Visit to Nanchang Orphanage

Today we were allowed to visit the Nanchang orphanage were Parker lived. We were told when we arrived that he lived with a foster family but today we learned that was not the case, he lived at the orphanage. From the moment we arrived we could tell how much he loved it there. The first person we saw was a woman who cared for him in the evenings. He immediately smiled and put out his arms to go to her and she was extremely excited to see him as well and gave him lots of kisses. Our guide asked her if she was his main caretaker and she said she had two jobs, during the day she cleaned the orphanage and at night she stayed with the babies. She showed us to the room where Parker spent his days, we recognized it from the video they sent us. Parker was very excited to see another woman in that room who we found out was the woman he calls Mama, she is the one who cared for him during the daytime. It seemed they were very attached and she was very excited to see him. Both women told us repeatedly how smart he is and how he will see someone do something and try to imitate them. They told us he enjoys dancing when there is music on and that he tries to sing. The women also said he likes to do things on his own and likes to feed himself. While we were in the playroom they showed us a little girl who they said he plays with all of the time and he pointed to her and smiled and she seemed glad to see him as well. Apparently this little girl is a little over 2 years old and has a heart condition and she is being adopted in late August or early September sometime.
Then both of the ladies took us upstairs to the crib room and showed us which bed was Parkers and told us that he loves to climb. They said he would climb out of his crib and into the other kid's cribs. (all of the cribs are side by side) It was very sweet to see Parker get passed back and forth between these two ladies, the love between them was more than we could have asked for. We were able to take pictures with both ladies and the little girl who was Parker's friend. Before we left I asked our guide if she would have the ladies tell Parker that he was going to go with us and that we were his family and that he would be safe and that we love him. They both did and Paige and I cried :-) Parker cried when they handed him back to James but thankfully it didn't take long for him to stop and he seemed to be okay for the rest of the morning. We are not allowed to post pictures of the people we met or the inside of the orphanage but here are some that we took outside.












After our trip to the orphanage we went to the Tengwang Pavilion you can read about what it is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavilion_of_Prince_Teng I'm not great about historical details, that is more up James' alley. It was beautiful and we were able to see a show while there where the women wore traditional Chinese costumes and sang and played instruments.




Here are some other pictures from inside and out of the pavilion:












The next two are ceilings inside:








These are views of Nanchang from the top of the Pavilion:
















This picture...




started this...








Yes all of those people crowded around to take pictures of/with Andersen and Paige and I took this after the crowd died down a bit :-) Andersen and Paige were good sports and smiled for everyone who wanted a picture. I think they are getting used to their celebrity status :-)
This is a picture of the gardens outside of the Pavilion:




After the visit to the Tengwang Pavilion our guide took us to a local restaurant for lunch. Yum! At the restaurants here it seems that if you have a large group (over 4) you are able to sit in a private room. We have shared a guide this week with another family who has a one year old with them so with 3 babies it is fantastic to have a private room at a restaurant. The way the restaurants that we have been to work is that one person (our guide) or as was the case yesterday, the men, go downstairs and place the order for everyone. We all sit at a round table with a big lazy susan in the middle. Then the food is delivered one dish at a time and placed on the lazy susan and everyone just turns it and serves themselves. Then about 5 or 10 minutes later another dish is brought in and the same thing happens. There are usually about 10 dishes by the end. Our guide told us that Nanchang is known for having spicy dishes so James and I are loving that!
Now we are back in our room at the hotel and the boys are taking naps. We are hoping to stay awake late tonight...until at least 8:00 :-) so we can go to a water show tonight.

This is a family picture taken of us this morning before we left for the orphanage visit.

Location:Bayi Ave,Nanchang,China