A few more notes on the orphanage

I wanted to finish up our SWI visit. After our tour, we walked to the front of the building where a crowd of local townspeople had gathered. An older man, with very few teeth, reached out to Mae, calling her Lala (her nickname given to her by her foster family - Fula/Lala) and she readily went into his arms. As the stench of alcohol hit me in the face, I saw her laughing in his arms and discovered that he and another woman there were neighbors of Lala's foster family. She was happily being passed around and delighted in the familiar faces. We were told that the foster families had not been invited to meet us - too emotionally difficult. We all took a final picture in front of the SWI and were sent off with more fruit. The SWI director took us on a tour of the town and we stopped to take a few pictures at a city landmark, the sports center?? Everywhere we went townspeople stared and asked questions. In that part of the countryside, they see very few tourists, and even fewer with Chinese babies. I hope someday to take Mae back to see where she was born and give her some sense of where she comes from and what her very early childhood was like. I believe that Rich mentioned that on Gotcha day, we received a photo album put together by the SWI, so we actually have baby pictures of her and pictures with her friends. I think this album will be more important than we can ever imagine as she grows up.