybe even the temple she was found in. The two guides have been playing and singing with Lily telling us more about her name, her nickname that means (flying swallow) and her nickname Xiao Yan Zi (yan tzi-uh) which is little swallow.  Her nannies called her Yan Zi. 

We also went to pizza hut with Jeremy and Jonah (it is much nicer and actually has a reservation desk!)

January 24th, playing, walking, playing!

January 25^th, 2003

The day….  Today we woke up early with Lily lying in bed with us, I made her a bottle and after she was done we all went to breakfast.  After breakfast we got on the bus with the other four families who have children from Chuzhou.  We got on the expressway and arrived in Chuzhou within about two hours.  It was raining terribly but that did not stop our driver from taking the little Toyota bus up to 120 km/per hour!  We arrived in Chuzhou the city and it has a population of almost half a million, Yisha told us it was about 450 thousand.  Some things were similar to the other places we have been like the bicycles and the architecture but we quickly noticed differences when the road turned to mud, as we got closer to the orphanage the scenery got pretty depressing and sad.  But as we drove down the road there were still people riding bikes, working in their workshops etc.  As we entered the orphanage we were greeted by the Director who is the nicest man we have met in China.  He has only had the job for about a year, he has an eleven year old boy just like us and he really seemed to enjoy our family and kept talking about how big and strong Jeremy is.  He gave us an introduction to the orphanage which we have on video and they gave us tea and crackers.  We then went into the orphanage and saw the playroom and the room where our girls lived/slept for the beginning of their lives.  It was very emotional for Melissa and she chose to stay outside with Lily.  The nannies were excited to see Lily or (yin-tz that is the closest I can write how they pronounce Yan Tz or the short name Chu Ben Yan).  The pictures of the girls in the room does not do it justice, when I can post the video I will do it, because you can see how pretty and sweet these girls are, I would just wave to them and one little girl was so interested I turned the video camera around so she could see herself and she was just thrilled.  We asked about the albino girl that you see in the half the sky newsletters and she is still there, the director told us she is going to be adopted… this was very nice to hear. 

The pictures, the street outside the orphanage is very bleak, Lily was left outside the gate according to the Director… when you enter the gate you see a building with a red roof which is where the elderly stay, and the blue roof on the right is where the children stay.  He told us that there are about thirty babies abandoned per year and about thirty percent of them are adopted eventually.  There are currently 100 children in the orphanage and the last building on the right is a hospital where people with crippling problems are treated. 

Something we found interesting after leaving and reflecting on the orphanage… we just cannot imagine Lily being there, after spending the last four days with her she is the perfect fit for our family and we just can’t imagine her anywhere else.  I have to admit, when we first heard that she was 19 months and saw her referral picture we were a little surprised and now we are so blessed and happy to report that she is the most perfect little baby girl we ever could have hoped for.

Some other facts about China that I just have to write down, everyone goes to school until they are about 18, then if you do well you can apply for university.  You have to pay each semester but it was very reasonable.  Yisha told us that the hardest part is just getting to the point of getting accepted, once you are accepted you will graduate, not like the US where you can go to college if you can pay but you won’t graduate unless you work!  Nobody gets their drivers license until they are 18 and every driver gets 12 points per year on your license… if you mess up you lose points.  Our driver in Beijing lost three points and now he only has nine for the rest of the year, if he loses them all he cannot drive.  I asked about occupations and was glad to hear that teachers are paid well and very respected.  Doctors are up there as a top job but guess what?  Computer guys are the best job to have in China! 

The one child policy, after being here and seeing the amount of people that this country has and is trying to manage (by the way, I am told the ratio of boys to girls is 1.3/1) I can understand why this policy is necessary.  Here is how it works practically, when you are married, you sign a contract with the government promising to only have one child.  Most of the abandoned babies are from unwed mothers.  I am not defending or saying it is perfect but you cannot judge it until you come here and stay awhile and learn more about the heritage and culture.

China/communism, well, I will tell you that China is not what I expected.  There is advertising on the state owned airline seats, advertising everywhere and you don’t see any communist symbols, literature or anything else ANYWHERE.  This country is more like the rest of the world than you can believe.  Everyone has a cell phone, they drive pretty crazy, but other than that, they choose what education they want, choose their job and where they will live (with exceptions).  I really love China, we are ready to come home but I am pretty sure we will be back.  Everyone in this country has gone out of their way to make us feel welcome and they have been the most courteous of any country I have been. 

January 25th, afternoon

January 25th, visit to Chuzhou