Day 11 – The File – Part 3
Returning to the orphanage is the highlight, and the whole point of a Heritage Tour back to China. We did not realize that this would include a very formal re-opening and review of Sophie’s file from when she lived there. The brown file was tied up with a ribbon, and when it was brought into a conference room in the administrative building, about an inch thick of papers were pulled out from this file. We were offered hot tea, and fresh local tiny oranges and kumquats. Another big screen on the wall had the colorful greeting – “Welcome Sophie QinXin Rubin”.
Another lovely lady came in to join us. She was introduced as Director Tu, and she was the person who originally chose Sophie’s Chinese name! What a precious moment for Sophie to meet this woman who had thoughtfully chosen this name QinXin which means Musical Heart. She said that she had chosen it from an ancient Song Dynasty poem. We asked if we could have a copy of the poem. She came back 10 minutes later with a copy from the book, copied on pink paper. She said it was very hard to translate because it was such an old poem. It was clear she was delighted to see Sophie as a young woman.
They very carefully pulled out each paper from the file, and explained what each document meant. There were several that I recognized – the notarized documents we had gathered and sent to China with our application. Also the adoption decree and a few photos of Sophie as an infant, that we already had. But then they pulled out the footprint that had been taken from Sophie’s tiny foot when she first came to the orphanage. The didn’t offer to give it to me, but they encouraged me to take a photo.
The most amazing document was the original handwritten police report, by the policeman who found Sophie and brought her to the orphanage. Mr Ding our guide and translator for the day, read and translated the paper. It described how she was found at the front steps of the Village Community Building. The local residents on the street heard a baby crying and called the police. The policeman came and found a 2 day old baby in a dirty tee shirt, wrapped in a dingy little towel, with a ripped cigarette paper that had her birthday written in ink. He took her immediately to the SWI which was less than 10 minutes away. It was obvious from her umbilical cord, with the accompanying note, that she was indeed 2 days old. Again, they did not offer to give me the original report, but encouraged me to take a photo. Which I did.
I said that I wanted to buy something for the Children’s Building – something that they really needed – and I suggested a washing machine. Yes, they loved that idea! They were going to take us out to lunch, so we decided to buy the washing machine while we were in town. (In AnQing) After lunch we would go to the old orphanage building, where Sophie had lived as an infant. The old and new Social Welfare Institutes (orphanages) were both on the outside edge of the town ( which has grown from 2 million to 8 million people in the last 15 years!) but on opposite sides of the city, so we would drive through the city for lunch, then keep going to the old orphanage.
So we stopped at the French multi-level department store Carrefour and picked out a larger capacity washing machine for 1200 yuan that would be delivered the next day. While I stood in line to pay for the machine, Sophie and the nannies went to the toy department to pick out a bunch of new toys for the children. She was just beaming when the joined me at the checkout line, and I paid for everything with credit cards.
Then we went to a restaurant for a very special lunch with the directors, our guide and driver. It was in a private room on the 2nd floor, and even had its own private Western style little bathroom in one corner of the room. We sat around a huge round table with a large lazy Susan in the middle. The food just kept coming and coming, and it was all delicious! Because I am a vegetarian, many of the dishes were not for me, but they did accommodate me and by the 2nd half of the long meal they had brought several vegetarian dishes. Finally we were all full, but the food kept coming, so we tried to at least taste everything that we could out of respect for their enthusiastic banquet.
Then it was time to head to the old orphanage building, and the Finding Place. (continued, Part 4.)
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