Nanjing Update

What a week this has been! Monday Elsa was placed in our arms and now I can hardly remember life without her. She is amazing! She is cheerful and content. She eats well, she sleeps well, and she loves all the attention we can give her.

We are in a group with four other families who also received their daughters on Monday. It has been rewarding to get to know them and to share this amazing week with them. Tuesday we went back to the Civil Affairs office and signed papers making the adoption final in the eyes of the Chinese government. Elsa is ours!!!

Wednesday we went to visit the orphanage where Elsa spent the past year. It was gut wrenching. The orphanage is responsible for the care of 700 children. The orphanage is clean. The staff is obviously devoted and caring. Feeding, play, exercise, and education are strictly scheduled and documented. The orphanage is connected to a children’s hospital so medical care is convenient and constant. All of this is true.

If there is one thing I have learned in my life it is that truth is complicated. These things are also true: Elsa is almost fourteen months old and she can barely sit up and only for short periods of time. She can not roll over. She does not crawl. She can not reach or grasp things. She can not bear any weight on her legs. She has self soothing habits. She has sucked her thumbs so much that her thumbs are flat on the tops and her thumbnail is misshapen. She rocks her head back and forth to put herself to sleep so routinely that she has a bald spot on the back of her head. She has scrapes and rashes and a bacterial infection blister on her ear. She has bronchitis. In short, Elsa has had care but she has not had a mother’s love. I am up to the challenge!

After touring the orphanage we stopped at the gate outside the grounds. This is the very spot that Elsa was found at four days old. She was just a four pound purple baby laid down on the ground in the middle of winter. Her mother knew that she would be found very quickly in this spot and that she would get the best care available. I was overwhelmed to be standing there. The pain that filled me may never leave… I took a photo of the gate then someone from our group took a photo of the five of us that looks like we are at a tourist attraction. To me it is a ridiculous photo that perfectly sums up the confusion of this week.

In among all of this we have been doing some sight seeing and having culinary adventures. We have been to The Brocade Museum, The City Wall, The Nanjing Museum, and The Confucian Temple. The Chinese people have been curious but very kind about seeing us with Elsa. It has been so wonderful to be able to share this experience with Al, my dad, and Katherine. My dad has been taking a lot of video tape. I am so grateful to have some of this documented. I used to have a friend who would say “They’re never going to believe this part when they make the movie.”

I am hopeful that I will have better internet connection in Guangzhou so I can post to the Blog directly.

Susan