China Day Thirteen -- A Day Full of Grand Adventures

The Blau Family with the directors of Minsy's orphanage

 This morning the whole family met Shirley downstairs in the lobby so that we could visit the orphanage in charge of Minsy. I debated whether or not we needed to do this because Minsy had spent so much of her life in foster care. The orphanage really didn't play a big role in her upbringing. However, it did play a little role, and we wanted to make sure and get as much information as we could while we were in Wuhan. Also, Laney has been talking lately about coming to China for a few years and helping out in an orphanage, so we wanted to give her a little glimpse of what that would be like.

Minsy's orphanage

The orphanage in Wuhan was a bit nicer than I expected. It had a nicely paved drive and a nice courtyard with a play area for the children. Two assistant directors led us on the tour. They have two hundred staff to care for eight hundred children. That is a pretty good ratio of staff to children, especially when you consider that half of their children are in foster care.

Orphanage entrance

We were taken to the top floor if the orphanage where they had special needs children and infants. It sort of had the feel of a US hospital of the fifties. There were nice pictures drawn on the walls, but everything seemed sterile, and a bit dark and cold. But it was nice for the children, I think. I got the feeling that we were being given the sanitized version of a tour because these special needs children did not really seem to have very severe needs, if any. I knew that there had to be more severe needs somewhere in the orphanage, but we were told that all of the floors were similar to the one we toured. On this floor there was a playroom where we saw children playing with the nannies. Also we saw a foster mom who was there with her child to receive some medical therapy. She seemed very nice. There was also a water therapy room. It was not really like the type of water therapy rooms you would see in a US hospital. There were two big blowup type water containers next to plumbing. They can only do the water therapy here when it is warm because they are unable to heat the water in winter.

The artwork on the top floor

I loved to see the infant room. They had probably twenty babies there. A few were attached to IVs, but several were just tightly swaddled in blankets. Some of the babies were crying, and I just wanted to hold them for a long time so they could be calm, but we were whisked away very soon.

View from the top floor of the orphanage

We went back down to the courtyard and met the head nurse who had been in charge of doing Minsy's physical therapy. She was very nice. She held Minsy for awhile and talked about how tiny Minsy was when she arrived at the orphanage. You could see that she loves the children. As we were talking the children playing in the courtyard came up to the assistant director and called him 'Baba,' the Chinese word for daddy. I could see the love he has for the children also. I was very happy with our visit to the orphanage. It may not be quite as modern as something you might see in the states, it still seemed as if it was a place where the children are well cared for. It was neat to see the spots where Minsy took some of the photos that were sent to us. I really enjoyed seeing how the orphanage was set up.

Minsy with the nurse who did her physical therapy

Minsy saying hello to some other children from the
orphanage

A mural outside the orphanage

Outside the orphanage

After we left the orphanage we took taxis to the spot where Minsy had been found. It seemed as if the taxi which drove Herman, Laney, Savannah, Hyrum, and JoJo did not exactly know where to go, so Herman said that if we didn't meet up in an hour we should just head back to the hotel. Shirley rode with Spencer, Katie, Minsy and me. We ended up at a pile of rubble. Minsy was found at a big bus station that took passengers to other cities in Hubei province. This station is no longer there. Instead there is a giant rubble pile with a couple of old vans which look like they have people living in them. The rubble is there because they are expanding the hospital which is located across the street. This is a very good hospital in Wuhan. Shirley explained that what probably happened was that Minsy's parents took a bus into Wuhan from another city in the province. They probably took her to be seen at the hospital and learned how expensive it would be to treat her condition. Then they must have made the agonizing decision to give her up because as an orphan they knew that the state would care for her and treat her disability. I cannot even begin to imagine just how difficult that decision would have been. It just makes me even more committed to making sure she gets the best care possible.

All that is left of the building where Minsy was found

Katie and Minsy outside the ruins
of the building where Minsy was
found abandoned

Mama and Minsy by the finding spot

The big hospital across the street from the place where
Minsy was found

A police station next to Minsy's finding spot

We took several pictures of the area with and without Minsy. Shirley left us alone while she searched for Herman around the block. While I waited I was accosted by a very nice Buddhist monk. At least he was dressed like a monk. He gave me something that looked like a Buddhist pass along card with a picture of some goddess on it. I thanked him in Chinese, but then he rubbed his fingers together like he wanted donation. I gave him five yuans, but he continued to talk to me in Chinese. Where was Shirley? Finally I convinced him that I didn't know any Chinese, so he walked on. Shirley finally returned without seeing Herman. We decided to head back to the hotel. Herman and the kids met us there. They had also been dropped off at a pile of rubble, but it was the wrong one. At least we were able to make it back to the hotel together. Shirley left us with plans to meet up tomorrow, and we headed back to our room.

