Ma'anshan Social Welfare Institute

After breakfast, we took the van to the Ma'anshan Social Welfare Institute, where Sara lived her first year. The institute, at the edge of the city, is a compound of white brick buildings surrounded by grass and pomegranate trees. It is a very peaceful place.

We met the current director and the person responsible for international adoptions. We gave the director a contribution for the children still in the institute. We also gave them a photo album.

As we stood at the gate, Mrs Liu, the former director, ran up to Sara and gave her a hug. She told us she recognized her immediately and made a big fuss over her.

We asked her about Ma You Jing, Ma You Tao (English name Laurel) and Ma You Lan (Kathryn), all friends of Sara in New York who are from Ma'anshan. She told us that before being adopted they were all together in the same room. Now it is the room for toddlers.

Most of the children now in the institute have special needs -- other children are either in foster care, or live with families in institute-owned housing in the city where the children attend school. The policy now is to place all non-special needs children in foster care. This policy has been effect for only two years; before that, all children lived in the institute.

The director presented us with a certificate of appreciation and a receipt for our contribution. We gave Mrs Liu a small gift and talked. We saw Sara's file, which did not have much more information than we already had. We also asked a lot of questions. The most interesting was how the girls were selected for international adoption and matched with their families in 1994. As Susan had suspected, it was Xiong Yan, our 1984 facilitator/guide, who did it. She picked out pretty girls with big eyes and matched them to pictures of the parents. That is why Sara looks so much like me, something Mrs Liu remarked on several times.

We took pictures, and then got into vans to go to a restaurant for lunch. On the way, we stopped so that Mrs Liu could by Sara a gift. We ate in a private room on the second floor with Mrs Liu, the international adoptions person, Yang Qin (our guide) and the two drivers (ours and the institute's). The food was excellent (I told Mrs Liu that it was the best meal we had had on our trip, which was true). We had egg drop soup, shredded duck with eggplant, fried tofu, a vegetable dish with lotus root and snow peas, chicken in a spicy sauce, steamed buns, and fried dumplings in an egg pancake. Mrs Liu put food on Sara's and Lia's plates, which was very nice. There were two toasts, one by Mrs Liu and one by me. At the end of the meal, Mrs Liu presented Sara with a beautiful cotton picture of two pandas. This is a local handcraft.

After lunch, we followed the institute van to a local tea shop where we bought some local Yellow Mountain Green Tea recommended by Yang Qin. Then we said goodbye to the institute staff.

We drove about 50 minutes to the Nanjing railway station and waited in a crowded waiting room to board our train. Now we're on board the train (very comfortable and very fast), on our way to Shanghai.

It was a happy day and Sara was very moved by Mrs Liu's interest and hospitality.