Orphanage

It's Thursday afternoon Chongqing time. Yesterday we went to the orphanage, the Fuling Social Welfare Institute (SWI) to see where the babies lived for the first months of their lives. The trip there took us about two hours. In between the cities, the lack of development is surprising, considering how much development occurs in the cities. Almost no cars on the highway. Fuling is really big. Apparently, most of the development has occured in just the past 15 years. There are highrises and apartment buildings everywhere, many in the early stages of development. The orphanage is down a little side street in the city center. For what we've heard, this is one of the nicer orphanages. We walked through a large courtyard into the area where the babies wwere kept. We were immediately met with cries of "LeiLei!", "LeiLei!". Ellen's nannies were so happy to see her, that it melted my heart. They were in a romm with several other babies who were close to her age. They were all scooting around in walkers. In the next room were several cribs, including hers. Obviousy, we took lots of film and pictures. The children were so beautiful and the staff was so kind. We know how much she was loved, how well she was cared for, and how much she will be missed. We were able to request to see Ying Ying, another baby there who is waiting to be met by her US family soon. (see pictures in other post). How beautiful!

The director thanked us for coming and showed us the sketches of the new orphanage that is being built and that will open in two years. It was such n emotional visit. I feel so lucky that some day LeiLei will see these pictures and be able to know what her first home looked like. - Jean