We needed to wait in the room for a bit until they brought our laundry back. The delivery man was such a nice man, but he gave us a bit of shock when he explained that we owed 762 RMB for our laundry service. That is the approximate equivalent of $120! Holy cow! It was by far the most expensive thing we have done on this trip, and I thought that Herman was going to have a seizure right in front of me. I gently pushed him aside and paid the nice man so that he wouldn't have to witness our extreme disappointment with the price he gave us. There is no way that we can continue to pay those sorts of rates for laundry service while we are in China. That was about 4 days worth of clothes. We now decided that we are not going to be quite so snobby about what our clothes look like. They are definitely going to be worn several times before we launder them again. Hopefully the kids can make it through several days without spilling food or sliding through mud puddles.

After that sad bit of news we headed out for the day. We met a nice family from New York who were adopting a little girl in Wuhan. They had only been in the country for a few days and were still a bit nervous about traveling around without a guide. We volunteered to hang out with them for an afternoon and find some fun things to do. We were going to meet them at their hotel which was located on the north side of the Yangtze River. Since we were more used to using taxis we traveled to them rather than having them come to our hotel. Herman got the name of their hotel and plugged it into his Wuhan taxi app on his iPhone. He sent me, along with Spencer, Katie, JoJo and Minsy off to the hotel after giving instructions to our driver. He would follow in a second cab with the rest of the kids. Our cab driver drove us north for several minutes, weaving in and out of backwoods communities in Wuhan. I started to wonder a bit if we were heading in the right direction because he was driving in out of the way neighborhoods, and I found it hard to believe that an adoption agency would place one of their families in a hotel that was so removed from the main thoroughfares.

After driving through some concentrated traffic for a bit the driver pulled to the side of the road and pointed to a hotel across the street from us. He indicated that this was where we were meant to be. I paid him and got out of the car, but I had strong reservations about this being the right hotel. This looked like a very old and run down hotel. It was pretty dirty on the outside, and it was obvious that there were several broken curtain rods in the windows at the front of the hotel. In addition, there seemed to be very little movement in the area, and that made it seem less like a hotel should. I couldn't believe that an adoption agency would have their clients stay in a hotel like this. The agencies I have seen have always put their clients in pretty high end hotels in these cities, and this definitely didn't seem to be such a hotel.

I huddled with the kids and decided that we would cross the street to investigate and then try to find a cab home. I was afraid that Herman and the kids were taken to the right place while we had been dropped off at the wrong place, so I used some precious international phone minutes and called his cell phone to let him know that we were lost and were going to make our way back to our hotel. We headed to the hotel to take a closer look, and a lady came walking down the parking lot to enter her car. I asked her if she spoke English, and (Bless Her!) she did. I told her my dilemma and showed her the paper with the name of the hotel we were searching for. She explained that we were at the wrong hotel. We needed to be at another hotel across town. At that moment I heard Herman and the rest of the kids after they had been dropped off in the same location. I was sooooo happy that he was there, even if we were at the wrong spot. Herman explained that we were at the right place because the phone number listed outside the hotel was the same, but the lady then explained that this hotel was closed, so obviously we couldn't have been in the right place. We needed to find a taxi and return home. Then the real adventure began.

Beginning our adventure to try to find our way
back to our hotel

The kids love exploring Chinese
neighborhoods

We had to find a taxi that could take us back to our hotel. The neighborhood in which we found ourselves was not one where taxis drove very often. We were going to need to walk to find a busier thoroughfare. Our walk took us through some neat older neighborhoods in Wuhan. If we stood out as a family of nine Americans as we walked through some of the main parts of Wuhan, that was nothing compared to how we stood out in this neighborhood. This was not anywhere close to anything that would draw tourists, so they were unfamiliar with any tourists walking through their streets. Everyone was very friendly to us, but also very curious. We were stopped several times as people spoke to us in Mandarin. I didn't understand anything they said, but I could see that they were commenting on the size of our family and Minsy's addition to it as a native Chinese girl. I really have loved seeing these neighborhoods in China. It really gives us a feel for what life is like in China. We walked quite a bit, never finding any taxis that would cross our path. We stopped at a fruit shop in the neighborhood and bought some bananas. They were good enough, but they were a bit over-ripe. At that point we were pretty hungry, so we didn't mind the soft bananas at all. Minsy LOVED the bananas. She ate and ate and ate them. Savannah bought some sort of fruit that we had never seen before. It was about the size of a cherry tomato, and it was green like a pear. Once you peeled the green peel you could eat the inside. The inside had the consistency of a seeded grape. I thought it was pretty good, but only Savannah and Minsy agreed with me.

Still walking. . . 

