Jonathan's trip back to the orphanage – from Jason’s perspective

Jonathan's trip back to the orphanage – from Jason’s perspective (photo's at the end):

Words that might try to describe this trip to the Xuzhou orphanage are:  emotional, sadness, necessary, joyful, pitiful, bonding, motherhood, scary, grateful, saved, abandoned, hope, love and family.

A good but tough day for Jonathan. 

When we arrived, the local TV station and several newspapers were there with a few reporters.  They are very interested in showing how well the orphanages are run, but are also intensely curious about why we are adopting a child from China and curious about a larger family. 

In my opinion, China is grappling with a large orphan population, coupled with a stigma against Chinese people adopting, but also a stigma against foreigners adopting.  Where do you go from here?  Well that’s where hope comes in and Madison Adoption Associates:  thank you!

Jonathan’s caretakers wanted to hold him at first and he cried and absolutely held on to Angela.  The young reporter asked me if he was crying because he missed his friends.  I replied no, he is afraid we are giving him back and leaving him.  The reporter was a young guy and had done this story more than once.  By the end of the visit, he dropped the persona and visited with us.  I even joked with him that he should adopt a little girl that he thought was very cute.

This visit was a good thing, in that Jonathan really understood we were taking him home from “this place,” and by the end of the visit he was ALL smiles and was waving and saying “good bye” to everyone.  We could really tell how sad they were to see him go.

And by “this place” I do not mean anything bad.  The staff of this orphanage is absolutely amazing.  The conditions were the best possible and they truly love all these children.  They are so well taken care of, but the kids are missing a family and all that comes with that.

Jackson, a seven year old who is being adopted by a family traveling with us (photo of Joshua and him playing DS together on the train even though they speak different languages), got to see his friends and was SO giving in that he gave away a yo yo he had just been given the day before rather than keep it for himself – he had told his friends he would bring back a gift - very powerful statement of selflessness.

We saw Jonathan’s many cribs.  The Director is one of the most amazing and joyful and hopeful and caring people I have ever met.  One of the last photos is Jonathan, Angela and Ms. Tang.

As a footnote, there are at times 200 orphans in this one facility, with nearly 200 more placed in local foster homes.