Day 9

Morning:

We left Guangzhou this morning at around 9:00 headed for Dongguan City.

 

As we left Guangzhou, Dongguan began to emerge from the banana fields. Jack indicated that it was about 40 to 50 miles away from our hotel.

 

 

We arrived at the orphanage, and to my surprise it was very nice and well maintained. The sign over the door read, “Everything for Children,” and once inside I found this to be true.

 

 

 As we pulled up, the woman in charge of organizing the adoption process greeted us and was all excited to see Camellia again.

 

 

Camellia got a little nervous but went along, and we entered the building.

Our first stop was the lobby and indoor play area for the children. This area was where our original picture of Camellia was taken. Next the ladies showed me Camellia’s old bedroom and pointed out the bed that she slept in. After seeing her bedding I know why Camellia chose the snack cups that she did. They have the same bunny pattern on them as this bedding.  There were probably 10 or 12 children that shared this bedroom. Across the hallway from the bedroom was her classroom.

 

 

Throughout the entire trip, Camellia did great! She went to all of the ladies who wanted to see/hug/touch her just one last time.  Here she is with her primary caregivers while she was in the orphanage. Camellia warmed up after the photo; I think she was afraid the girl was going to drop her in all the excitement. This young woman was especially excited to see Camellia and have her picture taken with her. They were all asking me questions about her and how she had been during the past week. They asked about her eating and potty schedule. I indicated that she was fine and had gained 2 pounds. They said a word that I understood… “WOW.”

 

I brought suckers for the children, and when we walked in, 20 children attacked us! It was wonderful to see all their excitement. But at the same time, it broke my heart for all these little boys and girls who are in such need of not only a parent, but in need of the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

 

 

Eventually, the workers made the children sit down, and they asked Camellia to hand each one of them a sucker.

 

As she passed out suckers, all the children sat patiently waiting… except for the cute little guy on the left. Overcome with excitement, and having missed the opportunity in the first 2 photos above, he eventually jumped up and ran over to Camellia to get his sucker early.

The workers then pulled out Camellia’s chair, still labeled with her Chinese name and her American nickname of Gabby. The teacher gives each of the children American nicknames, as she knows they will eventually be adopted. I asked if there was any significance to Gabby.. She said no; she just picked it.

 

Camellia wanted the chair in the line with the rest of the kids, so they put it back in its place, and she went and sat down in her spot.

 

 We left the classroom as the kids were getting ready for lunch, and they took us to the outside playground. We got our picture with the lady in charge of preparing all the paperwork and getting Camellia ready to come home to us! She is the lady that gave Camellia the package that we sent her and took the photos from the camera we mailed.

 

Soon our tour was over, and we took a few final pictures outside. This was the statue out front of the main gate.

 

 

As we drove away down the street the orphanage is on, you can see the poverty from the area of town where the orphanage is located. I’m so blessed to have Camellia.

Afternoon:

We spent the afternoon resting. Camellia took a long nap. I woke her at 5:00 so she could be awake for a little while before we figured out what we were going to do for dinner. She got up, sat on my lap, and fell right back to sleep as we watched TV for a little while.

Evening:

It seems that the Muntz family, Palmer, Jeannette, Melody, Jillian, and Grandma, has been kind enough to adopt Camellia and me for mealtime. For the past several nights we have met up for dinner. Today, they invited me to lunch and then after naptime, dinner too! To check out their adventure make sure to visit http://palmersworld.blogspot.com/ . Camellia likes to watch Melody and Jillian. Tonight we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Many interesting things happened trying to translate a menu between 3 cultures from English to Japanese and then to Chinese. I ordered Camellia “cold noodles” that turned out to be hot. We guess cold meant dry as there wasn’t any sauce on them. Either way, Camellia ate them!