Today our guide, Cherry, took us to an electronics store and I was able to get a card reader for $6!  Nice …  Anyway, this is going to be a pretty picture heavy post, as will tomorrow.  So, it may take a minute to load completely.

We started our day on Tuesday with our first breakfast with Ali.  The girl eats a ton!  We are trying to figure out how tall she will actually become once her body gets all the nutrients it is desiring!

We had to go by the government center so that we could file some additional papers and Ali could agree, because of her age, that she does in fact want us to adopt her.  That is what she is doing here.  Phew!  She signed it!

Here the guide had to actually write the words on her hand for Ali to copy.  I will take it however I can get it!

She had to affix her thumb print to the paperwork as her hand was too big for all of her fingers to fit on the page.

Think this is a business??

Abby got a little tired of waiting for the process to be over.

After the signing, we drove out to Huainan City which is about an hour and a half drive from Hefei and is were Ali was actually from.  We were warned on the way in that the orphanage was in a very poor area, one that was heavily damaged in the Chinese-Japanese war (of which I knew little about until I started coming to China.  BIG deal here).  In addition, the orphanage was built in 1958 and is showing its age.  They are building a new one by the government center, but the current one is not the greatest.  So, I was expecting a city that was aged and poor.  Boy, was I wrong.  As we exited the freeway we down a modern eight-lane road that looks like a brand new city growing out of the ground.  EVERYWHERE was brand new construction, and we are not talking low rent stuff.

Here is a main intersection where you can see cranes everywhere as they construct dozens and dozens of new buildings and apartments.

This is something that I have NEVER seen in China.  Brick buildings.  I can’t imagine how much these apartments must cost.  And they were as nice as anything I have seen in the U.S.

High-end brick apartments as far as you can see.

This apartment building reminding me of something you we see in Orlando!

We turned on to a street that looked a little more aged than these, and then we turned down Ali’s street…

Quite different, huh?  As I told you yesterday, we pulled into Ali’s orphanage to the kids chanting her name and surrounding the van.  As she got out, they engulfed her and were curious about her new clothes, her new bag, and the the iPod that we gave her.

Ali took us up to her bedroom. A room that she shared with five other girls.

The children use the upstairs railing to dry their laundry.

Here are five of Ali’s roommates.  I don’t believe the little boy is one of them!

All the girls wanted to listen to the songs on Ali’s ipod!

All of the rooms had some amount of drawings on the walls.  Ali’s wasn’t too bad.

This is Ali’s “China mom.”  The lady that is the girls nanny.  Ali was very close to her and has called her several times.

Ali wanted to bring something back to the orphanage, so we brought a couple of presents.  She wanted stickers, but i just couldn’t find any at the store, so I bought Mickey Mouse pencils.

THEN she brought out the big bag of dumb-dumb suckers.  Oh boy.  Was THAT a success.  Poor Ali.  She was MOBBED!

Notice our guide, Cherry, stuck in the middle with NO way out!

Ali made sure that she went to all the rooms to insure that all the kids got at least one sucker.

This was the one time that I saw Ali get a little angry.  All the kids were pushing so much that some of the littler ones were getting crushed.  She pretty quickly put away the candy so that no one would get hurt.

We got ready to head out and look at some of the Love Without Boundaries rooms towards the front of the orphanage.

When we were down in the courtyard, the kids kept bugging Abby to take their picture and show it to them!  She was almost as popular as the suckers!

Kelly had her fair share of suitors also!

I guess the smaller clothes that don’t fit on the railing have to be dried in the window grates!

This is the area that the wash their hands and, I am assuming, their clothes.

I took a few more pictures of the area as we were preparing to leave.

Love Without Boundaries has several classrooms that they use for additional education and training.

It was time to leave the orphanage, but I had to get a couple of nice little pix of Abbs!

Cherry was trying to organize our going to lunch with the director, but he had too much to do to join us.

So, as we were leaving the kids came to say goodbye.  The next picture will probably haunt us for a very long time.  One of Ali’s roommates and friends has weighted heavily on Kelly’s heart.  As we were loaded up in the van preparing to leave, she came up to see Ali one last time.  I can’t find a more fitting way to end this post and prepare for the next one…

Cameron