The Orphanage

Yesterday we were invited to visit the orphanage where baby Jasmine lived for the first nine months of her life. It's called the Yangxi Social Welfare Institute, and it is about three hours west of Guangzhou in the countryside.

It was a very emotional trip.

Jasmine comes from the town of Yangxi. It's pretty small by Chinese standards, there are about 50,000 people who live there. But our translator, Connie, told us there are about half a million people who live in the county.

Yangxi county is very beautiful. And very different from the big city of Guangzhou. Yangxi is filled with mountains, and rivers, and rice patties, and rural living. It's very close to the South China Sea, so the main occupations are fishing, and farming.

Jasmine stayed back at the hotel with Pierre because it would have been a very long bus ride for her, and we want her to be strong for all the travel coming up to Beijing and then Canada.

So Louis and I went, along with several other families in our group.

We got to the orphanage at about lunch time. I was surprised to see a very modern building, with a nice garden in front. We met Mrs. Qin who is the director of the facility. We knew we were lucky to visit, because it's rare to get a glimpse inside any orphanage, anywhere.

Upstairs was the "baby room", there were about 30 children there, all under the age of 12 months. Nap time had just begun, and there were three nannies there to care for all the children. They showed us what was Jasmine's crib. It was clean, but very sparse. There was no mattress, just a wooden board to sleep on. The bars on the crib were made of steel. Each child had a receiving blanket to hold onto, which explains why she always needs one now, it really is her security blanket.

The babies were in good shape, well fed. But what struck me was how colorless the room was. It was white, with a beige floor. There was no artwork, no toys in sight, no music, and the nannies obviously were running non-stop to care for them. It appeared that the kids spent most of their time in their cribs. There were several allowed down on the floor to crawl. The orphanage director said the kids favourite time of day was when they were put outside on the veranda in baby chairs, and they could all get some fresh air.

Some of the kids were adorable. One little girl with a very runny nose, just couldn't stop smiling. But Connie pointed out one little girl who was very tiny, but was walking. The little girl had been rejected by an adoptive family a couple of months before because they felt she was too small. Now she was walking, and Connie said the chances of her finding a home were slim because she was over 12 months old.

The room answered many questions for me. It explained why Jasmine needs a blanket. It explains why she is very social, because each crib is right up against the next one, so the kids biggest entertainment is each other. It explained why she needs to be held all the time. She's making up for lost time.

It also explains why the past week has been a big transition for her. Suddenly she has people doting on her all the time. Now there are colours in her life, a stroller, walks outside in streets packed with people. She's had Pierre singing to her, she's had her first real bath. Talk about stimulation!

The other message that came through loud and clear is that it will become increasingly difficult to adopt children from China.

The orphanage director said the Chinese Government wants to look after it's own kids. They are now encouraging Chinese families to adopt domestically. Chinese couples can adopt a child within two to three months, they are allowed to visit the orphanages and choose their child. Canadians are now waiting two to three years, and are matched with a child by the Chinese Centre of Adoption Affairs.

And the "one child policy" is becoming much more flexible. In the countryside, people can have two children. In the city an emerging middle-class is having more than one child, because they are wealthy enough to pay a "penalty" to the Chinese Government. And this year the Government passed a new law to pay pensions to families who have two girls. The pension plan is to encourage families to hold onto their girls. Historically boys have carried on the family name, and taken care of their parent's when they reach retirement. The pension plan has had a dramatic affect, the orphanage director says this year far fewer girls were abandoned.

The orphanage director said the main reason why children are still being abandoned is poverty, and the social stigma that surrounds being a "single mother" in rural China.

Most babies are given up within days of their birth. After lunch they showed us where our kids had been left. They really are sisters. All were found within a 10 block radius of the orphanage. Some were found outside the gate of the orphanage, one was outside a nightclub, there were twins in our group found under a tree in a public market, one was outside a restaurant, one was found outside the main entrance of a modern housing complex. Jasmine was found at the east entrance of the most beautiful public park in the middle of the city.

In most cases, the orphanage director says the kids are wrapped in a blanket, and left in a very public place. Because she says the Mother's want the kids to be found within minutes. We asked her if one day the children might be able to find their biological Mothers. She said at the moment it would be impossible, because unlike Canada, the Chinese Government still enforces strict confidentiality around adoptions.

But she also said, one can never know the future. I know it would be possible, because the documentation that both Canada and China holds on baby Jasmine would make it very easy to re-connect. I hope one day it will happen.