Trip To Heng Feng SWI - Shawn's Post

Today was our trip to visit the orphanage and the foster granny who took care of Sophie. The first part of our trip was navigating the snarl of Nanchang city traffic. My view from the passenger seat is that there aren’t really any rules for driving in the city as long as no one gets hurt. People walk out in front of cars, cars cross intersections in front of moving traffic, and three lanes of traffic become six. Oh and I haven’t mentioned the taxi drivers who are the most fearless (read crazy/insane) of all. I’m not sure I could step foot in a cab. Our driver has been very careful and has done a wonderful job of getting us from place to place safely in one piece. It took us about an hour to get on the highway and from there we began to really get moving. China’s highways are as nice if not a bit nicer than the U.S. I noticed along the way concrete pillars constructed out in the middle of rice fields. Our guide explained that a raised railway is being constructed and looks like an epic construction project.

I entered Heng Feng with anticipation of what it might bring. When we arrived at the orphanage we were escorted to the director’s office where we once again met Mr. Huang and some of his staff. We asked if there was any information we could record that might provide more information about Sophie, but we found we had most of it already. We were surprised that they did have one picture of her when she was younger and I look forward to checking my inbox to see if it is there.

We toured the orphanage and saw many of the children that live there. It was cold in the rooms, but the children were bundled up and looked very warm. We got to meet Granny Zhu the wonderful old doctor who takes care of these children. We even took the opportunity to ask her about the rash on Sophie’s legs. My first thought about the orphanage was that even though it looked very different from Eagle’s Nest in Guatemala what was the same was the dedication the workers had to the children. While in the nursery we heard that Sophie’s foster granny (Nai Nai) had arrived. It was a very emotional moment to meet her and my first memory of the moment was seeing Deb hug her while the both of them cried.

We talked with Nai Nai and her son trying to extend to them our deepest respect for her the commitment to Sophie. Mary told me later that once Nai Nai saw us she was very glad, because then she knew Sophie was in good hands. We have on video Nai Nai’s words of wisdom she said to Sophie that I hope to have translated for her. Once it was time for us to leave we walked to the gate which was Sophie’s finding spot.  We said our goodbye’s to Nai Nai and her son which was another very emotional moment (yes, I cried too).

From there we were taken back into town to have lunch with the director, his staff, Mary, and our driver. We sat at a large table with a lazy susan and I finally ate real Chinese. You were right Rick, Chinese food is so different and so much better than what we have at home. Jake has been a trooper through the whole trip. He has definitely been thrust way out of his comfort zone, but he has handled it well. He even tried some of the lunch we had finding some dumplings to at least tide him over until we got back. 

Jake toughing out a true Chinese lunch

We are on our way back to Nanchang now and as I reflect on the day I am so glad we made the decision to make the trip. It was a supreme privilege to meet the people who have lovingly taken care of my daughter and see where her life began. I am so committed to honoring Nai Nai by bringing up this little girl the best we know how.