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Friday, November 21, 2014 DONGGUAN ORPHANAGE VISIT Today was our last full day in China. We got to visit Zoe's orphanage today. We left the hotel at 830am. We had a few mishaps on the way, the driver got lost and we were delayed about 15 minutes, meanwhile Hope puked up her whole bottle all over the van. We finally arrived and everyone headed straight to the bathroom to freshen up. We were met by two staff who showed us around. First stop was one of the outer buildings. They were each two stories and housed four different families. Each family consisted of a mother and father and about 16 children. We got to witness the impossible task that these caretakers have to feed all these children. There is not enough time for any individual attention. We asked if any of the children in that room were going to be adopted. He replied that a doctor will exam each one and will decide which ones are suited to get paper ready for adoption. My heart sunk, that meant that some would never be made paper ready because a doctor deems them not adoptable. Many of the children in this room had severe delays but how could one decide that they were to never have a father or a mother. This orphanage houses 800 kids. I asked how many are adopted each year through international adoption and they said around 50. It seemed like such a small number. I also asked about how many children they receive in each month and they said around 10. So if you do the math that's about 120 kids a year. She said 90% were special needs and they were about 50% boys and 50% girls. We were amazed by the care that we seen even with the outrageous ratio of staff to kids. We then walked up to the second floor where we found Zoe's old favorite nanny. I was so excited to see her and she was even more excited to see Zoe. She was so happy the entire time talking about how much she has grown and how beautiful she was. She works in the new school called Sunshine academy for the 2-4 year olds. She was very sweet and Zoe didn't want to say goodbye to her. We then walked out to the playground. The guy that had been showing us around left and returned with some new pictures of Zoe. I was so excited to see these. Zoe showed off on the playground showing the staff all her tricks. We also met the vice president who was actually the woman who made Zoe's file for international adoption. It was so great to meet her and hear more information about Dongguan. We then left and had lunch with the staff at a local restaurant. We had many interesting dishes brought out and once again everything was delicious. Poor Hope got sick again on the way back. This time just a few blocks from our hotel and we were out of clothes for her to wear. She hasn't been feeling to good this evening and we pray that she will be better by the time we fly out tomorrow. Please pray also that we make our connection flight in Beijing. We learned tonight that our morning flight got delayed two hours and we may not make our flight in Beijing. If we don't I will be devastated to say the least. Everyone is more than ready to get home. Thank you everyone who has followed our journey to Hope. We are so in love with this little girl and can't wait for you all to meet her. She fits right in with the rest of the family and already loves her siblings. She is still a mommy's girl which should make the flight home an interesting one. Please pray for our health and strength as this will be a very long tough journey back home.

Zoe on same slide from the first picture we have of her

The Vice President and us in front of the Orphanage


Zoe with the other staff from the Orphanage

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