We got up the next morning, ate breakfast, and then boarded the bus to Yueyang at about 8:00. It's hard to do justice to describing the bus trip to Yueyang. The bus was okay, but crowded. Daphne had asked us to pack only one bag (plus diaper and camera bags) to take to Yueyang because space was limited. We were only staying in Yueyang one night, but it was still difficult to make sure we took everything we might need for Abby as well as a few things for us. Only five of the seven families in our group went, the two ChangDe families did not need to go. We put all of our luggage in the last row of the bus, and the rest of us in front, and headed off.

As soon as we got out of Changsha, the road turned very bumpy. Even though the road was paved, it was very much like driving on a dirt road. The good news is that this apparently makes Abby want to go to sleep - she slept for almost the entire four hour trip (of course, that made Jill's arms rather tired since she was holding her when she fell asleep). 

We passed through the countryside between Changsha and Yueyang, passing lots of small towns and villages and seeing rice paddies and small markets. The traffic and driving styles in China are very interesting. They theoretically drive on the right side of the road in China, but their "rules" are somewhat looser than ours. We were often on a two-lane road, one in each direction, that had 6 lanes of traffic on it. Pretty much any time that our bus came up on any other traffic - which was pretty constant - we passed them. Now, this is not the U.S. style make sure you are in a passing zone, put on your blinker, check for on-coming traffic kind of passing. This is honk your horn to let them know your coming, pull out and go around them no matter what the oncoming traffic looks like. And, if they are smaller than you, they are expected to move over toward the side of the road (no matter whether they were going the same direction as you or coming at you). There were some cars, lots of trucks, lots of bicycles and a few pedestrians all sharing this road. Quite a few times we would be maybe six "vehicles" abreast on this two-lane road. And it was truly amazing to us westerners that we did not see one accident or anyone die - although there were many, many close calls. The windows were fogged up so Jill couldn't see out much. On the way back - when she had the opportunity to sit on the aisle seat - she wished that she couldn't see out.

Just before we arrived in Yueyang Abby woke up hungry, so we made the bottle and gave it to her. This is an experience in and of itself - combining near boiling water in a thermos with cold bottled water with her formula, then trying to feed it to her - all the while on a very bumpy bus ride. You can bet we'll be reminding Abby of all of this when she's a teenager. When we got to Yueyang, we went straight to the notary office and spent about an hour filling out paperwork. This is a picture out the window at the notary office.

We then went to our hotel briefly, the Joy Inn, before heading out to lunch at a local restaurant with the director of the orphanage and the head nanny. They gave us a private room, which was good, because when we came through the restaurant (after climbing up about 4 stories) everyone jumped up to come look at the babies. Also, the regular part of the restaurant was filled with cigarette smoke. You don't know how much you miss no-smoking sections until you visit China. The only restaurants that even try to have no-smoking sections are the Western-style restaurants in the big hotels - and even that is right next to the smoking sections. Given that just about every adult Chinese male we saw was smoking - and could smoke about 4 cigarettes during the course of a meal - it was very difficult to breathe (in addition to the "normal" pollution).

The food at lunch was good, but some of it was very interesting. They warned us about the dishes that might be "a little spicy" - this is Hunan Province, remember - and other dishes looked a little "raw" to us. But the stuff we tried was very good. The director of the orphanage made a speech that Daphne translated for us. It was some general info about how the orphanage works and the differences between the way Chinese raise children and Americans raise children. Another nanny (we think) came in during the meal and both she and the head nanny seemed to recognize all of the babies. At one point when Abby was fussing a little the head nanny said that Min Min (her pet name) really likes steamed eggs, so we gave her some. (Steamed eggs are kind of the consistency of custard - we think they make them in a type of double-boiler, but we're not sure. The babies all love them.) After lunch we returned to the hotel briefly, then set off on the bus to the orphanage.

There's just too much to say about the orphanage, but I'll try to summarize it. The orphanage is located in amongst residential buildings, stores, and industrial plants. When you pull up you see a big wrought iron gate and a two-story building with a courtyard in the middle. 

We started out in a very nice meeting room where the director made another speech and accepted our "donation". We also had all brought some clothes to donate to the orphanage. We then got to walk around part of the orphanage and started out visiting the room where Abby had been staying. This is a small, narrow room with cribs lined up along one side, a coal-fired heater in the middle, and some supplies along the other wall. It was cold and fairly dark, but it looked fairly clean. Abby's crib is the third one in this picture. 

Each baby has their own crib with their name above it, and they each have their own set of bottles. All four of the babies in our group from this orphanage were in the same room, side by side (the fifth family's baby that came with us was from the county orphanage, they did not get to visit that orphanage). While we were in the room there were 3 babies in little walkers - very bundled up.

We then visited the "exercise and massage" room where each baby got 40 minutes each day to play. It's a big room with a square mat in the middle and toys and equipment around the edges. 

After that we got to see the clinic - a small room with lots of medications on the shelves. As we were walking around we also passed many, many rooms with babies in them. Each room appears to hold a certain age (like 7 months old) baby. We also got to see a two-week old who had recently arrived and heard about a newborn that had also just arrived. We did not get to see any kitchen or cleaning facilities or where any of the older children might be (they keep children up to age 14).

As we walked around quite a few of the nannies came up and talked to Abby (calling her Min-Min). We're not sure if she was so popular because she is so beautiful or because she screams the loudest. There was one particular nanny (picture below) that seemed to follow us around to keep talking to Min Min. 

Karl thought the orphanage was much better than he expected, Jill thought it was worse. We both agreed that they seemed to be doing the best that they can with limited resources, but Jill was just overwhelmed with the bleakness and the number of children waiting. It was also tough seeing where Abby had been waiting all these months when we could've come over and gotten her much earlier (if it had been just up to us). Abby did not seem to have a big reaction to the orphanage, just looked around and seemed fairly content.

We then returned to the hotel which was named the Joy Inn for some unknown reason. The hotel was okay, but it smelled awful. They had opened the windows for us when we arrived, which allowed the pollution to come in - although I'm not sure the room just doesn't smell that way all the time. Karl had a real hard time breathing in that room - even more so than just the general hard time we had breathing in Changsha and Yueyang. The room also had ants in the bathroom and many, many cigarette burns in the carpet. That's very comforting when you are on the 19th floor! Abby still fought going to sleep, screaming and crying before she fell to sleep, and then waking several times screaming and crying. Once we pick her up and carry her around for a while, she calms down, but it's very hard to get her to go to sleep. She seems inconsolable - it's a little heart wrenching.

The next morning we left the hotel and went to the police station, where we waited about an hour to get the babies' passports. Then we headed back to Changsha - another bumpy four hours on the bus. Once again, however, Abby slept almost the entire time (this time in Karl's arms), waking up hungry just before we arrived back in Changsha. We had been worried that she might be constipated, because she had not pooped since we had gotten her. She solved that in a big way today (which was a sign of things to come). She still seems to be a very happy baby - except when you try to get her to sleep. She also does not like to be put down - she loves to be held in a standing up position. Her legs do not support her very much, so this is very tiring for Mom and Dad. She has scratches on her head - her nails were very long when we got her and she scratches at her head when she is sleepy. We've trimmed them once, but they are still very sharp. We're going to try to trim them again if she ever goes to sleep.