Visit to Maya Grace's Orphanage

Since we had a day in Guangzhou and Maya Grace's former orphanage was less than one hour from the airport we made the decision to visit.  I will readily admit that I was somewhat apprehensive even though I felt it was the right thing to do.  Since we do not know if we will ever return to China I hated to miss the opportunity to go.   Maya Grace was 32 months old at the time of placement I was not sure that she would remember.  I was also concerned that if she did remember that she might be traumatized thinking we were taking her back to leave her.  I imagined every scenario.

As we pulled into the drive I said to Maya, "Where are we?".  She immediately started acting excited and we realized without a doubt that she KNEW where we were.  We exited the van and she started running down the concrete walkway and turned the corner to go straight into the courtyard.  She ran directly to the door of the room in which she slept.  She made herself right at home and greeted everyone and then went to the play equipment.  Several of the older children recognized her and we heard "Xiao Xing"  Maya's Chinese name ringing out.  It made my heart very happy to see her response.  It let me know that she had happy memories there as she did not display any fear or negativity upon being there.  It was comforting. The orphanage director and nannies truly seem to care about the children and do the best they can with their limited resources. The orphanage is very clean and decorated attractively with bright colors.  They have a nice outside play area.  They seem to have every plastic riding toy one can imagine.  In spite of this it is gut-wrenching.  They currently have 70 children in their care.  Twenty of these children we were told have cerebral palsy.  They deem these children unadoptable.   Our visit at the orphanage took place outside in the courtyard and then in the conference room. We were not allowed in the room with the children as we were told they had colds and did not want Xiao Xing to get sick.

We had taken photos of two other children who had also been adopted from this orphanage and shared them with the workers.  This led to conversation about the children there who were available for adoption currently.  The nannies went into the room where the children sleep and started bringing them out a few at a time.  We were given information and the director with tears in her eyes pleaded with us to help find families for them.  One little boy is six years old.  He told the director that he wanted a mama and baba in American like Xiao Xing.  The director told him to pose for a photo so I could help him find one.  He did what I call a Bruce Lee pose.  There were four children with Down's Syndrome, one child who is blind, one with a blood disorder and the precious 6 yo whose only need is a repaired cleft lip and cleft palate. These children need a forever family.  One can not see these children and walk away.  I will do everything within my power to advocate to help them. The below photos are a few of them.

The director and nannies took us in the conference room and served tea, candies, and fresh fruits.  They thanked us for coming.  They said that Xiao Xing looked very happy, healthy, and was much more outgoing than she had been.  They thanked us for caring for her.  It was humbling to us.  She has been such a blessing. We thanked them again for caring for her the first years of her life.  As we were in the conference room they went and got an older child from school who is also in need of a family.  He has a family interested but we were asked to try and help him if the other family changed their minds.  At the end of the visit we all took group photos and prepared to leave.  Much to my dismay the nanny took Maya's hand and started walking away with her and told Maya to tell us "bye".  Maya started waving and saying "Bye Bye".  She acted content to stay - I think it was the trampoline on the play structure that was attracting her!  Please pray for those left behind.  My heart is so heavy for them.