September 4 - The Orphanage Visit

Jonathan only woke up once for about 30 minutes last night. He calmed down quickly and off to sleep again. We all

got a fairly good night's sleep. Yeah! We have a big and messy eater on our hands. Definitely need to buy some bibs today and diapers. Thought we were through with our diaper changing days but alas, we are not! Had to change his clothes after breakfast. He was soaked through from milk and congee. 

We met Lily at 9 AM to go back to Civil Affairs for all our paper work. After we finished there we went to the orphanage where Jonathan grew up. Much nicer than I thought it would be.  There were cheerful wall hangings and it looked fairly clean. We went to his classroom that is run by Half the Sky Foundation. We were able to meet his teacher. They were very nice and you could tell they loved him very much. When we went into his class he went straight to his chair and sat down. Some of the children we saw in his update pictures were in his class and his foster family.

Next we got to meet his foster family. They stay in an apartment on the compound. It was a nice clean apartment. Very hot and humid. His two sisters in the foster family are Hua Sha Tong and Jin Bi Fan.  There was also an older brother but we didn't get his name. The parents name was in Chinese so I can't read it.

We found out, Jonathan's original name when found was, Zhang le. He had 2 silver engraved bracelets on his ankles and an Jade Buddha amulet around his neck. We got a copy of the note his parents had written on his blanket. It read, " Your family is sorry for you! May you be healthy and happy!" (loosely translated). It also had his birthdate on the tag. 

We then got to walk along the street where he was found outside the orphanage and got some pictures. He was found on Mingfu lane. We went to Carre Four for supplies after the orphanage. Got water, honey, bibs, diapers, wipes, sippy cup, cereal and dry fruit. Was going to get a new pair of shoes but he wouldn't let us put them on to try. His others keep falling off because the velcro has about had it!

Nap time back at the hotel and then we went exploring. We saw a big mall from our hotel room and we set out to explore. Lots of American stores there. We picked up a Nanjing travel mug at Starbucks and went to McD's for dinner. Jonathan enjoyed his first bath. Andrew had not when we got him.

Time for bed. More later. Thanks everyone for your prayers and support. We love you all.

Lisa 

Outside the Nanjing Orphanage compound

Jonathan's first picture at orphanage