Visiting day

They had a really nice playground.


Us and Kylee's foster Mom. They had such love for each other.

Kylee's foster Mom.


This is Kylee's room. Little bed on the lower right.


Us with the orphanage director and office manager.

Yesterday was an extremely emotional day for us all, particularly Kylee. We drove about an hour and a half southeast to Zhuzhou where Kylee's orphanage is located. We were fortunate to arrange visits to her orphanage, her boarding school for deaf children and her finding site. We arrived at the orphanage after some roundabout driving due to the highway being barricaded, no signs, no warnings just barricaded! We turned around and found another way into the city. Anna and Mr. Gua did a fantastic job all day of finding a way to get to where we needed to go. It is pretty confusing in the cities because not all streets are signed and there has not been much traffic layout as the cities grew so rapidly. We reached the orphanage and met with the Director, the office manager and Miss Liu. Miss Liu and the office manager were the ones who had brought Kylee into Changsha on Monday. It was nice to see them again. They gave us a tour of the facility and we met a number of the children who came up to greet us. These are all special needs children and they all seemed very happy and obviously loved and cared for. This visit was weighing very heavily on Kylee and she was becoming more agitated and clung more tightly to Lisa as the minutes went on. We had decided earlier in agreement with Miss Liu that seeing Kylee's foster mother might be too much for her. Her foster mother had come to the orphanage to catch one last glimpse of Kylee though. The ladies pointed her out down in the courtyard and when she saw Kylee through the window and thought that was the last she would see of her she just fell to her knees and wept. We decided to go down and let them have one last goodbye. It was so painful to see the love between them but I think in the end it was the right thing to do. Hopefully it gave both of them some closure. We left the orphanage then and Miss Liu accompanied us to take us to the boarding school. This school is for all local deaf children and though the staff was polite and friendly they did not seem to have the same sense of compassion for Kylee as they did at the orphanage. Kylee grew extremely agitated there and we left as soon as we could. I believe she thought we might leave her there. It was heart wrenching but now we know where she was and she has said her goodbyes. As we were getting in the van to go forty or fifty of the children came up to the van to see Kylee's new parents. Among them were a boy and girl of about 14 that were from the orphanage. They were so happy for Kylee and the fact that she had found her "forever family". It tore me up to know that those two children will probably never be adopted at their age, yet they loved Kylee and were so happy for her. It seemed that all the children at both the orphanage and school truly loved little TianYan. Miss Liu then took us to find Kylee's finding site. After much searching and asking around we found the location and took pictures. I will just say it was in an area of apartments and dwellings near the orphanage where someone would find her almost immediately and seek help for her. We have chosen to keep the details and photos private for our family and for Kylee when the time comes. This completed the visits that we had come to make, so we got back in the van and headed back to the hotel in Changsha. Kylee was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep on the way back. As soon as we got back to the familiar surroundings of the hotel and our room Kylee began to relax and I believe was the most relaxed she has been yet. I think she realized she was stuck with us forever, like it or not! :-) She definitely is a mamma's girl. I am not sure she has been around many men. She does like me though but just tolerates me most times! :-). At breakfast she will smell mommas coffee and give a big thumbs up(her seal of approval that something smells good ,tastes good or is just good in general) then she will smell my coffee and wave her little hand under her nose signifying poppas coffee stinks!!! lol I am including a picture of her eating noodles with chop sticks. She is a master. Well I believe that is all for now.