We took the high speed train from Nanjing South terminal (I think our guide Jin said it is the 3rd largest train station in China? and Nanjing has a population of 8 million) to Xuzhou (pop 6 million?)
Jack doesn't like train rides
We had an amazing lunch with the orphanage director. Nanjing and Xuzhou specialities. Rice, steamed egg, lotus root, mushrooms, steamed buns, beijing duck, beef, spicy fish, eggplant, cabbage, and on and on. They must have brought out a dozen courses for us! All very good! They told us that Jack's nickname at the orphanage was "Pang pang", which means something like "chubby cheeks" - I get the feeling it is a funny name, but maybe not extremely nice? Anyway, they all seemed to love him.
Afterward we went to tour Xuzhou SWI. We got to take pics of babies for waiting families, and see where Jack lived his first 20 months.
They showed us the new orphanage being built. It should be done by the end of the year, and they will start working on the interior of it soon. They are very proud of it.
Inside the orphanage we got to see where the children's food is prepared, in a nice big kitchen area. Then we saw the first of many rooms with babies in it. Ms. Tang said that there are around 400 children in care, but most are in foster care.
The first room had the bigger kids, the oldest was maybe 5 or 6? They all loved Em and wanted her to hold them. Some wanted to play with Andy, but he was a little overwhelmed. There was a little boy with Down's, maybe 2 or 3 years old? Mom fell in love and I would probably have a new brother if she qualified for China adoption.
The next room was the room Jack lived in recently. We met one of his nannies, who held him and cried. I lost it and bawled like a baby. I feel badly for taking him away from her when she loved him so much. They said that all the babies were best friends and they all play together and learn together, but one little boy in particular was his special friend. We took lots of pictures of that baby. We also took lots of pictures of Jack's bed but he didn't want to get in to pose for us.
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