Nihao From Nanping - Page 2

I am struggling toward the Security Station, dragging
my luggage.  In addition to two months worth of clothing, in my luggage I am carrying a notebook full of many photos of adopted girls and their moms and dads, several letters written by the parents and translated by me, as well as some gifts for the caretakers and directors of the orphanages.

A young group of policemen were just finishing up with their morning meeting, and they ignore my request to speak with Mr. Tian. I was very frustrated, and began crying and telling them that I was from Chicago and that I must speak with Sergeant Tian.  At this point, I was politely invited into a conference room to wait for Mr. Tian, while they paged him.  

By the time Mr. Tian appeared, I had told the young policemen all about the reason I had come to pay him a visit.  Mr. Tian is a shy man in his 50's.  In response to my excited, "I am here to say thanks to you for rescuing a little girl in 1996", Mr. Tian responded a mumbling, "Nothing to mention about it".

Once he and his wife were sitting in my room, Room 606 at Min Bei Hotel, and later, while standing in front of the institution in plain clothes, he became emotional... going back to that day when he was on night patrol. (Perhaps someday the entire story will make its way onto the pages of this Web site, but for now it is being withheld for the privacy of the family).
 
Mr. Tian, his wife, and I made our way to the Yanping Social Welfare Institute.  The time was now 3:30 pm.  We had to wait patiently for the office to reopen at 3:00 PM, as the city is now on a summer schedule.

We were greeted by Mr. Lin, the director of the Yanping Social Welfare Institution.  The 51-year-old director was keeping up a constant flow of words talking about the children's section of the orphanage.  He is especially interested in telling us all the stories since international adoption began taking place in 1994.  

There are presently 37 orphans living in the institution, 2 of whom just arrived today, brought in by local residents.  The children, aged from just several days old to 4 years old, are divided into 4 groups.  Four caregivers are taking care of all of the babies.  Each "Mama", as the older children call the caregivers, takes care of 8 children.  With the addition of the two latest children, two of the Mamas are now each taking care of 9 children.

Most of the children are near the age of one year old.  Three of the children are between the ages of 3 to 4 years old.  The four Moms each have their own individual bedrooms at the institution, but care for and sleep with their babies in a family style.  Each Mom sleeps with, feeds, (twice during the night for infants), bathes, changes, holds, talks to, and takes care of their babies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long!

- Continued On Page 3 -

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