Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Today is Micah’s 2nd birthday. Today we needed to go and tour the orphanage. We worried that this would be upsetting to Micah. When we entered the cab, he said it would take about 30 minutes to get there since it was out in the suburbs. After driving about an hour we finally arrived at an abandoned orphanage which was the old orphanage up until about a year ago. Our guide was unaware that the facility moved. So, guess where the new location was? Yes, right back near our hotel about 10 minutes away. It took a total of 2 hours to get to the right orphanage. We were so tired. Even Micah fell asleep just as we pulled into the facility. You wouldn’t believe this place. It looked like a hospital or a new college campus. It was huge and seemed almost empty. The reason it seemed empty was that it was nap time.

After giving a donation and seeing all his pictures as a baby and toddler, we proceeded to get the tour. First we visited his area. When we walked in there were several cribs with sleeping or sleepy kids. The room was very hot, almost smothering. Kids are bundled up in China. They dress them like they are going out in the snow all the time. It’s a cultural thing. We saw the crib he used for the month he was there before we got him. Then we saw his potty seat, yes, he is potty trained!!! One of the workers called him by name and she held him for a moment until as he made a sad and bewildered face. I immediately took him back. Then they showed us the bathing area and the play room with a piano. All was very neat and tidy. Very, very clean. Then they took us to the playground outside. He was very talkative and pointed a lot at each play thing. Micah cannot speak many words but all the words he speaks well are-No, and Mama. He started calling me Mama the second day. He also said the other night, “out” and repeated it after I had said it when he was pulling out all the Kleenex from the box in the bathroom. He says a few Chinese words but none of us know what they are, not even the guide. But, all the boys that day said the same things, which sounded like a la, ah la, ah la, for just about everything, especially the birds and the fish in the tanks in the lobby. We also went over the parts of his face. He said mouth, nose, eye, and almost said ear. He is very smart and loves to pick up small toys and put them into things. He also picks up anything that drops to the floor. He spilled his Cheerios, he picked up everyone of them and put them back in the bag. He loves to keep things neat and is always handing me something to throw away.

After seeing the entire facility, we headed home. We came back to the hotel and had lunch. Hope ordered Indian food and we had our American food again. Went back to the room and Hope and Micah started a long game of chase back and forth through the room. He laughed and laughed so hard he couldn’t get a breath. This kept them up and no nap today. After I layed down for a rest, Hope and Micah did some artwork. After about a 5 minute shut eye, I walked into the sitting area and Micah and Hope had done several pictures. Micah was very good at taking the caps on and off of the markers. He and Hope made many roller coaster pictures. Then they made a fort and placed all the art inside for the art show. After this we decided to finally walk across the street and see the lake. We have been waiting all week to see it. As we went outside, we realized it was raining pretty hard. Hope was in the stroller since Micah would ride in it. Big mistake, she fell asleep and it was just 5pm. We walked though several large puddles and viewed a very large and foggy lake. Micah got down and stomped in all the puddles. He really likes water. Our guide mentioned we have a swimming pool in the hotel so we might check it out tomorrow. As we went back to the hotel room we saw the workers bring Micah’s cake we ordered at lunch. This isn’t your typical cake. It is sort of like a creamy cheese cake made of whipped cream. Its crust was sort of like yellow cake. Hope was asleep so we videoed the event for her to view in the morning. He loved the cake of course. We then all headed to bed around 7:30pm. Guess what time Hope woke up? 2:57 am. It’s a little better today than yesterday at 1:00am. That is why I had time to write all this down.