Visit to Si Ping

Best Big Sisters

Graci was having fun taking pictures out our hotel window

Susi and Graci having fun on the slide at the KFC

Snoozing on the 2.5 hour drive to Siping

Siping Social Welfare Institute -Baby/Toddler room

Susi with one of the ayis that remembers her from when she was in the orphanage in 2009

Siping SWI baby/toddler room

Siping Center - where Susi spent the majority of her baby and toddler years

Siping Center

Siping Center

Siping Center

Siping Center

Our family with one of the nannies at the Siping center and the assistant director to the Siping orphanage

After our visit to the orphanage and center we went out to lunch and Susi taught us how to use chopsticks. She is really good!

Susi's finding place -The People's Republic Hospital lobby

In front of the orphanage

We have just had a wonderful day full of surprises and many blessings. We drove to the city of Siping, where Susi was born and found. It is about 2.5 hours from Changchun, the capitol of Jilin province. First we visited the orphanage where Susi was placed after her original surgery and recovery. One of the nannies remembered her and called her by name. We spent some time holding and playing with the babies and toddlers. We were hoping to spend more time at the orphanage and get to play with the older kids but there was another event going on and that was not possible. After our visit to the orphanage we went to the Siping Center. A wonderful foundation that cares for high risk kids that need to be much more stable before returning to the orphanage or being adopted. Susi spent most of her babyhood and toddler years at the Siping Center. It was such a blessing to take her to visit, they not only totally know her but they had tons of pics of her as a baby. I was able to download them and she will have a whole baby album! This is unheard of with my younger kids. I have so few pics of them before they were adopted. But Susi will have pictures, memories told to her, and people that have known here since she was just days old. It is so awesome! I can't wait to bring her back to visit when she is older. After the center, the assistant orphanage director took us out for lunch. We ate yummy Chinese food, dumplings and various other delicious entrees. This tasted especially good because we have been on our own for food for the past few days, that means we eat KFC and Pizza Hut. If I don't have someone to help me order, I stick with what I know. After lunch we went to the hospital where Susi was found just days old, back in 2006. When we walked in, the nurses ran right up to us to see if we needed help. Then our guide explained why we were there and taking pictures in the emergency room lobby. As usual, we caused a spectacle and everyone was staring and laughing at us. We are getting used to it though and now find it kind of fun to be the entertainment. It has been a big adjustment for Graci, she is trying so hard to take things in stride and be flexible. But everyone keeps talking to her in Chinese because they assume she understands. She keeps looking at me and asking what they are saying to her, so I tell her to talk to them in English and they just start cracking up. So she shrugs her shoulders and moves on. She is such a trooper! She has even handled people touching her, which is very common here. People will squeeze her cheeks or pet her head or face. The first time it happened I thought she was going to freak out but instead she looked at me and said "why is that man petting my face?" LOL!