Our Internet connection has been a bit iffy the last couple of days, making it very difficult to upload pictures and entries. Also, we have been pretty much running solid the last 2 days. We are back in Beijing tonight and will be getting up at 4:30am our time to catch our flight at 8:50am. We arrive in Seattle the same day at 6:45am. hmmm if we just continue to fly across the time zones ... would we never age?
Lily and I will post about the last couple of days, edit some of the posts already up and add the rest of the pictures from our computer connection at home.
Safe travels for everyone heading back from China.
Ciao- Eric & Lily
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
November 27th - The new Orphanage (Lily & Eric)
This morning we headed back to the new orphanage for a dedication ceremony. There were officials from Chongqing and Fuling, as well as 7 other orphanage directors from the province. It was quite an event. The weather was great! The fog burned off and we had a nice sunny day. We also got a chance to go back inside and play with the kids again. Lily and I looked into the archive room. The staff had kept all of the pictures and reunion books that parents had sent them and store them in the archive room. We had 3 books in there. I went in and had a little cry. It was a very touching thing. It also had some pictures I had not seen before that the staff took on our adoption day. One of the others in the group tried to capture it with his camera, since I wasn't quite equipped to do it.
There were some very heartfelt speeches. Kathlene Also spoke at the dedication.
She talked about how we had a special affinity with Fuling and China through our children. How we have kept connected with other families because of that affinity. We identify ourselves as parents of Fulingers. It was a very good speech.
Director Yang knew many of the girls by name and sight. It is pretty amazing!
[Director Yang poses with 4 of the 7 girls from our group]
There were some very heartfelt speeches. Kathlene Also spoke at the dedication.
She talked about how we had a special affinity with Fuling and China through our children. How we have kept connected with other families because of that affinity. We identify ourselves as parents of Fulingers. It was a very good speech.
Director Yang knew many of the girls by name and sight. It is pretty amazing!
[Director Yang poses with 4 of the 7 girls from our group]After the speeches we had a ribbon cutting ceremony to dedicate the orphanage.
[Lily and I cutting the ribbon]
[Girls posing with all of the local officials and orphanage directors]
[The Australian delegation ;-)]
[Director Yang and one of the Fuling girls]
[view from the 2nd floor of the orphanage]
[View from the 2nd floor of the orphanage] 
[My camera gear at rest]
[Chessie]
[Lily]
[Sophie]
[Gracie whispers something to Grace]
[Carli]
[Lily and I cutting the ribbon]
[Girls posing with all of the local officials and orphanage directors]
[The Australian delegation ;-)]
[Director Yang and one of the Fuling girls]
[view from the 2nd floor of the orphanage]
[View from the 2nd floor of the orphanage] 
[My camera gear at rest]
[Chessie]
[Lily]
[Sophie][Mya]
[Gracie whispers something to Grace]
[Carli]One of the Fuling girls performed a wonderful Ballet. She had Chinese symbols that she held up throughout the dance.
A Temple that can been seen from the new orphanage grounds.
[Lucy getting a kiss from her parents Alan and Joy]
[Lily had a balloon headband]
[Sophie playing on some of the playground equipment]
[Chessie and Mya playing on the playground equipment]
[Our police escort always at the ready]
[View of the bridge from the orphanage]
A Temple that can been seen from the new orphanage grounds.
[Lucy getting a kiss from her parents Alan and Joy]
[Lily had a balloon headband]
[Sophie playing on some of the playground equipment]
[Chessie and Mya playing on the playground equipment]
[Our police escort always at the ready]
[View of the bridge from the orphanage]After the ceremony, we came back to the hotel and decided to walk around the city a bit. Do a little shopping and some sight seeing.
Ciao - Eric and Lily
November 26th - Fuling at Last (Lily & Eric)
Lily and I are going to post the last few days together to save some time. We seem to be getting busier by the day schedule wise, and the adventure is coming to a close.
Today we left Chongqing and traveled through the mountains to Fuling. It was a beautiful drive. Once we left the Chongqing city area, you could see a variety of farms and people planting crops in terraces around their homes. The area was very hilly and there was very little flat areas to plant crops on. The area is also fairly lush, even though it is the dry season. very much akin to Seattle.
Once we got to the Fuling area, we picked up a police escort. It has stayed with us for travel portions of this trip. We drive in whatever lane gets us through the intersections most quickly. Nothing like a police car to pave the way.
We took a drive through Fuling and then stopped at the waterfront to see the confluence of the Yangtze river being joined by one of it's tributaries. Some of the water was green and the other a yellow brown. Based on how much silt was in it. pretty cool.
Director Yang met the girls as they got off the bus
[Walking along the river front]
[A cable bridge in the distance - you can see how much fog and smog there is]
[The view of the waterfront]
[Carly and Grace play on the waterfront]
We had a short lunch and then I snagged the girls for a quick walk to work off some energy. A lot of the other folks were still eating. I get the wander list pretty easily.
