Yujiang in July 2010
Until we traveled to China this past summer, we were never clear which orphanage our daughter actually came from, as we were not allowed to visit her orphanage at the time we adopted her in May 1997. Our adoption group received our babies in the elevator bank of the hotel in Nanchang. They were accompanied by caregivers, but it was not clear whether the women who brought them on the all- day trip to Nanchang were foster moms, orphanage staff, or someone else -- our translator was not very proficient in English, and our visit with the caregivers was very brief.
So this summer, when we returned to China, we had no idea what to expect when we made arrangements with the tour company (Lotus Tours, in Seattle) to visit the Yujiang Social Welfare Institute, where our daughter had spent her first year. We spent a day traveling there and back from Nanchang with a driver and translator. The road was under construction most of the way, and the driver and translator were unclear on the route and location, so it was a four hour car trip to get there. Our greeting once we arrived was amazing -- the current Director came out to greet us, and as we walked toward the building, we were startled by the explosion of dozens of firecrackers spread out on the pavement. As the smoke cleared we saw a red silk banner hung from the 2nd floor balcony, greeting our daughter in Chinese: "Welcome home, Yu Hong Mei".
The Director welcomed us with a tea ceremony, bowls of fruit, and a carved wooden statue for our daughter. He said that complex woodcarving is the local craft specialty -- (a wild fact since our daughter has always been interested in whittling wood, something she hasn't learned from anyone we know). He said that they only had 20 babies in care, 17 of whom were in foster care and not living on the premises. They only had 3 little girls actually living in the orphanage. They had just been through a devastating flood, which carried water and mud 7 feet up on the building and its environs. The flood destroyed all their vegetable gardens and left mud everywhere on the premises. Even though the building was only about 15 years old, they are planning to move in the next couple of years to a new building in a less flood-prone area.
They served us a wonderful lunch, gave us a tour of the institute, and invited us to look in on the 3 baby girls, who were napping on bamboo cots. They treated our daughter like an honored guest. We asked to see our daughter's papers, and were amazed when they brought out an old yellow folder containing the identical documents to the ones we guarded with our lives during our trips to various bureaucratic offices 14 years ago. Clearly this was the right orphanage! The Director showed us our daughter's "finding site" -- the orphanage gates -- and told her that her parents must have loved her very much, since they left her in a safe place where she was certain to be found. They had no records of the foster family she probably was cared for by. We had brought a photo of the woman who brought our daughter to us at the hotel, who we had assumed was the foster mom. But an orphanage worker who was there at the time told us that that woman wasn't a foster caregiver -- rather she was the wife of a local bureaucrat who was just doing the job of transporting Corinna to us at the hotel. That bureaucrat is now in jail for misdeeds, and his wife is also persona non grata. So the mystery of Corinna's foster family was not discoverable....
In terms of questions about gifts for the caregivers, I can't imagine what to say based on our experience. Both the caregivers and the children need resources of all kinds. I think they would be happy with money, soap, souvenirs from America, any type of toy or clothing for toddlers, blankets, cribs, fans, etc. etc. etc. The orphanage is in the middle of rice paddies, next to the small town of JinJiang, and both the town and the orphanage seem to be very poor and very rural. After we got home we asked Corinna what she thought she would be doing if she had stayed living in JinJiang, and her response seemed accurate: "I'd be a farmer."
It is hard to put into words the amazing experience of visiting a place so loaded with feeling and experience.....but it certainly was a trip well worth taking....
Pictures from July 2010 Trip to Yujiang
(click thumbnail for larger picture)
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Any other families with more information on this orphanage or who would like to post a picture or e-mail address please e-mail me at webmaster@gurrad.com.
