Day 5-Jiangxi

Today was another eventful and HOT day. It is so hot and humid here and we always look forward to coming back to our hotel to enjoy the air conditioning! We began our day at the Pavilion...the #1 tourist spot in Jiangxi. It was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed our time there. Poor Kamdynn was a trooper, but after a few hours she let us know that she was done. Honestly, we were done too...the heat is unreal (we were all dripping with sweat). On the way back to our hotel we got see Kamdynn's true laugh for the first time. Jeff another Dad with us was clipping her hair clip onto his hat. She would reach for it and knock it off and then we would all jump and she would giggle so hard. She did this at least 15 times...it was so cute (and yes we got it on video)! Following our time at the Pavilion we headed back to the hotel for about an hour. We snacked a little and feed Kamdynn a bottle, but tried to keep her awake so that should could sleep in the van on the way to the Orphanage. We met Mary, our guide in the lobby at 1:00 and we were off to the orphanage. It took about 2 hours to get there...Kamdynn slept only about 45 minutes (which is nothing compared to her 4 hour nap yesterday). The roads to Zhangshu City were really rough and off course we are thankful to once again be alive after the crazy driving. There are no car seats in China so Kamdynn just sat on our lap which is just wrong...but this is China! We passed many rice fields and fresh water pearl farms. We felt like we had stepped back in time watching all the people work the land by hand. Our guide explained that the government owns the land and assigns each family a very small section to farm. We are learning so much about this country and each day we are more and more thankful for our country.
When we got to the Zhangshu SWI we were greeted by to Orphanage director and welcomed in his office for some fruit. Kevin and I both had a grape (because we didn't want to be rude) and later we learned that we should have peeled it...good thing we only ate one! Kamdynn enjoyed watermelon, it is by far her favorite thing to eat. The Orphanage director reached for her and she did not reach back...I handed her to him, but she quickly reached back for me. I'll be honest and say that made me feel good. After our visit in his office, he walked us over to where the babies are cared for. The orphanage is in charge of about 30 children at a time, caring for 3-4 at a time in the orphanage and the rest are in foster care. The Orphanage only takes up a small room and the rest of the complex houses elderly people...many that came out to wave at us. We entered the orphanage and Kamdynn was very quiet and held onto me pretty tight. She did not reach out to her nanny and when I handed her to her she again reached back for me. We weren't sure how she was going to react, but it was obvious that she didn't really want to be there. There were only two twin (8 month old) girls there and they were both in walkers and smiling from ear to ear when we came in. They are being adopted from a U.S. family, which makes my heart happy. I wanted to scoop them both up and bring them home too. I put Kamdynn down to see her friends and she stood there, but really wanted to be held. She was uneasy and Kevin didn't like it, so he put the video camera down and came to her rescue. We had our guide ask the nanny what she will remember most about Kamdynn and she said "how much she likes to play with her friends." We were able to see where she slept. The nanny lives there and she has a room with a bed and 3 cribs in it. We didn't see any toys out...only walkers and a t.v. that was on. We are certain that when the babies aren't sleeping they are in those walkers, which would explain why Kamdynn isn't crawling. We think she was in decent care, compared to most orphanages, but it was still a little hard to see how she lived the first 15 months of her life (it of course made me a little emotional...like everything is right now). Kevin talked basketball with the orphanage director and we got quite a bit of video footage and pictures. We are glad we went and it was sweet to see how attached Kamdynn is to us (we joked that she knows a good thing when she has it). We thanked the orphanage staff and then went to Kamdynn's "finding place." She was left only a few blocks from the Orphanage at the Civil Affairs office, which is a safe place for babies to be left. Our guide says that most likely Kamdynn's birth mother wanted a boy and that is why she was left (this seems to be the case with most little girls). As a Mom, I can't even began to fathom leaving my child...but I am thankful for the decision her birth Mom made, because she gave us an AMAZING gift.