Finally a real update

I finally have a few minutes to get on here and keep going with what's going on with us rather than whining about how hard it is.  :)  It IS hard.  Last night wasn't great, but it was slightly better.  I got a few hours rest.  We keep trying different things so maybe we'll figure something out.

OK, where was I???  Oh yeah, according to China, she is definitely ours.  We signed those papers on Tuesday.  Wednesday in Nanjing, we went to visit the orphanage.  We went by van and it was 4 hours there, but she slept about 1/2 of the way there.  The orphanage was nice, but so freezing cold.

The orphanage is run by Half The Sky Foundation which is marvelous in what it does to help orphanage staff and children.  It was clear that Kylie was loved VERY much by the orphanage staff.

I really didn't want them to take her from me, but I wanted to get photos and they were just so loving to her.  Plus, as you have learned, I've thrown all the bonding stuff out the window while I'm here.  I'm in survival mode (thanks to SO many of you who commented and said it was OK to be).  Here is the room she spent much of her time in.

We did find out that Kylie was in foster care from mid-November to just a few days before we arrived.  Her foster mom had just left the orphanage when we arrived, so the director called for her to come back.  Kylie clearly loved this woman and this woman loved her.

Here is Kylie with her foster sister.  This child is about 2 years old and has no special need.  I never understood why she is not up for adoption yet, but I would love to be able to bring her home.  But, that is likely not in the cards for us.  I pray she will find her forever family someday soon.

We were able to take pictures of some other children waiting on their adoptive families.  If you are one of those moms, hang tight, I'll get you the pics.  I know how precious those were to me so we got both pics and videos.

After we did a short tour of the orphanage, they took us for snacks. After snacks, we went to lunch with the orphanage staff.  There was tons of food...WEIRD food.  Blow fish, octopus, chicken, rice, and other things I can't remember right now.  It took about 2 hours and there were tons of people there.  There were no high chairs (there is a lack of them in this entire country it seems) and so the orphanage nannies held her the entire time we were eating (or in my case, NOT eating) and fed her all sorts of food.  Imagine our surprise since they told us she was only on formula!  We have learned quickly that not all the information we received is accurate. 

Anyway, we could not get out of there fast enough.  We were not able to go to her finding place because it was another 90 minutes from where the orphanage was.  We do know that the place she was found was a restaurant in the countryside and she was most likely left because of her cleft and that her mom could not afford to have it repaired.

It was another long drive back to the hotel but Kylie slept some of the way.  We were very glad to get back!