Day 4 Update

This was day 4 with Kimi! Today was the day we traveled to Huai'an City to see Kimi's orphanage and to visit her "finding spot". The drive one-way to Huai'an City was about 2 1/2 hours. On the way, our guide, Lily, pointed out the Yangtze River and one of the biggest suspension bridges I have ever seen. There were many rice paddies; but none being used right now due to the cold. However, today was unbelievably warm for this time of year, and in the 60's! We arrived at the orphanage and I took photos of the building. The director met us and gave me a bag with a couple of the items we sent Kimi. Unfortunately, the little monkey blanket had gotten "broken", he said. I assume he meant the recording of our voices. There were a couple of other items we didn't get returned also. But I really didn't care - we have Kimi, and that's all that matters. He went with us in the van to her finding spot. We drove up to this old building. There were long strips of plastic hanging to make a "door". Once inside, I noticed concrete floors. Right in front of me was a stairway. We were told that Kimi was found wrapped in a red blanket at the bottom of that stairway. I was holding Kimi and was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness, thinking of her birth mother leaving her there. Tears started to run uncontrollably down my face. Then, I noticed a little hand patting me on the back - it was Kimi trying to comfort me.

We then left and returned to the orphanage to take the director back. Mike got out of the car holding Kimi. She looked at the orphanage and began to cry. I was really glad we had chosen not to go inside and visit; it was obvious she would have been very upset by that. The director gave her a hug and then we left for the trip back to Nanjing.

Upon our return, we met with the Ellis family and our guide, did a little paperwork and then went to dinner. We had Chinese Mexican :-) Kimi did really well through dinner, but was showing signs of being really sleepy. We returned to our hotel room and I gave her a bath. She was frightened by it again and cried throughout the bath. Afterward, I was drying her off and wiped her nose and she threw her first big tantrum. For someone who has limited mobility, she sure can kick those legs! I truly believe the tantrum was a result of everything she has gone through this week - leaving all that was familiar, the long car trip today, seeing the orphanage briefly and not knowing why, the language barrier, and then, the bath and nose wiping was enough to put her over the edge, poor girl. But after some comforting, and some warm milk, she fell asleep. At least we can sleep in tomorrow. And tomorrow evening, we leave for Guangzhou!!