We say goodbye!

Well this is where Graham has been living for the past 1 1/2 years.  As far as facilities go, it seems like a decent and clean place. 

However at this point Graham is clinging pretty hard to Daddy,  our guide explained to him that we were only there to say goodbye to his friends. 

As you can see there on the right it is under construction for new classrooms.

Opposite view: there on the right side is the nursing home section of the orphanage.

They have a small little play ground out in the courtyard.

Here are a couple of shots of his class rooms and his friends all came to the window to say goodbye to him.  The kids seemed really excited to see him.

I think that is a boiled egg that they are eating with something green? like spinach maybe?

Both ladies were his nannies.  They seemed to love him very much and were very excited to see him again.

We are saying "yay" with a peace sign.  Apparently that is what they do here when they get there pictures made. 

We are both smiling in the shots, but it was really most uncomfortable.  They are a very loud people and have no personal space rules.  They both immediately come up to us trying to grab him out of our arms to hold him talking so loudly to him and us.  Finally our guide Miko came in to help interpret for us. It was kind of crazy for a second.

They did give us a couple of photos of Graham they had on the wall and a drawing that he did.

 One of the last things they asked him was "who is your mama and papa?" and Graham looked up at them and pointed to me and Kevin. 

I couldn't really understand every word of that conversation but I knew the jest of it and it made my heart smile.

This is the "bedroom"  - the crib with the pink blanket in it was his.  I got to say it was kind of sad seeing this room and Graham really did not like seeing that again so Dad had to take him out of the room. 

Heart wrenching!

This is the entrance gate to the orphanage and we are standing in the spot where they found him.

It is illegal to abandone a child and so they are usually always left in a very public place with sometimes a note but usually no information regarding family name or what city or village they are from.

In Graham's case, the orphanage gave him the name Mao ZhongBing.  Mao(which is really considered his last name) is from Maoming City.  Zhong is from the year.  He was found in 2009, the orphanage gave all 2009 boys the name Zhong and bing means "boy"

But now he has a new name!  Graham Chapman Hall

I think he is already getting use to his name. 

All in all, it was a pretty exhausting day physically and emotionally but I think it really helped bring a closure for Graham.  He needed to say goodbye, this would free him to bond with us more as his parents.