Our Trip
After asking Sophie the past 3 years if she ever wanted to visit her birthplace again she finally said she was ready! So in October 2011, I booked a flight for me, Scott, Sean, Sophie and Grandma d'Ouville (my mother visiting from Florida) to Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, China.
Sophie was born in Jianshan Town, Jiangxi Province. Her orphanage was located in Gao'an about one hour from Nanchang. I say was an orphanage because now it's a home for the elderly. We flew into Nanchang (capital of Jiangxi province) and stayed at the Riverside Crown Plaza. We only allocated 3 full days for our stay in Jiangxi since we already live in China and didn't care about all the temples and other tourist sites.
In planning this trip Sophie wanted to see as much and do as much as Scott and I did when we adopted her in the year 2003. She was adamant that we visit the orphanage, her hometown, and that she see the exact spot where she was found when her birthmother couldn't keep her. I took it one step further and found the same guide we had before, and booked her for our trip.
Our guide's name is Sissi, she is an amazing Chinese woman married to a great guy and they have a 13-year-old biological daughter. Her dedication to finding homes for Chinese orphans goes way beyond anything I've ever seen. She went out of her way for us, cooking a huge Chinese meal at her home, introducing us to her husband and daughter, making sure everything was just right for Sophie and her return trip to her birth place. I can't say enough nice things about this woman.
Anyway, Sissi met us at the Nanchang airport and we checked into our hotel. The Crown Plaza was nice, I tried to get us into the same hotel we stayed back in 2003 (Lakeview Hotel) but it had been torn down for another nicer, fancier hotel. In my opinion that is a prime example of what is happening all over China now, old, perfectly good buildings are being demolished for nicer, prettier ones. Sophie was pretty bummed that we couldn't stay in the same hotel.
After we checked in to the Crown Plaza, we headed to Sissi's house for a full course (I mean every inch of her dining room table was filled with food) traditional Chinese meal. She was hoping her daughter would practice her English and hang with Sean and Sophie while I was hoping Sean and Sophie would practice their Chinese and have fun with her daughter. Turns out she didn't want anything to do with Sean and Sophie and Sean and Sophie were in no mood to practice their Chinese. Oh, well, the best laid plans… At least the food and the company were excellent!!
The next day we got up early and met Sissi and our driver outside the hotel. Today we were going to Sophie's orphanage, and her birthplace. First stop, shopping to pick up a "thank you" gift for the orphanage director.
When we adopted Sophie, one of our challenges was finding gifts for all the officials that we met with. This is customary and expected. This time was no different except the director had a specific gift in mind. We ended up meeting him outside this little electronics place where he asked us to buy a very, very expensive printer, fax, scanner and copier for him. Now remember, the orphanage is now a house for the elderly and our plans to spend ½ a day playing with all the kids at the orphanage and buying gifts for them is not happening. So we felt a little "cheated" when he asked so much from us. But, after about ½ hour of "discussions" we settled on a different printer for ½ the price and left for the orphanage. Little did we know, by the end of our wonderful day we probably should have bought him the first printer.
Buy this time I was getting very concerned about going back to the orphanage. First of all, it'd been through major renovations since Sophie was there, she really didn't spend much time in it as she was with a foster family the first year of her life, and it was no longer an orphanage. I asked Sissi why we were even making a stop there? She assured me all would be good.
Welcome to Jianshan Town, Jiangxi Province, China
All the people that were instumental in getting Sophie to the orphanage (and us!).
Sophie's foster parents. They took care of her in their home the first year of her life. They are lovely people that quite obviously loved Sophie. She warmed up to the very quickly as you can see in this picture.
When we arrived at the orphanage, Sophie's foster parents were there to meet us dressed in their best clothes. Sophie was more than thrilled to see them. While in Shanghai, Sophie had made a list of about 15 questions for her foster parents in case she had the opportunity to meet them. She was really curious about her personality, what she ate and if she liked TV then as much as she does now. Sissi, translated all the questions for her and Sophie got her answers. Sophie did a great job with them, and they were beyond excited to see her.
Here Sophie is asking her foster mother all the questions she'd written down in the past couple weeks about her life before she came to America.
After meeting her foster parents, the orphanage director gave Sophie a pair of slippers that his mother had knitted for her. They fit perfectly. Then he disappeared for awhile and came back with all of Sophie's paperwork from when she originally came to the orphanage. Including the handwritten note from her birth mother about her exact date of birth.
Orphange Director.
As it turns out, his hobby is Chinese calligraphy. So while we were chatting it up with her foster parents and reviewing all the paperwork, he was writing this huge poem on rice paper for Sophie. Basically, about going to school, working hard and living a happy life. All the things he wanted for her. This was the first of many very emotional times during that day.
Sophie's first TV!! This is kind of a family joke as Sophie loves the TV more than life itself, we we often blame that on her time spent with her foster family.
Anyway, Sophie was asking so many questions about her stay with her foster parents that they offered to take us to their house. The director was not so happy about this as he kept saying we needed to get to Jianshan (Sophie's birthplace) for lunch. Scott and I looked at each other like... really??? I would think going to their home would be much more important! So we took our rice cooker (present we bought for them) and saw where Sophie used to sleep, bathe, eat and watch TV. Her foster parents were so happy to see Sophie and so proud of their home that we had a hard time leaving them. I think those few hours did wonders for Sophie and answered a lot of questions for her.
Next stop Jianshan Town, Sophie's birthplace. We all piled into a van and drove and hour and half (most of it dirt roads with lots of pot holes!) to Jianshan. We arrived (with sore bottoms) a little after lunch and pulled up at the city hall. When we went inside there was a huge table set for eleven people full of local foods and rice wine. The people in attendance were: our family, Sissi, the orphanage director, the town mayor, his assistant, the person who found Sophie, and the person who called the orphanage about Sophie. Evidently our arrival was a big event. Afterwards, we were told that Sophie was the only baby that was ever found in Jianshan and that most of the people that live there have never seen a foreigner in person. This explains our grand welcoming.