Our first visit

This morning we went and visited with Nien at the center. The Holt VN staff met us at 8:30 this morning and drove us to the center. When we were walking through the patio just outside the childrens rooms we saw Nien and her 2 friends that we recongnized from our previous photo's looking out the window at us. We were taken to a room upstairs that was all set up for our "party". It was very nice. First we were introduced to the director of the center and then some of the caregivers and children came into the room but Nien wouldn't come in. She grabbed onto one of her caregivers as soon as she saw us. It was obvious she knew who we were but wasn't about to come into a room where we were. I took out some fruit snacks that we had brought, went out and offered it to her. She took them from me and then grabbed her caregiver again. After some coaxing from several of the caregivers, the orphanage director, and Holt staff she finally came into the room. The "party" was actually an unofficial G & R and was very formal and nice. The orphange director said a few words telling us she believed we would take good care of Nien and that she would be missed as she has been at the center longer then any other child. The center is for children up to age 3. Since we had "spoken" for her she was kept there and not moved to a center for older childen. It is nice that her surroundings were not changed twice in one year. They had fruit, rice snacks (looked like chex rice cereal), cookies, and coffee. We took lots of pictures. I'll post more pictures on photobucket at

After the ceremony we went to see her "room". It was a room for the toddlers. There were I think maybe 10 cribs against the walls with mats in each. On the floor was a big mat. Lunch was brought in for the children. Rice, fish (looked like tuna but I'm sure it was something different), and soup (broth with some kind of green in it). The three were mixed in a bowl and the kids ate, some were fed by caregivers some ate by themselves. Nien was fed by her caregiver and would not let me feed her at all. She would look very grumpy whenever Elliott or I tried to reach out to her. A little boy, (one of her close friends) played with us a lot and wanted me to feed him. He was a character and acted just like a 3 year old should. His birth parents have him living there temporarily as they are too poor to care for him right now. Holt is working with them to help them get on their feet so that he can go back to them. After a couple of hours we were told it was time for the children to take a nap and we had to leave. We will go back tomorrow morning to visit some more and try to help Nien get used to us before we have our official Giving and Recieving ceremony (the official adoption) tomorrow afternoon. I would say that all though the center looked very poor (nothing as nice as Sam's looked like in China), the children were very much cared for. There are only about 30 children there, mostly babies under one year but about 18 workers....good odds. One thing that was interesting was that they had a big board with pictures of the kids at the center and some kids that had been adopted in their American homes. A lot of pictures from the center had pictures of Nien in them. She has been there a long time and there is no doubt in my mind that she will be very missed. Please pray for her tomorrow as I think this will be very hard for her. By the way, you'll notice how warmly everyone is dressed (winter coats and hats), it is about 65 degrees here and everywhere everyone is dressed like it was a cold winter day. I guess for them this is winter......I wonder what Nien will think of snow???? You notice that I am calling her Nien.....we are going to have to call her Olivia-Nien for a while to help her transition. Just like we will say Daddy-Ba to help her learn her new language.