Wednesday,
June 16, 2010
Today was our last free day before Adoption Day tomorrow. Leah
is waking up more comfortably with us now, which is great! We
started the day by going to a museum after breakfast. We bought
a book full of pictures of Qinghai, which is the province that
Xining is in. I’m excited to really go through that and see some
of the landscapes all over the province. Then we went to her
finding place. No, I didn’t cry, but it was so amazing to think
that she had been left there as a newborn. We still will need to
see the paperwork to know the exact spot in this area though,
but it’s an area that is in front of a 5 star hotel (2
buildings), with 3 sidewalks that run parallel to it going down
toward the river. There is a lot of activity there during the
day and evening, and across from the river (which is fairly
narrow) is a large park area where people would exercise in the
morning. Her mother picked a spot where there would definitely
be lots of people around to find her. We’ll know when she was
left when we see the paperwork, but she most likely left her
early in the morning, so as to not get caught. Or it could have
been while it was busy in the afternoon or evening if she had
her in a bundle that she could lay down undetected, and be gone
before someone would notice, or she (Leah) cried. Although I
doubt it would have been evening, just in case the last hours of
people being around went by and no one found her. It gets very
cold at night here even in the summer because it’s a plateau,
and the ground does not hold any heat from the day. But it was
November, so she never would have survived the night. It’s
illegal for a mother to abandon her baby, and I’m sure the
penalty would be stiff. So I have to believe that any mother who
would risk abandoning them instead of worse, had to have loved
them. Our guide was talking to some of the locals that are
basically care takers of that area who have worked there a long
time, and some of them remembered hearing about a baby being
left there, although none of them had seen her. We filled a bag
with dirt from that area, which we put into a container that I
had brought from home. I had wanted to do that so that we would
have that for Leah. I’m praying that it gets all the way home
without being confiscated. It’s very important to me.
The rest of the day was pretty normal… well, for being in China
that is. Nap, play, dinner, bath, bed! And no tears at bath
time! In fact, she really enjoyed it. Tomorrow is Adoption
Day!!!
And for those of you who were worried about me… I opened a
bottle of Chinese wine this afternoon! I had bought it on
Sunday, and had meant to open it before today, but here we are. |
Ready to start the day
Rented this outside of the museum
The area around her finding place
Still around her finding place |
