There was a little girl in the office that kept running around, trying to get attention. I figured that she was the daughter of one of the employees. Turns out she is a foster child of Sarah's foster parents. The family was on the second floor and could hardly wait for Sarah to show up! In fact, dad peeped in the doorway of the office and I realized who he was from Sarah's pictures. She saw him and was very shy. I don't know if she recognized him at first. But he said something to her and she ran to him and just buried her face in his shoulder! I started crying. It was just beautiful. Then we walked up the ramp to the second floor and there was mama! Sarah kept looking around like she didn't know what was going on. The others were very excited and just chattering away! Mama kept pointing to her hips and her shoulders to tell me how much Sarah had grown! I think they were really surprised to see the changes in her. By now we are all crying, except Sarah! Mama kept thanking me over and over for bringing Sarah back to visit. She said that Sarah was very close to her foster dad, and he kept a hold on her! It was very sweet. It was obvious that they both love Sarah very much. I know that she loves them and that's a good thing.
So after the homecoming celebration and a tour of the 4 story orphanage, we all went out to lunch together; our guide, the China parents, and a couple of staff from the orphanage. The restaurant was another typical 2nd floor, huge round table with lazy susan in the middle affair, and once again, we were treated to way more food that we could eat. I don't think we were offered beer at this restaurant, for the first time on the trip. However, we did have watermelon for dessert! Yeah!!!
At lunch, China mama invited us to her house for dinner that night. Also, she asked if Sarah could spend the night. I told her that Sarah would have to make that decision. We returned to our hotel and on the way back, Sarah told me that she wanted to stay overnight with her foster family. She was a little concerned that they would not be able to communicate, but we decided it would probably be ok anyway. We went to the hotel and walked around outside the hotel and looked at the shops until time for us to go back to the foster family's home.
This was my first time to actually go to a "regular" citizen's home in China (outside of the Hutongs). It was an appartment and was larger than I expected; there was a very small kitchen, a living room, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. I don't know if there was running water in the apartment or not. I saw mama dipping her hands into a water bowl to clean her hands in the kitchen. She had one burner and a hot plate to cook with. There was enough food to feed the whole neighborhood. The food was excellent and there was plenty for everyone, but mama never sat down to eat while we were there. Sarah said they all ate after we left! We had some kind of fermented barley drink that they say the kids drink! It was potent, but not bad. She made a really good hot tea, with lots of fruit and sugar in it. The sugar was like rocks or crystals, not like cubes. Sarah ate pretty well, I tried to taste everything and finally gave up when mama kept bringing out more and more food! Samantha barely ate a thing. She tried a few noodles and a bite of the roast chicken, but that was it! (She had to have ramen noodles when we got back to the hotel!) Mama had apparently been cooking and preparing for our visit for weeks! She made dumplings, steamed buns, fried fish, boiled shrimp, 5 kinds of noodles and a few vegetable dishes for us. Picture of part of the dinner is below.
