The first thing I found interesting was that I learned a lot more about the adoption process and hope it works with these children. These children that are taken in here are from the Chinese government run orphanages. They're the children that are too sick or require too much work for them to be able to treat or save. It sounds terrible, but then you hear how the government run orphanages are packed past capacity and each nanny has 12 babies to care for. They have so many children to work with it is next to impossible to fulfill the specific needs. Here each nanny has two babies each. If one of them has special needs or requires extra time and attention they can't give it to them. That's one of the reasons that we get a lot of cleft palate babies. They require a lot of time and patience to feed. The nannies have so many responsibilities they don't have the time so they often die of malnutrition. Isn't that so sad? Something so simple... These aren't the only problems you see. There are a lot of children with heart defects and malformed limbs and many many unique disease that are rarely seen in the states. Right now I am at the Beijing based program where the children are pretty much stable, either gaining strength for surgery or or gaining strength after. Where I am going, Maria's Big House of Hope, is where the more critical cases are. Apparently the survival rate there isn't the best since they get the babies who are in the most desperate of health. Some of them are there for purely palliative care since their conditions are incompatible with life. I was shown a picture of one of the babies who had a large sac out of the back of his skull where his brain had formed outside of his body. He died on the train ride to receive surgery. It's really sad because these critical babies who need to go to Hong Kong for surgery don't have any sort of med flight or ambulance to travel by. They have to be carried on a regular train...
Another thing I learned was about some of the child laws in China. Everyone has heard of their one child policy, though now some places allow for two. One thing I didn't know was that it was against the law to put your child up for adoption. It was also against the law for anyone to have an ultrasound to check for the sex of the child. People abandon their babies in public places where they know they will be found instead. That sounds like an extremely rough thing, but then I heard it often isn't the mother, or even done with her knowledge. These circumstances could be the result of the father or mother-in-laws. To me that would be a terrible fate, to have your child taken. In any case there is so much that must go into the process of believing in the need to abandon a child or having a child taken and abandoned. It is a terrible thought. There are probably so many reasons that I could never understand.
On a happier note! Adoption. Apparently they try very hard here to get the children matched with families before they leave the organization to go back to the Chinese orphanage. The Chinese orphanages handle all of the adoptions and when a child is well enough they must return to the orphanage. A family can not technically request a specific child. They can only say they want to adopt and will be given children's files. Apparently what you can do is give a specific child's name and description to a Chinese adoption agency and they can possibly try and find their file for you. I didn't realize, but if you don't have the money to adopt there are many organizations, such as ShowHope, that offer adoption grants, and if not that there are many groups that help with fundraising to help bring a child home. It is a wonderful thing and it is so wonderful to see these children, especially those ones that would need the attention and help, and know that some of them have families they are going home to. On the other hand it is also sad to those that don't. I'm going to tell you about two little boys I met yesterday. They both have the same nanny and are best friends. They usually are dressed a like and are pretty much brothers. The one has bilateral cataracts and cp (not too severe). The other was born with club feet and has a disease where it is difficult to move any of his joints and some don't move at all. His hands are smaller and missing at lease one finger. This makes it so it is very hard for him to use his hands at all or raise his arm much. He walks without bending his knees at all, but he is one of the brightest children! I mean that in personality and intelligence. He is 3 and can speak Chinese and English very well for his age and knows most of his colors and shapes. He was singing the alphabet song to me yesterday. He is so funny, he loves to play and be included and loves every activity laughing and smiling and somehow managing to do pretty much everything the other children do. When he left the preschool class yesterday he ran out yelling his friend's name, and he in turn ran to him yelling his. They met and hugged and said "I love you!". Can you imagine how adorable that was? The sad thing is that the one with cp and cataracts has a family, but the other still doesn't. I really hope he finds one. I hate to think how hard it will be for him without his friend and I don't know how he would do back in a crowded orphanage. He is far too bright and happy and inquisitive for him to handle it well, besides the fact he is very huggy and friendly. He is so cute. He can't hug exactly like everyone else. He kind of just runs into you and raises his arms a little. Yesterday he had me pick him up and said "nose!"and started vigorously rubbing noses with me. I couldn't stop laughing! Basically, he is ABSOLUTELY adorable.
Other random interesting things. I ate Chinese food, but it was Northern Chinese food rather than Southern which is more like we have in the states. It was a tofu salad, a rice bread roll filled with bean paste, and rice porridge soup (pretty much a little rice in a lot of water...). It was pretty good, but I could only eat a little. Apparently the soup is what they always eat for breakfast. They drink the soup and do use chopsticks for everything else. I went for a bike ride through the town with two of the other girls. Bikes without gears suck (especially if you haven't used one since you we're 8) and even more so if it is broken and the tire pops. This is just an FYI for the curious. The town was neat. The stores are colorful, if rundown looking, and most of the distinctly ornate Chinese roofs. People drive very close to you and honk loudly. Honking is pretty much a greeting to any passing car or person, not all do it, but a lot. Their crops amuse me since they seem so random. There is corn planted everywhere. Sometimes in fields, and sometimes just on the outside edge of a fence or between trees or other crops or along the road. It is just funny to me the random places you see tiny bits of corn growing. There are a lot more workers working in the field than you see in ohio. There will be people all along the sides of the road. I even saw two lounge chairs along the side of the road and two workers lying on the side of the road taking a nap under some trees. Apparently you shouldn't buy fruit from the street venders because they pump it up with water to make it heavier. Also it is common knowledge you must carry around your own toilet paper for public restrooms. There are also, I have been told, often "squatty potties", sometimes they are just a trench in the ground in poorer areas. I am not looking forward to that.... Oh! Earlier I said that there were only green road signs, but I was wrong! I saw two blue ones yesterday! Finally, I went Chinese line dancing yesterday! That was interesting. They have it every evening at about 8 in then middle of town. There is an open area where mostly middle aged women go. They have a couple of leaders who turn on the music and lead the dances and others gather around the little square and watch or chat or participate. It is supposed to be a sort of dance aerobics. It reminded me of a sort of Zumba. It was fun! Just really hot since it is extremely hot and humid and smoggy here. A lot of the ladies in the front had matching green outfits, a Forrest green top, skirt and knee length leggings. It was adorable! Anyway, that is enough interesting things for one day I believe.
Directly at the sun through the everyday smog. This was a pretty clear day for China.
Some of the play areas for the kids, all from donations. There are little signs in thanks.
Back of New Hope
Out behind the building
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