Visit to Gaozhou

We are now in Gaozhou and have had a great visit to the place Maddie was born.  We drove here on Wednesday with our new (and amazing) guide, Bob.  He is Xixi's nephew, which will only mean something to a few people, but Xixi is pretty famous in the adoption world for family searches and history searches and such.  He was previously an adoption guide for Heritage Adoptions and for one other agency, both of whom went out of business within a month of each other a few years back.  We were lucky he decided to stay in the adoption business because he has been a fantastic guide for us, and Maddie adores him.  Our driver Lee is pretty amazing too- he is the first driver on this trip that has been interactive with us and chatty with the girls- he seems to have quite the soft spot for Violet, and teases Maddie too which makes her laugh.

We arrived early afternoon Wednesday & had lunch at a restaurant next to the hotel. We got the girls down for naps and went for dinner at another somewhat close by restaurant.  After dinner, we came back to the hotel and walked across the street to the big park.  They have lots of childrens activities for young children along one side, and dancing in the center on a raised stage.  We walked along the edge first and Maddie tried her hand at catching some fish in a little pool there for 3 yuan, then she swung on some swings for 2 yuan, then she made a sand painting for 3 yuan.  A good hours worth of fun for about $1.20 total!

Afterwards we walked over to see the dancing- Maddie enjoyed watching it but did not want to try. She was just very intent on taking it all in!

This morning we met our Gaozhou friends XiaoLing and her daughter Diana for breakfast.  We mostly email with her husband, XiaoMing, because he has good english, but he just got a job in Shenzhen, so we just met up with XiaoLing and Diana. Diana is just 5 months older than Madeline.  XiaoLing is beautiful and sweet although my lack of Chinese and her accent meant there wasn't much direct communication without Bob helping us.  Diana is a sweetie and she and Maddie were having fun playing with some balloons we found there at the restaruant.  We said goodbye to them after breakfast and walked to visit Maddie's orphanage.  We knew it was very close, it was only after we had been there that we could see that it was within view of our room.

First we met with the assistant director, then a few others, including the main director.  There was some question about finding Liu Xue Ling (Maddie's ayi), when all of a sudden she walked in the room!  I recognized her right away and I think she was also happy to see us!  She thanked me many times over the time we were there for coming to visit and bringing Maddie, and about how beautiful Maddie is.  We went to visit the two rooms with the children and saw lots of babies!  They said currently they have around 60 children at the orphanage, in the two baby rooms there were 39 beds with children in them between the two rooms.  The youngest baby was born the day we met Violet- October 24- she was so tiny!   All of the babies had recently shaved heads because it has been so hot, it helps to keep the babies cooler.  Several babies with cleft lip and cleft palate, a few healthy babies, and some they told us with other special needs.  One little boy looked like he had a prematurely fused skull-but I'm really not sure- it really breaks your heart to think about how treatable that is if taken care of early, but this little one won't have that opportunity.  He was more than likely over a year old.  His head was very long and conical like, it's hard to say what his future will be.  One other VERY engaging little boy who was just a comedian, maybe 2 years old or not quite, they said had brain problems.  Such a shame, he was so sweet, but also may likely spend his whole life in an institution.

 

Maddie got to see the place she lived as a baby, the Ayi's at work taking care of the babies, and most importantly, her Ayi.  She was a sweet woman and we are happy to have seen her again.  The lead Ayi came over to see us before we left and showed us that she had some pictures of Maddie on her phone from when she was in the orphanage! It was such a sweet surprise for us!  We got one photo by text and are still working on getting the others.

 

We went out afterwards to buy some supplies for the orphanage to use- 3 fans and 3 cooktops (double burner type).  We found out that because this is a county orphanage, they do not get much government funding, so donations from families really help a lot.

We went for lunch with the Assistant director afterwards and had a nice time.  It was our first meal on this trip in a private room, so we were able to just let Violet walk and it made for a more enjoyable and relaxed meal for all of us!

 

After lunch we came back to the hotel to nap, then went to meet XiaoLing and Diana at the Pagoda.  We did not climb up, but played around the base of it for awhile and let the girls play together.  We went to a children's park/play area after and the girls had fun playing.  Violet had her first carousel ride and SCREAMED when it was over and she had to get off!  She definitely enjoyed it!

 

It was too late to go to the temple after because it was closed, so we just went to dinner all together- By this time Maddie and Diana had become best of friends and Maddie held Diana's hand going up the stairs in the restaurant.  We had a great dinner and had fun playing with the automatic Mah Jhong table (which is unbelieveable and amazing...)

On the walk back to the hotel afterwards, we walked by a hair salon and Bob joked, "want to get your hair cut?", and I said, actually, Maddie would love to. So I asked her, and she enthusiastically nodded her head YES she definitely wanted a hair cut.  Jeremy took Violet to the room and Maddie and I went to get Maddie's first hair cut in China!  She sat very still and enjoyed a very professional hair cut for the super high price of 10 yuan (about $1.50)- it looks cute and she is very proud! I took some video so we could show Baba when we got back to the room. 

 

It's been a long day, and we are so happy that we came to Gaozhou.  Tomorrow we will visit Diana's Kindergarten, and in the afternoon we'll head back to Guangzhou.  We'll be sorry to say goodbye to Bob, having him along for this part of the trip has definitely been a highlight for our time in China!