[Sophie, Lily and Chessie - Outside a small vendor making blankets - this is a common cotton blanket style in this region]
[Chessie, Lily and Sophie - The girls sitting on some marble balls]
The hotel had very small elevators. After we got to our room on the 21st floor it was time to head back down to the lobby. The elevators were packed. So we decided we would race JulieAnne down the stairs and see if we could beat her to the bottom. With the girls in tow, we dashed off down 42 flights of stairs. We nearly beat her. We walked out the door almost at the same time as she did. After that breathtaking experience, we drove a short distance (maybe 1 mile) to the old orphanage. This is the orphanage where Lily stayed in during her first year. The orphanage has undergone a lot of changes and has been around for more than 20 years. It also acted as an old folks home.
[Lily and I outside the old orphanage - playground area]
[View of a portion of the building]
[Photo op with the local officials]
Most of the girls in this picture stayed in this orphanage at one time or another. Nearly 2000 orphans (I think that was the number from the speach) stayed here over the last 8 years. Later I will post some additional thoughts about the old orphanage -it was our first time seeing the orphanage. Most of the adopting families were able to come directly to the orphanage to pick up their girls. Because we were some of the first families adopting, we were unable to.
After lunch, we headed up to take a peak at the new orphanage. Once we got there, we were able to go play with the babies in the rooms. The new orphanage is significantly larger than the old one. It is new, spacious and well built.
[playing with the little girls]
After we toured and played with the kids for an hour or so, we went to the cafeteria at the orphanage and old folks home and made dumplings. It was a lot of fun. The kids really enjoyed the experience.
[preparing the dough for the dumplings - handing the wrappers out once they were pressed]
[Lucy carting some wrappers back to her table]
[Sophie playing in the flour afterwards]
[making dumplings]
[A shot directly of the sun. It was trying it's best to fight it's way through the haze]
Today we left Chongqing and traveled through the mountains to Fuling. It was a beautiful drive. Once we left the Chongqing city area, you could see a variety of farms and people planting crops in terraces around their homes. The area was very hilly and there was very little flat areas to plant crops on. The area is also fairly lush, even though it is the dry season. very much akin to Seattle.
Once we got to the Fuling area, we picked up a police escort. It has stayed with us for travel portions of this trip. We drive in whatever lane gets us through the intersections most quickly. Nothing like a police car to pave the way.
We took a drive through Fuling and then stopped at the waterfront to see the confluence of the Yangtze river being joined by one of it's tributaries. Some of the water was green and the other a yellow brown. Based on how much silt was in it. pretty cool.
Director Yang met the girls as they got off the bus
[Walking along the river front]
[A cable bridge in the distance - you can see how much fog and smog there is][The view of the waterfront][Carly and Grace play on the waterfront]
We had a short lunch and then I snagged the girls for a quick walk to work off some energy. A lot of the other folks were still eating. I get the wander list pretty easily.
[Sophie, Lily and Chessie - Outside a small vendor making blankets - this is a common cotton blanket style in this region][Chessie, Lily and Sophie - The girls sitting on some marble balls]
The hotel had very small elevators. After we got to our room on the 21st floor it was time to head back down to the lobby. The elevators were packed. So we decided we would race JulieAnne down the stairs and see if we could beat her to the bottom. With the girls in tow, we dashed off down 42 flights of stairs. We nearly beat her. We walked out the door almost at the same time as she did. After that breathtaking experience, we drove a short distance (maybe 1 mile) to the old orphanage. This is the orphanage where Lily stayed in during her first year. The orphanage has undergone a lot of changes and has been around for more than 20 years. It also acted as an old folks home.
[Lily and I outside the old orphanage - playground area]
[View of a portion of the building]
[Photo op with the local officials]
Most of the girls in this picture stayed in this orphanage at one time or another. Nearly 2000 orphans (I think that was the number from the speach) stayed here over the last 8 years. Later I will post some additional thoughts about the old orphanage -it was our first time seeing the orphanage. Most of the adopting families were able to come directly to the orphanage to pick up their girls. Because we were some of the first families adopting, we were unable to.
After lunch, we headed up to take a peak at the new orphanage. Once we got there, we were able to go play with the babies in the rooms. The new orphanage is significantly larger than the old one. It is new, spacious and well built.
[playing with the little girls]After we toured and played with the kids for an hour or so, we went to the cafeteria at the orphanage and old folks home and made dumplings. It was a lot of fun. The kids really enjoyed the experience.[preparing the dough for the dumplings - handing the wrappers out once they were pressed][Lucy carting some wrappers back to her table]
[Sophie playing in the flour afterwards]
[making dumplings]After we made the dumplings we headed upstairs to eat the dumplings and Congi, a soup made by Director Yang. Yummy!
A long day done and time to head back to the hotel.
[Looks like gas is expensive everywhere]
[Looks like gas is expensive everywhere]
[A shot directly of the sun. It was trying it's best to fight it's way through the haze]ok - off to bed again - I will post about our day dedicating the new orphanage and walking around tomorrow.
Ciao - Eric & Lily
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