The day we had been anticipating for 9 months had finally arrived. After hurrying to get ready, pack, and eat breakfast, we left the hotel in Nanchang at 7:15. The van driver and Echo’s roommate vanka, meet us and led us to the train station. The train station was crazy with a mass of people, but Vanka guided us to the right gate and the through the crowd to the correct train car. We were the furthest one away, but we made it on time. It was the first car in the front of the train. It seemed like a fairly new train with nice comfortable seating. It was the D205 with a direct route from Nanchang to Changsha stopping in 3 towns along the way. The train went up to 200km/hr and gave us another great chance to see the country side. Pretty similar to the trip to Yihuang. It didn’t seem like one inch of land was left undeveloped. It looked like mostly rice fields, but other crops and gardens were intermixed along with the villages which were like a small Wisconsin town pack into a small area (10-50 houses per village each house was 2 or 3 levels talls). We had nice seats on the train. Leg room equivalent to first class on an airplane. It was a very smooth ride. We arrive in Changsha at 11:15 and met Anna on the outside of the station. Vanka then left us to take a train back to Nanchang. Vanka was very kind and we know that we would have been lost without her help.
Anna had a van and driver and they took us to the Dolton. We unpacked and relaxed a bit and then ate lunch at the western restaurant in the hotel. We met a really nice lady and her daughter from South Carolina in the elevator and they eat lunch with us. They were also getting their 3 year old girl at 3pm today. So at 3pm Anna arrived to give us a ride to the Civil affairs to meet Nathan (Kuo). Anna said that Kuo is pronounced cowah, which is unlike what we had thought, so we all worked at retraining ourselves. We arrived at the civil affairs. The lady from South Carolina was already there and meeting her spicy little 3 year old Hunan toddler, but Nathan had not yet arrived. We waited about 20 minutes and then the assistant Orphanage director from Hengyang arrived holding Nathan. At first Craig was the only one that he would allow to hold him, but after a bit he warmed up to Abby and then Jackie. He then let Jackie hold him. He did not want to be set down or stood up, just held. He was very thirsty and we gave him some water and star-shaped snacks. He did not want any toys or stuffed animal, but he did have fun with the snacks. He wanted to feed them to Abby and Micah. This was a nice way for us to bond. Finally we wrapped up at the civil affairs and took a taxi back to the hotel. Jackie went back out with Anna to get some supplies. We all spent the rest of the night mainly in the hotel room. We also took a short visit to the playroom on the 30th floor and took a quick look at the pool on the 9th floor. We eventually got Nathan to smile and even giggle a bit. He crawled, stood, walked, babbled and took a few steps. We played with the stacking cups most and he really enjoyed them. He is not where a 21 month old should be, but we are hopeful that this is only orphanage delays and not a cognitive disability. Overall we are very blessed that he seems to be accepting of us and even bonding to us (albeit optimistic for only a few hours) he is a very sweet boy, but we need prayers to make sure that we are able to accept his delays and/or he is able to catch up to his age. Today we are going to arrange to meet with a Physician to help determine if his delays are associated with cognitive or orphanage living.
God bless, Craig
p.s. pictures are going to be delayed as I am having troubles getting those around the Chinese firewall.
