A wonderful family who traveled to Hefei this summer to adopt their son sent me their video of the Hefei CWI. I was so grateful, as I've been so hungry for more information. It's a wonderful video that includes a tour of the orphanage, of Sunbeam Village (where Eleanor Zitao lives now), and has terrific footage of the children from the infant rooms all the way up to the school for the older children. The orphanage created a memory book for the child who was being adopted in the video, and I hope they do the same for us. I was thrilled to see that this little boy had a scrapbook made for him, that included his baby footprints, pictures, and reflections from the nannies. It's very apparent that the orphanage staff care very much about their little charges. And I am so glad that Eleanor Zitao will have this video of her first home as a keepsake. It's incredibly precious. Part of this video I've linked to before - but Eleanor Zitao is NOT the girl in the pink dress I saw before (although, it is the same dress that Eleanor wears in some of her photos)! It took seeing the film in better resolution to tell who was who.


I've clipped the portions that have Eleanor Zitao in them - and have posted them here. She is not the first child you see; rather, she is the little girl in the yellow shirt and pigtails who comes up to the interpreter in the white shirt, then bounces away. You see her again as she plays with the girl in the yellow dress, she then gets up, giggles, and goes offscreen. She's wearing the same outfit as she goes down the hall later, behind some of the other children, holding the hand of a smaller child. I have to say that I like the beaded necklace, too - since I know a certain soon-to-be sister of Eleanor's who never takes her necklace off!