Visit to Hope's Orphanage

Yesterday, Thursday @ 8am, we headed off to Shang Rao Child Welfare Center. Since Hope was so sick the night before, she was very weak and we were exhausted. She was hot and had a runny nose and severe congestion. We weren't sure whether we should go. There just seemed to be this unseen force of opposition.

We rode in a chartered van for 4 hours, from Nanchang to Shang Rao. We stopped for a restroom break. Again, had to pee in a trench and was terrified that Faith would fall in. The smells, let's just say our portapotties back home smell like Glade airfreshners in comparison.


We arrived around 12pm, the Director met us at the toll entrance of Shang Rao City. She brought us to a restaurant and we had a meal with a few of the assisstants from the orphanage. The Director was a very competent and fiesty individual. Her cell phone was constantly ringing. Busy women.


The orphanage was located off a small windy road off the lake in Shang Rao. The building itself used to be a small hotel. We were only allowed to take pictures of empty rooms, but not of any of the children. But, when we got to the hallways, we only saw 3 children. One albino elementary aged girl, one 9 year old mute boy and a toddler. All the babies were in their rooms. They were all swaddled so tightly with THICK blankets. It's impossible for kicking and stretching. Literally, the facilities looked like an abandoned hotel, with decrepit bathrooms and severely soiled carpet. I didn't lose it there and kept my composure but I wanted to burst into tears.



The Director began to share with us the background of the orphanage. They are building a new facility. There are only 60 infants in the place that we were at. 200 others are farmed out to foster families. The 60 in-house were usually special needs or in poor health. Hope was one of those who had a foster family. There were workers around, but we only saw some watching TV. Some of the infants we saw were in incubators. They were so tiny and stoic.

We told her that Hope was not feeling well. She immediately made a call and this young doctor shows up and takes her temperature and listens to her chest. He gave us some amoxicillan medication, decongestion meds and cough suppressant, all in crystallized form in small packages.


Although we were thankful for the help and visit, we could not wait to return back to our hotel.
It was over, we saw and now we know where our baby Hope comes from. Sobering experience, one that I as a mother will never forget.