Dianjiang Orphanage

This morning, Simon and eight others went to Dianjiang to see the orphanage. It is about 2 hours by car from Chongqing. It's not very often that people are able to see the orphanage in China. Sometimes, the orphanage is located 8-10 hours from the main city which does not allow adequate time to visit the facility and return on the same day. Other times, the orphanage does not permit outside visitors. We're very fortunate that Duo Duo was from Dianjiang, and they allowed us to visit the orphanage and the surrounding area.

Dianjiang is a small size city. It's not like Chongqing which is much more urban looking with skyscrapers and shopping malls. In Dianjiang, there are more bicycles and mopeds bustling around and small mom and pop shops up and down the street which is what you typically envision when you think of a city in China.

When the group arrived at the orphanage, they were met by the orphanage director. She's the one that we met on Gotcha day. Simon and the group took a tour of the facility. The orphanage rooms are located on the fifth and sixth floors of the building.

On the fifth floor, the group saw the infirmary, the sleeping quarters, and the various play rooms which were separated by the age of the babies. Simon was able to visit with one of Duo Duo's primary nanny. All the nannies seemed to provide good loving care for all the children. According to the director, the orphanage is only home to babies up to 2 years old.

Currently, there are 19 babies in the facilities and 48 others that are in foster care homes. Simon asked what happened to the babies that are not adopted and that are more than 2 years old. The director indicated that these children are moved to another facility sponsored by the state.

On the sixth floor, the group saw the bathing area where they allow the babies to swim with a flotation device and the kitchen.

When one of staff members was told that Simon was Duo Duo's father, she shared that her daughter used to come visit Duo Duo almost everyday after school. Her daughter told her mom that Duo Duo was one of the most beautiful babies. What a flattering comment! But, honestly, we would like to think that all the babies in our group are very beautiful! We are beautiful in God's eyes.

After the tour of the facility, the orphanage director took the group around where each of the five Dianjiang babies were found. Duo Duo was found in front of public utility office which is about 25 meters from the orphanage. The others babies were found in close proximity of the orphanage and/or in an area with a lot of traffic (orphanage gate, nearby park, traffic circle, bus station). Although we all agreed that abandoning a baby is a terrible thing, we acknowledged that these parents had enough human compassion to place the baby where he or she would be found very quickly. When Helen and the other gals were getting their massage, the helpers told them that many of these babies come from poor families, and don't have access to birth control. These families had little choice but to have the State take care of them.

The group thanked the orphanage director and the nannies for taking good care of our babies. Simon donated a bag of baby Tylenol that Selina had given us. Simon also gave a bag of M&M's for the staff and nannies.

Simon and the group got back safely at about 1:00 p.m. local time.

At 4:00 p.m., the entire group is going to have a group picture. Right now, we are busy packing for our trip to Guangzhou tomorrow morning.