A dumpling lunch and a visit to a synagogue

After we left the orphanage, we headed back downtown to a famous dumpling restaurant. The place was packed and once again, Eric had small private room. Let me explain that when I refer to a private room - don't get the same idea as Morton's! This is a tiny room. The people who had just left had left cigarette butts on the floor, bottle caps, etc. They put us in the corner of the room, and kind of, sort of, cleaned up. We sat down and once again Eric ordered for us and we had -- 10 orders of dumplings, sauted chicken (stomach) -- really - it tasted like chicken flavored rubberbands. There was delicious tofu that tasted like spicy meat - very good, and an assortment of vegetables. I am convinced that the Chinese think we eat huge amounts of food and therefore they need to order extra -- so Mrs. Wang took about 40 dumplings home with her - we could barely taste one of each kind - there was pork with scallions, shrimp with cucumber, pork with mushrooms, crabmeat, mutton...we walked by the kitchen where they were making them - it was amazing to watch these little young girls (20's) making these dumplings about 75 a minute. For drinks they brought watermelon juice (disgusting) out - Herb and Hannah loved it, Ben and I stuck to water.

After lunch we went to train station-- in the picture of what looks like a baby blue gumby (which is the logo of the Shanghi World Expo 2010 which is going on right now) is the
train station in the background. Ben knew this was his "finding spot". We went inside the train station - but got out in about 10 seconds. Ben said he would never ever go back in there. Why? Because it stinks like urine and was packed, packed with people. It was really was awful. Ben had no emotional issues/questions or comments - he just thinks that there is no reason to stay somewhere that smells so bad and I agreed completely! It was a less than 5 minute visit.

Our next stop was the Synagogue which is now a musuem. I noted in my last posting that about 20,000 Jews lived in Harbin in the early 1900's. The two bottom pictures are of the actual rebuuilt sysnagogue and the placque on the outside. Apparently Harbin, and China in general the Jewish people have lived without anti-sematism. So that visit ended our day - or so we thought.

We went back to the hotel, said good by to Mrs. Wang and Eric left with our plans to be picked up tomorrow to leave for the airport - off to several days in Beijing next. It was a very emotional (again) and many tears. We left Mrs. Wang with a picture of Ben and a red envelope...we went back to our rooms, and I started catching up on my blogging, unloading pictures, and we did some packing up. We were too full from the big lunch to go out to dinner, so we did some light room service and I had just washed my face, brushed my teeth and was working on this post when there was a knock on the door. Herb was in his sweats, kids in pajamas. Mr. Wang, her husband, her son and his wife and their daughter were at the door - with gifts for the children. They wanted to see if they could convince us to stay another couple of days. Mrs. Wang wanted to have her children see Ben and Hannah. It was so sweet. So we sat a bit, tried to talk but since they knew no english and us no chinese it was difficult. At one point Mr. Wang called Eric (our guide) to have him translate. More hugs and tears for all and we said good night...and now I will say good night and will post from Beijing tomorrow!

Ben's most important day -orphanage visit

We all collapsed early last night after a nice dinner at the hotel. We were all just too tired to go out. However, Herb and I woke up at 1:30 wide awake - we both ended up doing email and reading for a bit. Fortunately both of us fell back asleep around 4 or so and Hannah and Ben got us up at 6:30 - we are really hoping we can sleep completely through a night soon!

So, with an early start, a nice breakfast we waited in the lobby for our guide, Eric, and Ben's foster mother, Mrs. Wang - who was to meet us and join us driving back to Ben's orphanage. She came into the hotel right on time, before Eric got there. She came with her husband - we knew so little about her from 10 years ago, we didn't even know she was married. It turns out she is 57, has a 30 year old son and a 3 year old granddaughter. She retired from the orphanage in 2003. Our guide Eric joined us shortly after she arrived and was able to translate for us. She was so thrilled to see Ben. She was very emotional and really teared up many times during the day. Ben was very happy to meet her and a bit curious about her, but sincerely, I believe it was much more meaningful for her to meet Ben as a grown child. Ben has no memory of her of course and she remembers him well. When we were talking we asked her how many children had she taken care of when she worked at the orphanage. It turns out that she only took care of Ben and Eu-Meh (who was adopted the same time as Ben and we still see her as she lives in Baltimore). We had assumed that she foster-mommed many children - but no, only those two. Not only did she take care of Ben, but one month before we came to China to get Ben, she started taking Ben home at night so he got more used to living away from the other children. It was very clear that she remembered Ben well and there was an attachment and she was so touched that we had brought him back, and that she could spend the day with him.

