Our Day Trip to Datong City

Today we woke up early to start on our long trip to Datong City where Hadley was born and has lived for the last 16 months. We are staying in Taiyuan which is the capitol city of Shanxi province. Datong City is about a four hour drive from Taiyuan. We started our morning at the breakfast buffet which was again very mediocre. I have mastered sneaking rolls, eggs, and cereal in my pockets to feed Hadley later in the day so that's a plus. After breakfast we hit the rode and headed toward Datong City. We have been riding in a van all week with a driver and our guide Maggie. There are not carseats in China so I have been dreading this part of the trip since I found out we would have to visit Datong and it was four hours away. Well, Hadley did great in the car. She slept a little, ate snacks and played. She is still very happy and content to sit still for long periods of time. I have a feeling that isn't going to last much longer because she is getting more and more brave each day.

Happy girl in the car

Welcome to Datong City! They mine a lot of coal here.

We arrived in Datong around 1pm and our guide asked us if we wanted to have lunch at KFC, a place with beef noodles or a local restaurant that has been famous for their noodles for over 100 years. The Datong area is known for these noodles they are very thick and flat. It was a very hearty meal.

Datong noodles. They were yummy!

Datong City was a welcome change from Taiyuan. Since leaving Louisville early last Friday we have not seen anything green and alive, and have not seen sunshine or a blue sky. The smog here is so bad that the sky is always grey, blocking most the sun and there is a dirty grey sot on everything. Aaron has described Taiyuan as looking like a post-apocalypse city. Another adoptive mother described a similar city in China as District 12 in the Hunger Games. This is a very accurate description of where we have been all week and we were happy to get out and drive through the country and the mountains. We pulled into the parking lot of the noodle shop and jumped out of our van and headed in. It was very small inside and very crowded and everyone was smoking. Yuck! As we walked in carrying Hadley all 20-30 people in there stopped what they were doing and looked at us. Some looked with a disapproving eye, others were supportive of us. The lady at the table next to us couldn't stop looking at Hadley and talking to her. Eventually she pulled out her phone and snapped about 20 pictures of Hadley (can you imagine if you tried that in the US). Our guide helped us order our noodles and the grand total for two huge bowls of noodles came to 14 RMB or $2.30. It is a good thing we brought our own water bottles (sidenote...we carry a bottle of water everywhere we go because restaurants don't sell bottled water. Our guide was shocked by the number of bottles and jugs of water we have gone through. She can't figure out what we are doing with it all) because everyone else in the restaurant had their own pint of liquor with their lunch. It appeared to be the only thing that they sold to drink. Aaron and I were assuming that it was not as strong as what we are used to or else these people wouldn't be drinking a pint with lunch and then heading back to work, or would they?

After our giant bowls of noodles it was time to visit Hadley's orphanage, the Social Welfare Institute of Datong City. She only spent one week there right after she was born so we had contemplated whether or not to come but we found out on Gotcha Day that we would be able to meet Hadley's foster mom at the orphanage. We were excited to have the opportunity to meet her and be able to learn a little more about Hadley's past but were also very nervous about how Hadley would react to seeing her again. We have had a great few days and we didn't want any set backs. We got to the orphanage and jumped out of the van and headed through the front gates. It was a beautiful, clean, well-kept facility. We couldn't believe how nice it was walking through the campus to the back where the kids were. We walked in and waited in an office for a few minutes for Hadley's foster mom to arrive. She came a little while later and lit up when she saw me standing there with Hadley. I purposefully had Hadley in my Ergo carrier strapped to my chest. Her foster mom approached us and was so happy to see her and Hadley was thrilled to see her as well. After a few minutes she insisted I get Hadley out and she wanted to hold her. I looked and Aaron and we couldn't decide what to do. Finally I hesitantly handed Hadley to her and then I started crying. I had to turn away. It was too much to watch them together. The foster mom was crying, our guide cried, even Aaron cried before the visit was over.  They were both so excited to see each other. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that they have such a wonderful relationship and Hadley was clearly well cared for and loved by this woman but I was worried about what would happen when I tried to take Hadley back. I was scared to death I would have to rip Hadley from this woman's arms while she screamed bloody murder. I was afraid Hadley wouldn't understand and would think I was taking her away from the only mother she has ever known. We were able to ask the foster mother a few questions and get some additional information which is wonderful to have. You know so little about these kid's past that us adoptive parents will take any info we can get even if it means enduring the pain of a situation like this. We asked her if she would like to write Hadley a letter for us to give to her when she was older and she happily wrote a letter to her, which our guide is going to translate for us.  We thanked her so much for taking good care of our sweet Hadley and she wished us luck and said she hopes Hadley is happy and loved in our family. We assured her that won't be a problem. At this point we were all crying again. She handed Hadley back to me and she happily came right to me without shedding a tear. My sweet girl. What a relief!

