Day Three - Jase's Orphanage

This morning we went to the orphanage that Jase spent the first six months (or so) of his life and the last week of his life in China, as an orphan.

I honestly debated whether to go. I didn’t know how Jase would do, and whether going would be a major setback in our attachment. I also didn’t know how I would do, if my heart could handle it.

Sam and I talked about it and decided it was worth it, worth the fact that we would have this piece to share with Jase as he grows and gets older. Also, when I received Jase on Sunday I received no pictures and so any pictures that I would be able to take would be worth it.

We had the nicest taxi driver over, who offered to wait for us as it would be difficult for us to get a taxi in this area. After we got back to the hotel, he initially refused the little extra that I paid him … a total of 9RMB, how kind is that.

The taxi ride was about 20 minutes, the whole me embracing myself for what I was about to experience. When we adopted Faith we were not allowed to see her orphanage. We drove in the gate to Jase’s orphanage, and I was blown away by the physical structure. It was first of all huge, I couldn’t even capture all of it in one picture. It was also clean and sort of a beautiful building.

The sooo nice administrative lady from the orphanage (same one who helped with Jase’s adoption proceedings on Monday), met us. The first thing she did was thank me (again) for adopting Jase, I honestly didn’t even know how to respond to that. I am the LUCKY and BLESSED one that I get to be the mom to this amazing and incredible little boy. Yet later when I asked how many kids were in the orphanage, I knew why she was thanking me. There are a total of 600 hundred kids under this orphanage, 500 of those kids being in foster care.

Did you catch that number? Did it make your heart pause? If it didn’t, stop for a second. That is 600 kids in ONE orphanage in China. I believe there are hundreds and hundred of orphanages in China, and China is one country in the world. Let your heart ponder that for a few seconds. My heart has a hard time moving on.

The second thing this amazing woman, who CLEARLY cares a lot about the kids did, was give me a book about the orphanage that the orphanage had created and published. Honestly, my visit could have stopped here and it would have been worth it. Although there are no pictures specific to Jase there are pictures of the foster village, of some of the families and of the village itself. Priceless, ohhhhhhhh soo awesome to have this for Jase.

Then we proceeded to get a tour of pretty much every room in the orphanage, at least it felt that way. We went into the baby rooms and saw too many babies to count laying, or sitting in some kind of baby seat. The babies were beautiful … it is hard for my heart to comprehend that potentially some of these babies will never get their own forever family. Honestly, it is hard to think of them as orphans, as the rooms, the cribs, and the nannies all seemed so nice … and as they were ADORABLE. The nice lady from the orphanage pointed out a sweet little baby girl that is on the shared list and has been waiting for a long time. She has epilepsy, but the lady told me it was very mild. She wanted Mr. Li to help advocate for her. She wanted her to find a family.

We went into the feeding rooms, and I saw three older orphans that had aged out of the adoption program. China’s law is that children older than 14 cannot be adopted. Mr. Li asked about a girl that looked younger than 14 and she was and he asked if they had given her file to the CCAA. They had not, he strongly encouraged them to. Mr. Li also clearly cares about the kids, he was sooo sweet with all of the orphans today. He played for a while with a severely disabled older child, who was so happy and playful.

I walked into so many rooms, it is hard to give justice to what I saw and experienced while I was there. I really was blown away, in a this is amazing, and in a this is so horribly sad way. Mr. Li mentioned how he thinks this is one of the top 5 orphanages in the country. I feel so incredibly blessed that our son was SO WELL TAKEN care of for the first part of his life.

I also got to see the room that Jase had stayed, and I took a picture of one of the beds/cribs in there. The nanny tried to get him to go to her, which he refused. Actually every time a nanny tried to hold him, he very strongly resisted. For the most part all of the nannies knew his name which I was really impressed with. And he did seem to know some of them, the way he talked to them (more like baby blabber), but he was quite content in my arms and didn’t want to go into theirs.

My son is no longer an orphan … but there are so many waiting orphans that are no one’s son. It breaks my heart and makes me want to try to get everyone I know to adopt, just one!!!! Can you imagine the difference that would make?

I know many people think we are crazy, but honestly when you know what we know and when you’ve seen what we’ve seen … what other response is there??

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On a different note … Jase is sleeping now, he is taking a nap. Did I mention that he HATES falling asleep, whether for naps or at nighttime. He fights, fights, and fights it. Did I mention that he fights going to sleep =) I think he is going to be surprised when he gets home and sees that his sisters and brothers just go to sleep, with no fight =) ONCE he is asleep he is a very deep and sound sleeper. He even slept through our loud neighbors, they were so loud two nights in a row that we are now in a new room … still with mountain and park view!

AGAIN, thank you for your prayers. Matteus was crying today (via skype), it makes it so hard for this mamma’s heart. He told me he wanted me to come home. I appreciate your prayers especially for him and for me as I so want to live every moment here fully with Jase, but honestly at times it is hard (as my heart longs for home).