Hope: One Less: Orphanage Visit

Today started out very early as we prepared to travel an hour and a half to Dongguan to Lixia's orphanage. It was an educating day and one filled with lots of emotions. We have been told it is one of the better orphanages which is mildly comforting. Due to the long drive, Lixia had some carsickness but once we gave her some medicine she slept the whole way.

As we drove up, the main building looked very nice. Lixia was an obvious favorite as many of the adults (nannies/caretakers) knew her and were excited to see her. As we walked around, we noticed how bright and colorful everything was. There was a lot of natural light and it seemed like a good environment for learning. We were able to see the sleeping area with bunk beds, bathroom, and classrooms. We saw a few older children but most were very young. We were told most of the school-age children were at the Sunshine Academy, a school affiliated with the orphanage but a few blocks away. One of the caretakers told a story that when Lixia was younger, she would get up in the middle of the night and make her self a bottle when she was hungry (even when she was too old for a bottle). They all got a good laugh reminiscing about her.

Lixia seemed to show minimal emotion during our visit. So we started asking some questions and learned that once the young children can take care of their own basic needs they are moved to a different building. Then they estimated that it had been three years since Lixia had lived there. They explained that she was living in an outside dormitory. It isn't a foster home but basically a small orphanage, maybe only 15 kids, with two to three nannies in a building offsite. Although we didn't get to see where she lived most recently, we did see where she spent a lot of time.

Lixia slept again on our return trip and we ate a late lunch at an Irish Pub. We both ordered cheeseburgers and ordered spaghetti for Lixia. It wasn't quite an American cheeseburger but the french fries were great. Lixia didn't want anything to do with the spaghetti and instead ate off of our plates. I even convinced her that coleslaw was noodles and surprisingly she ate it.

We decided it would be another great day to go swimming. The kiddie pool was closed today so we had to swim in the big pool. Lixia was quite the fish. She loves watching the other kids and thinks she needs to put her face under the water too. She was much more relaxed and really seemed to enjoy kicking and splashing around.