As we walked I started to notice tons of girls wearing super short shorts along with panty hose and tall leather boots. In the back of my mind I was a bit concerned that we had wandered into some sort of red light district. But there were still tons of families around us, so it couldn't have been too bad. I think that that was just the way people normally dressed in Wuhan. I saw several ladies dressed that way all over the city. It was just so unusual for me to see so many people dressed that way. I always felt safe, no matter where we were walking. That is one nice thing about China. I have yet to find a neighborhood where I was worried. I think that is because there are just so many people walking all of the time. It would be hard for someone to commit any horrible sort of crime when there are so many witnesses.

A street vendor scraping sugar cane

After walking for quite a long time we finally came up on an avenue that looked pretty busy. When we got to the intersection we found that we were in a big pedestrian mall that was similar to Wangfujing in Beijing. There were tons of modern stores serving higher end shoppers. There are a ton of these types of malls found in Wuhan. We haven't really gone to any of them, but this one snuck up on us. We knew with all of the shoppers walking around there needed to be some taxis available for us. We walked through the street until we came to a cross road where there were taxis coming by to drop people off. The problem was that it was still a busy time of day, so many taxis were full. Then we had to find taxis whose last number was even because only the even taxis were able to cross the river today. It seemed like every single taxi was an odd one. Herman was finally able to flag one down, and he stuck me in it along with Spencer, JoJo, Katie, and Minsy. Herman would follow as soon as he could with everyone else.

A view of the street market where we eventually
found a taxi

Our taxi driver was super nice. When he was stopped in traffic he would make silly faces at Minsy through the dividing glass. I was so happy to finally arrive back at our hotel in a good amount of time. As we pulled up a worker at the hotel came to the taxi to open my door for me. The kids piled out of the back while I waited to pay the driver. I was holding Minsy. I opened up my purse, grabbed my wallet, and started to pull out my money. That's when Minsy hurled all over me, my purse, my wallet, the money, and the front seat of the cab. I just sat there for a second in horror, not believing what was happening. She hadn't acted sick at all, and she gave no warning to me before she threw up. Before I had time to catch my breath she let loose again with another round of vomiting. I looked out of the cab to see three hotel workers, five Chinese businessmen who were waiting for a cab, and Spencer, JoJo and Katie watching with a mixture of awe, disgust, and humor. The hotel workers ran inside to grab some tissues for me, but there weren't nearly enough to take care of the mess Minsy had made. I tried to use them to clean the most crucial areas. That was the cab and the money I had to use to pay the cab driver. I did the best I could, but it wasn't the greatest cleaning job ever done in the world. I felt sooooo bad for the nice driver. I pulled out a fifty yuan note to pay him, and I tried to wipe it clean for him. Still I held it by the tip, and he grabbed it by the tip, cringing as he did so. Drat! Why had I not learned the Chinese word for "I'm sorry"? All I could do was give my universal sign for "sorry." I could only cringe and shrug my shoulders, hopefully looking contrite. He was such a nice cab driver. I hated to end our ride in such a yucky way.

I was covered in vomit all over the lower half of my body. Minsy wasn't quite so bad, thank goodness. But my purse and wallet were covered. That was a long walk through the hotel lobby as I tried to look calm while I was covered in vomit. It says just how much I have bonded with little Minsy that I was able to wear her vomit without feeling any desire to vomit myself. We headed up to the room, only to find that I didn't have a key with me. I was just about to send Katie and Spencer down to get a new one when Herman showed up. I headed straight for the shower. Once I got myself clean I began to realize one of the drawbacks to having made a pledge to not use the laundry as much whiile we are in China. I needed to get these clothes clean myself. I spent a long time scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing our clothes to get them clean and fresh. I was so glad that I packed a bit of laundry detergent to take with us on the trip. It made the job easier.

I don't think that Minsy's body has been accustomed to eating all of the food that we have been sampling lately. She is so willing to try new things, and when she finds something that she enjoys, she eats a lot of it. I am going to have to do a better job of monitoring all the things she is eating so that this doesn't happen again. It was not the way I wanted to end my evening.

I was exhausted after all of the events of the day, but I had to stay up later to pack all of our things up. We are leaving on a train tomorrow to head to Guangzhou, but I will be busy all morning with some adoption work. We will need to be ready by the time we return to the hotel from all of that business, so I needed to get it done tonight. I didn't want to make the kids do it all while I was away during the morning. Because we had to carry all of our luggage with us on the train, we needed to pack well. It seems as if we are expanding at each stop on the trip. i had to do a better job of packing so that we could manage everything.

It was a crazy day where nothing really went according to plans, but it was still a lot of fun. I have loved being in Wuhan, but I'm very excited to head to Guangzhou tomorrow so we can get everything done so that we can bring Minsy home to the US.

[I've gotten a bit behind with my posts because we have had a hard time getting to the hotel business center to type on a real computer. It takes too much time for me to type with my thumbs on my iPhone. But we have finally gotten a charger for our laptop, so hopefully I'll catch things up in the next few days. Thanks for reading and your sweet comments.]