Day 3 with Anna Grace

We have had a very busy day today. This morning we went to visit her orphanage. When we pulled in through the gate of the orphanage the director ran out to meet us and Anna Grace was very happy to see him. It was obvious that they had a special connection. We were able to get pictures of the room she stayed in before she went to her foster home and we dropped off bags of diapers for the babies. There was one little baby in an incubator. Anna Grace kept pointing at it and when we would over to see the baby, Anna Grace would cry. After the second time of her wanting to see the baby, Mike took her out of the room so would not be upset anymore. Then we toured the rest of the orphanage (the part that is not sponsered by our agency). Most of the children there were either very handicapped or much older than Anna Grace. We were told that the healthy children Anna Grace's age were mostly in foster care. We brought suckers to pass our to all of the children. They were so happy to see us and were excited to get a sucker. One little boy stole a pack of Gerber fruit chews out of Mike's back pack as he was surrounded by children reaching to shake our hand and get a sucker! At first I was upset that he would take Anna Grace's snack, but then I thought about how little these children have. We saw some children helping others unwrap suckers and helping them eat them. You could tell that the caretakers in the orphanage cared about the children, but I feel really sad for all of the children that we saw who will never have a family.

Next we were able to visit Anna Grace's finding spot. The area where she was born is extremely poor. It made us realize how selfless her biological parents were to allow her to go to the orphanage to have her heart surgery and be adopted. We also took pictures of the police station where Anna Grace was taken after she was found.

When we got back from our trip we went out to lunch and did some shopping with our guide. The traffic is incredible. The lines on the road are just a suggestion in China and the road is crowded with cars, busses, pedestrians, motorcycles, and sometimes the occassional cart pulled by a mule! It is amazing that we have not seen any accidents.

Speaking of roads, we took a taxi to Walmart last night. After we shopped for the diapers to take to the orphanage we got another taxi to return us to the hotel. After we had gotten settled into the car, Mike handed the driver a card with the name of our hotel on it. He did not speak English and he indicated that his eye sight was too poor to read the card! After several minutes of trying to explain where we needed to go, the driver got out of the car and started asking for help from the people walking by. I really thought we would never make it back to our hotel!

Anna Grace is doing great. Her little personality is shining through more and more. She loves to sing little songs and laugh. She is very bubbly and likes to be the center of attention. You can really tell that her foster mom spent a lot of time with her. She doesn't like to walk much. I think she has been carried a lot because she does not run around like most 2 year olds. She is happy to have one of us carry her all of the time. We are going to have to encourage her to walk more. Still her vocabulary seems to be really big and her fine motor skills are good. Oh, and she has another new word. She calls her new daddy "Mike!"

We are now at the hotel room for the evening. We are really tired from staying up late last night. Anna Grace did not want to go to sleep, and she kept pretending to wash my hair as I was trying to sleep!

I will try to send more pictures to Courtney soon.