Trip to Zhumadian City

Wednesday April 10^th.

We had to be up at 5:30 this morning and getting ready to go.  We had a quick breakfast and us along with a couple of other families had to head out in different directions to apply for passports.  We met our guide for the day Vivian, she is very sweet and looks so young.  She is 24 but looks about 16.   We took a short cab ride to the new East Train Station and it is outstanding, the nicest train station I have ever been in.  They had this cool deal, a lady was riding around on this scooter with dust mops attached to it and she just drove around cleaning floors.

bullet train

cool floor cleaner at train station.

The train was so cool, it is one of the new bullet trains that travel 300 KM/Hr and are so smooth.   We have learned that any time you are moving Shaun is sleeping. He slept the full 1 hour to Zhumadian city. When we arrived at the station we walked out and Vivian began negotiating with the cab drivers.  She was adamant that the fare was only worth 20 RMB about $3.25 and no more.   She worked out the deal and we headed to the government office to apply for his passport.  Everyone has told us war stories about this government office how long it takes and how rude they are.  When we pulled up the lady from the orphanage ran out and said hurry no one is in line.  We rushed in and signed the documents and showed our passports and within 20 minutes we were done and on our way.  Vivian commented that this was the smoothest she had ever seen in coming to this city in all respects.  I explained to her that we had been praying for a smooth trip for many months and she said “it works”  It gave me a chance to talk about how our God has gone before us this entire trip and He has paved the way for us in this adoption.

When we were done the 4 of us plus the lady from the orphanage piled into a small cab.  Robin, me, Vivian and Shaun in the back seat of a VW Jetta and the orphanage lady in the front with the driver.  Our next goal was to see Shaun’s finding spot (the place where his mother left him.   On the way there we learned about this city, it is a military town, has a university and the biggest industry is corn and oil.  

the building where Shaun was found

 

Robin, Shaun, Vivian and the lady from the orphanage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove into the center of down town and pulled up to an apartment building and were told that Shaun was found inside this building but they did not know where in the building.  We assume that his mother must have lived in one of the nearby buildings.

Next stop the orphanage where he has lived the first 2 years of his life.  We learned that this is a very new orphanage only a little over 2 years old. There are 100 children there mostly under 3 years old. Shaun was one of the first children and was so loved by the care givers.  This explains why he is so spoiled rotten, they gave him whatever he wanted seems like.   We drove through this area that looked like a dump, seems that a lot of recycling goes on in that area of town and we saw cardboard, plastic and other junk piled all over. Then we pulled up to this very nice building that is the orphanage.  We were met by several people.   Two ladies were in pink lab coats and we learned that they are the doctors at the orphanage.  They told us that Shaun has been in very good health and they were so pleased to see him again.   We went into the first floor and turned left and went down the hall to a play room.  The children in this room were the ones that shared a room with Shaun.  They all seemed excited to see him.  He went to the one lady that was a teacher that supposedly taught him to talk but he is a boy of few words, though we are seeing more sound from him each day and he does like to sing.

Us with his primary Nannie.

 

 

The room Shaun lived in, his crib is the one on the left center

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the play room they took us to a room lined with cribs about 20 in all. They showed us his crib and introduced us to a little girl that is being adopted next week and coming to the US.   When he saw his favorite Nannie he cried and went to her.   I have to say that as I shot video in the room I found myself crying at the fact that my son lived here in this place, my tears were partially at the fact that he had to live like this and partly that I knew it was hard for him to leave this place he called home and there were also tears of gratitude for the love and care that he received from these people.  I was able to say to them through Vivian how much we appreciate the care they gave him.  

The orphanage had a photographer following us around the entire time taking photos of us and Shaun.  They wanted us to pose with the director and others while there.  At one point I showed them a photo of our girls and explained that we have a large family, they photographed the picture so they could see the family Shaun was going to.  They were pleased that we had other children from China.

Us with orphanage officials in front of the orphanage.

The orphanage was kind enough to take us back to the train station in their vehicle.  On the way there I asked them if we could stop and get a bit of dirt from this town for Shaun to keep from his birth town. The driver found me a good spot and let me out and handed me a  huge knife to dig up some dirt with.  Each of our children have a container of dirt from their home town.  The Chinese believe it is good luck to have dirt from your home town and we do this so they have something tangible from the place where they were born, we typically put it in a cloisonné container for them to have later.

When we got back to the train station we were able to move to an earlier train.  It cost a whole $2 US to change our tickets.  When we went inside they had a snack shop and Vivian suggested we get some noodles for Shaun for lunch.   It was like an over sized Raman noodle but looked much better.  They have hot water in the terminal so we cooked it up for him and he liked it.   I managed to find a Pepsi Zero for Robin and a Pepsi for me.    While we were eating we were watching a little boy play as he waited.  We soon realized he had on split pants as every time he bent over his butt hung out.  Split pants are very popular with the kids here as it makes potty training very easy for the parents.  Just something you don’t expect to see every day.

The train ride back was fine, the scenery was great.  I kept noticing these huge dirt piles in the fields, they looked like big ant hills in the middle of crops. I soon figured out that they were burial mounds for the dead and they just farm right up to them.  Our guide confirmed my suspicions on this.

 

Scenery from the train.

 

When we got back to Zhengzhou we came into the old train station and had to walk about 1 mile to the cab area to get back to our hotel.    The official visits for this province are done and we have some free time now until we head to Guangzhou.

 

 

This evening we finally found the Congee house that Rita was talking about.  It was about 50 feet from where we went last night just around the corner in the alley.   I normally hate congee but actually liked what we got for Shaun.  We also had some other great dishes, wonderful other dishes.  Had a ton of food for only 75 RMB which is about $12.50.  Second best meal I have had this trip.