Emotioal Day-Trip of a Lifetime to Huidong

July 24th 3:00 P.M.
We are in the van headed back to Ghangzhou after a trip to Isabel's orphanage in Huidong. Words will not be able to express what we have experienced today.

We left the hotel this morning at 8:00 and arrived at the orphanage at 11:00. The three hour trip was not bad. Isabel does get car sick so we gave her medicine to make the trip. She slept almost the whole way to Huidong and is asleep now. The trip had beautiful scenery. Reminded us of the North Carolina mountains. David, our guide, has always referred to Isabel as being from the country so we where expecting rural and country. To our surprise, Huidong is a huge city. We saw things today that you could only see in China. The city is very crowded. There were a lot of motorcycles, mo-peds and many homemade looking vehicles.

We easily found the orphanage as Ms. Wang met us downtown. When we arrived at the orphanage there was a large gate that was guarded. Ms. Wang, the lady that brought Isabel to us last week, took us into the main office to formally meet the director and have hot tea. (I think that all the problems for the world could be solved over Chinese hot tea.) There we also met Isabel's English teacher, Yan. Yan was very sweet and we welcomed an additional interpreter. As soon as we arrived Isabel vanished. This worried me for a minute but of course I knew that she had gone to share with her friends all her experiences of the past week. Or, for all we knew, she could have been telling another girl, "No really, you go with them, I'll stay here.". After a long tea time we went upstairs to meet Isabel's friends, see her room and meet her caregivers. Everyone was so friendly. We took lots of pictures. If it were up to us, Will and I would adopt all twenty children in the orphanage. We even joked with David about bringing home another little girl named Huidon. David laughed and said "This isn't Africa, you can't just take them all."

The orphanage was clean and well kept. It has only been open since 2005. The grounds were well maintained. After more tea, pictures, exchanges of addresses and waves goodbye Ms. Wang rode with us to show us where Isabel was found. It turned out to be a health clinic. It was pouring rain. Isabel had no idea why we were stopping and she sat in the van with the driver while we got out to take pictures. We were there for less than three minutes. It was very hard not to be extremely emotional, but we made it. (Isabel is as tough as nails and I'm learning to be too.)

We proceeded on to lunch only to find that we would be having lunch with Ms. Wang, Yan the English teacher, and the orphanage director. Will and I were hoping to just stop for Isabel, David, and the driver and we would eat cheese crackers. It didn't happen that way. We arrived at a large nice restuarant and were taken upstairs to a private room. There was a large round table set for us as nice as any I've ever seen. David and the director discussed what we would eat. I think that Will could sense my stress at the thought of eating a true Chinese meal with our new friends. We all sat down for lunch after tea and I think appetizers. The food soon followed and kept coming. Isabel was fine and had no problem. As for Will and me, thank goodness we had David and Yan. David told me what each dish was and Yan helped Will. We ate family style with chop sticks only. To my surprise, the food was wonderful, although there were several animal heads that kept going by on the lazy susan. This was by far the best meal we've had since we have been here. The fellowship could not have been better. We tried to pay for the meal but the orphanage director would not let us. When we asked how we could repay him for his hospitality he just asked us to love and take care of Isabel. With that, I teared up and we promised that we would do just that.

After that, we said our tearful goodbyes and we were off again. Today was wonderful for us because we were able to learn so much about Isabel and her life before us. The orphanage director discribed Isabel as the quietest, healthiest, and the toughest child in the orphanage. Ms. Wang added that they have never seen Isabel cry. Isn't that funny she doesn't cry and she has already seen both of her parents cry. I guess you have to be tough as nails when you've been through what Isabel has in her eleven short years. If you've never had a family to love you and all your worldly possessions can fit into one small backpack things are just different. I feel that we have been given a great gift and God hand picked this child for us.

Please keep us in your prayers that we can give her the life that she deserves.

She was worth the wait.
Hugs and kisses to all.
Will, Marla, and Isabel