5/7 Travel to Dongguan

Thank you everyone for all the wonderful comments, thoughts and prayers! Being new parents to a child that is old enough to assert her personality but can’t communicate and we are still feeling out way with every new situation is overwhelming, it is wonderful and overflowing with joy one minute and frustrating that you can’t sooth her fears completely away the next. The fact that I haven’t been able to write tells you that she is our first priority. The fact that I now can blog tells you she has taken over the bed and our next goal will be to get her to sleep in a crib next to our bed so we can get her out of our bed.

We went to True Children’s Home today. TCH is the non-profit organization started by Jenny Smith that sponsored Violet’s cleft lip surgery. We were able to see the room and the crib where Violet stayed. This facility is wonderful there is one woman for two children and in the apartment where Violet was, they can handle 12 children at a time. Once they are reviewed, gone thru surgery and recovery they are placed with foster parents so they can sponsor the next child. There is one woman who just helps with whatever anyone needs: medications, feeding, changing, etc. Katrina is Jenny’s assistant and translator. This whole group is amazing! We found out from Jenny that TCH’s gola is once a child comes to TCH they never go back to the orphanage and they are adopted out at TCH. Violet was an odd case, Maoming didn’t do their part for the paperwork so that’s why she went back to Maoming Social Welfare Institute. From there we went to Tung Wah Hospital to meet Dr. Li and his assistants. The Hospital was wild, out of an old 1950’s movie. All the nurses wore hats and the entire staff had a uniform, not just a white jacket over their own clothes. Dr. Li’s assistant was the one that performed Violets surgery. She even said the she remembered Violet, I questioned Katrina how she could with so many patients and Katrina said that there aren’t that many TCH patients and Violet was one of the first ones at this hospital. It was so cute, Dr. Li pulled out his flashlight to check out how well she was doing and shook his head as if to say, ‘healed well’. It was a wonderful opportunity to see both TCH and Tung Wah, we are blessed to have met Jenny.
Violet is now laughing and is as animated as can be, she loves playing games and making boat sounds with her lips. We were so excited that she finally pooped and we won’t have to go thru the drama of an enema. We took our first shower today and loved it as much as she did the bath two days ago! She wore her squeaky shoes today and it is so funny listening to the frequency as she walks slower and then runs. When we got her we were told three different names that she was called, one by TCH and two by the orphanage director, she didn’t respond to any so we just started calling her Violet from the start, she is now responding to her name, when she isn’t distracted. We wonder how much she left the orphanage because as soon as we are on the street she becomes so quiet and fascinated with everything around her, almost as if she is seeing it for the first time.