Hadley's foster mother

After a few minutes the director gave us a tour of the orphanage. We were so impressed with what we saw. The children were very well cared for and the facilities were amazing. I would pay money to send my kids to preschool there (and that is saying a lot coming from my background in Early Childhood Education and my high standards for quality child care). The kids were all playing with appropriate toys, the classrooms were well stocked with everything they needed and very clean. Everything was well kept. The nannies were involved playing, reading and singing songs. The kids were all so excited to see us and were waving and coming up to get a closer look at us. There is another family in my adoption Facebook group and we were able to meet their son and check on him for them. We got several pictures and videos but that little boy would not smile for us. He was a stubborn little guy but this mommy was happy with any pictures we could get. We continued on our tour and saw the therapy room, sensory integration room, therapy pools, physical and occupational therapy room and even an acupuncture room. My fellow early childhood ladies would have been impressed (Brooke, Dawn, April, Jennie Beth). Although these kids were all abandoned and didn't have a family, they had every opportunity for success at this place. I am so happy that there are good orphanages out there because you usually only here the horror stories of the awful ones. However, the reality is that these poor kids are all orphans and the majority of them will never know the love of a real family and will age out of the system without ever being adopted. We finished up our tour and headed out to go back to the van. Hadley's foster mother was there and followed us all the way out to the van. It was a long walk and she fussed over Hadley the whole time. Pulling her pants legs down when a bit of ankle was exposed to the cold air and zipping her coat up tight around her neck and over her face. This was all happening while Hadley was strapped in the carrier to my chest. We walked quickly to the car, said our final good byes and left. We were so relieved that was over but so glad we went through with meeting her. I think it was good closure for both Hadley and her foster mother and we were able to properly thank this woman for taking care of our sweet Hadley.

Entrance to the orphanage

Walking through the orphanage grounds to the back buildings were the kids are

Toddler class

Play area outside of the classrooms

One of the therapy rooms

Older toddler/2-3 year olds

From there we headed on to the police station for Hadley's passport. We pulled into a random alley and were instructed to get out. We went into an old dingy looking 12 story building and headed up the elevator to the 11th floor. While waiting for the elevator Aaron pointed out the man sleeping on a chair in the corner. He appeared to be a security guard. Clearly working hard to protect the building (sarcastic tone). The doors opened and there were people everywhere and of course most of them were smoking. We weaved through crowds of people (we have no idea what they were all doing there on a Wednesday afternoon) and headed down a long, dark hallway with a million closed, unmarked doors. Our guide picked a door and gently knocked. A few minutes later a man opened it and invited us in. We walked down another hall and into a small office. There was a man laying in bed napping! There was  desk with a computer and a bed in this office. Who has this random man resting in bed in the middle of the day and why was there even a bed in the office? Aaron and I were so amused but everyone else acted like this was totally normal. Of course we had to take a picture to share with all of you. We showed a couple pieces of paperwork to the man at the desk and showed him Hadley to verify she was the right child. I had to climb around the man on the bed to get to the guy at the computer to show him Hadley's face. Don't mind me mister, just continue your nap. Thirty seconds later we were done. Could we not have done that in Taiyuan and saved ourselves 8 hours of driving?

Hallway in the police station to the office we needed to go to

Don't mind the guy sleeping on the rock hard bed. 

I had to climb around his feet to get back behind the desk.

The highlight of my day was I know can say I have successfully used a squatty potty twice. I have heard so much about it in the China adoption world. It is basically a hole in the floor and you squat over it to pee. It is a little tricky to get your pants in the right position so you don't pee on your pant leg or shoe or accidentally fall in. I can now say I have mastered it and hope to never experience it again. I can't imagine how old people do it. It was a challenge.

We got back in the van and headed back on our four hour journey home. For a large part of the drive we went about 40 mph on the highway. Aaron and I cannot figure out why we were driving so slow and think we could have cut the time of that trip in half if the driver had let one of us drive. However, Hadley was not in a carseat so I guess it's a good thing we weren't doing 90mph.

You could see part of the Great Wall on our drive home as the sun was setting. It was really neat and I am glad I at least got a peek at it since we did not have an opportunity to visit.

A peek at the Great Wall of China

This is how Hadley spent a lot of the ride home...laying on me for four hours.

Got back to the hotel and ordered room service. We were much more successful than our attempt the first night. We are old pros at this but are so ready to leave Taiyuan and head to Guangzhou. The original plan was to wait to pick up Hadley's passport late Thursday and then fly out on Friday morning. However, we were able to move our flight up to tonight and another family who is also in Taiyuan will be bringing Hadley's passport to us in Guangzhou.

We leave Taiyuan in a couple of hours and have a two hour flight to Guangzhou where we will spend the last week of our trip. We are desperately ready to get to Guangzhou, spend time with other Americans and get out and enjoy the culture and history of this beautiful country.