Ray and I woke up really early again, but tried to be quiet so Lei could sleep. We knew it would be an emotional day for her since we were visiting her orphanage. We finally had to wake her up so we could get a quick breakfast and be down in the lobby to meet our guide at 9:00am. I had my usual fried egg, toast and tea. Lei got congee, the orange drink, a fried egg and toast. She went back and got herself a knife and fork and watched me use mine. It was very cute watching her teach herself to use them. I tried to help, but she didn't want any. We went back to the room, I helped Lei do her hair with her curly hair extensions, grabbed the gifts and went to the lobby. On our way to the orphanage we asked our guide if Lei knew we were going to the orphanage. He said she did and was fine with it. She didn't act at all upset or nervous. Ray and I were nervous that Lei would be very upset knowing it was probably the last time she would see many of them again. I had written down questions I wanted to ask her caregivers. We tried to ask our guide as many questions as we could think of since we had him to ourselves. I had seen several pictures of the orphanage from a family who had adopted a little seven year old boy from there last summer so I kind of knew what to expect. I knew it was going to be sparse and hospital like since it is actually part of a hospital. But it was actually a lot smaller, more sparse and older looking than I thought. It was just not at all a place anyone should consider their home. When we first pulled up we heard several people saying Lei's name. A few children and a few adults came out to meet us. We all went in the building and then into a large playroom that was mostly filled with play equipment for children younger than Lei. We stayed in there for while a few of the adults talked to Lei and we took pictures. We didn't ask Michael to translate what was being said since it was meant for Lei to hear. She looked very sad. We had bought a bunch of candy for the children and saw that Lei had added almost everything we had bought for her into the bag. We weren't really surprised to see that she was giving her things away since we already had seen that seh was very generous. She told one of the caregivers which toy should go to which child. We knew she had two girls that she was close to. I showed the caregivers their pictures from her photo album and asked where they were. I had been hoping we would meet them, but they said they were at school. Someone gave Lei a cell phone and we were told she was talking to her jie jie. After a while we went upstairs and saw the bedroom that she slept in. There are only about 15 children at the orphanage. Her room had about ten metal beds. She showed us her bed. She had a very sad face. We all stood there for a long time and we asked all of the questions we could think of. Ray took a lot of video and I took a lot of photos. We wanted to record it all for Lei. I asked about her school, file and finding spot. I was told that her file was in a different orphanage, her finding spot was in one direction and her school was in another. It sounded like we had to choose one or the other. We had already decided that we thought Lei would find the school more important since she spent so much time there. I suddenly found myself crying. I had asked if the man that was standing there was the man that we had been told she was close to. He said that he had known her since he was little and that this was a big day, like when your child gets married. He was clearly upset about Lei's leaving and trying not to cry. I walked away for a minute to collect myself. After taking a few more pictures of her caregivers, we left and drove to her school. It was very emotional to be there and to leave. All of the adults were happy when we said she would go to college. One of the women said she had taught Lei how to dance. The director gave me her email address and asked me for mine.
Visiting the school was an entirely differnt experience. We were surprised by how big and nice the school was. We were told that her class was outside having P.E. When they saw her coming they all started calling "Zhao Lei!," and then running to her. It was like she was a rock star. Really. It was a little overwhelming. The kids surrounded her and we could hardly see her in the middle of them sometimes. She was enjoying it. When the director of her orphanage saw the children running up to Zhao Lei, she got emotional. We took some pictures and then her teacher said we could see her classroom so we all went up. I think there were about 30-35 children in her class. It lookes like a great school, we were very surprised. We took more pictures and then went downstairs and left. It was a nice way to leave because it was such a positive and happy experience. We dropped the director off at the orphanage and left. Ray was smart enough to have gotten the teacher's email address. Yeah, Ray.
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