Yangjiang Visit

It is just after midnight Tuesday in Guangzhou.  Ariana just fell asleep and we are all exhausted.

Today we were able to visit Ariana's birthplace, the city of Yangjiang and her orphanage. Ariana is still having a very hard time and we weren't certain going was the right thing to do. We considered one of us staying back at the hotel with Ariana, but in the end we all went and she seems to have handled the trip as well as the other babies.

 Traffic here cannot be adequately described.  Insane is the only word I have.

 Here we are with Ms. Lin, assistant director of Ariana's orphanage.

 This is the gate to Ariana's orphanage.

 We weren't allowed into the rooms with the children, but when the nannies saw us they came over and opened the doors.  These two were crying when they saw us.

 The area alongside the orphanage which is on the right.

 The entrance to the orphanage.

We feel very fortunate to have seen where her roots are and learn something about how she spent the first year of her life.  I have many thoughts and feelings about what we saw, but they will have to wait until later as I'm too tired to write very coherently.  Our guide Peter summed it up best when he dropped us off tonight and said we had a very big day today, one we would remember for the rest of our lives.

Ariana is very shut down and incredibly sad.  We have had lots of tears especially in the evenings.  She is clearly grieving and it breaks our hearts.  She wants us to hold her so that is a good sign.  This is not uncommon for these babies and often they turn around after 3 or 4 days.   She isn't eating and the only thing she'll take is diluted apple juice and Pedialyte.  We were able to force a tiny bit of rice cereal in her yesterday and a little fruit baby food today.  She'll also take the little Gerber Puff things and our Kentucky travel buddies hooked us up with those.  Hopefully we can get some protein in her soon but at least she is drinking fluids which she wasn't at first. 

More later.  Goodnight from Guangzhou.