One of the things that we did before we left for China was to load about a 7 minute movie onto Herb's computer. This was our original movie of the moments that Ben was put into our arms. Mrs Wang was in the movie and was holding Ben and handed him to us - she was crying, we were crying...and so we did it again... 10 years later. She seemed to appreciate seeing this bit of our shared history. We also (when I say we in these cases, we are talking about Herb, not me) scanned and printed the photo album which had our adoption trip - and every picture of the time we had together. She loved seeing this as well. After about 30 minutes of getting re-acquainted, we took off for the "orphanage" which was about a 45 minute drive. Now, the orphanage where Ben spent the first year of his life is no longer an orphanage. When Ben was there, it not only had children, but elederly and disabled people of all ages. Ben was the 4th child adopted out of this orphanage, and was the first boy adopted out of the orphanage and of Heilongjiang provence. The total number of adoptions of out this orphanage were only 50! That was a big surprise to us. In 2003 Mrs. Wang actually retired (mandatory retirement in China is 50 for "common" workers (!!). The orphanage stopped caring for children in this same year. There is a new orphanage in Harbin where now there are about 300 children. However, we wanted to see and to show Ben where he spent the first year of his life.

In many ways, the orphanage was very much the same and in others it was quite different. Where there was a parking lot behind the main building 10 years ago - they had created a basketball court, a garden with a waterfall and some playground equipment for children visiting their family. They took us into the exact same conference room we visited when we visited the orphanage two days after we adopted Ben. This time, like last they served us watermelon, cold drinks and took lots of pictures themselves.

What I found interesting was the Director - who was the Assistant Director 10 years ago asked us if there was something we "wanted" or questions we had. We were not exactly sure what she meant by that, but we assume that she thought we were seeking any information that may be available about Ben's biological parents. Of course, we knew there weren't any since he had been found at the Harbin train station and there was no note or information left with him. We explained that we only wanted Ben to see where he spent the first year of his life and to introduce him to the people who cared for him- we were not seeking anything more. She was just lovely, asked us questions and was also very interested to see the movie and pictures. She gave us commerative books that were created in 2008 that celebrated teh 50 year anniversary of the Harbin Social Welfare Institute. (the old orphanage included). She then gave us a tour of Ben's old room (which was cut into smaller rooms that houses residents now). that was pretty much the entire event! Here are a few pictures from this part of the day. More soon!

From my last post explanation - here is one of the ice sculptures, walking the streets and seeing the world cup, the food markets, and the Harbin Construction Art Museum. Harbin is actually located very close to Russia. It is only about 100 kilometers from Siberia. There were many Russian immigrants in Harbin, particularly during the early 1900 at the time of the Russian revolution. They had a huge influence on the archictecture in Harbin. There were also about 20,000 Russian Jewish immigrants that settled in Harbin. There is a synagogue here (more on that later) that is a museum now. There is only one Jew left in Harbin - he was our guide's English teacher. However, there were many here in the early 1900's and had a significant influence on the commerce and economy then. In the 1930's the Jewish population began to leave Harbin as the cultural revolution was heating up - many of the Jews that were in Harbin relocated to San Francisco and in Israel. Who would of thought?

More pics - ice sculptures

Monday afternoon - tigers, parks, ice sculptures

Our guide Eric who is from Harbin picked us up at noon and took us to a big loud smokey restaurant. We were not ushered into the big public room. Eric had arranged for us to have little private room - which was nice - the kids could be noisy, no smoke, and we could have a conversation --we had a huge lunch - Eric ordered all the food - ordered enough for 10 people, we felt horrible that we couldn't eat more - but it was just way too much. He had ordered us a wonderful mushroom soup, a dish of pork something, a plate of spicey shrimp flash fried with something crunchy that we never did figure out, sauted bok choy, the biggest plate of rice I have ever seen. Ben didn't seem to like much of it - Hannah tasted all. We decided the mushroom soup was the best.

After lunch we went to the big tiger park. This Tiger park was opened in Harbin in 1996 and at that time they had about 20 tigers. When we first visited it - with Ben in 2000, there were 65 tigers. This time when we visited there were over 900 tigers! It was pretty amazing. After the Tiger park we went to the Harbin Sun Island Scenic Spot which was a huge park that was over 30 square Kilometers. We walked as much as we could but it was raining while we were there so we took these electric trains around the park. One park had "pet" deer that you could feed - actually you paid to feed them - and to think, we pay nothing to have the deer come munch our flowers daily in Virginia! The kids really enjoyed it. From there we went to the Sun Island Ice and Snow Art Museum. Harbin is famous all over the world for their ice sculptures. If you have been to a Gaylord Resort either in Maryland or in Orlando, every year for the past few years they bring ice sculpturers in to do amazing ice sculptures and they are typically from Harbin. The ice festival in the winter in Harbin is the most busy time of the entire year in this city. They now have a permanent place so when you visit Harbin any time of year, you can see these sculptures. They give you big jackets and boots to put on. Nothing fit anyone. They had a big slide to ride down in a covered tire. The kids voted this their favorite place of the day to visit. From there we went to the Harbin Construction Art Museum, which is the old Russian Orthodox Church - St. Sophia. After that an ice cream break for the kids and we took long walks through some markets and shops. I totally forgot to pack socks for Hannah, so a bit of shopping was necessary. The world cup was on tha huge flat screen TV on a street corner so Ben enjoyed that while we did our sock shopping! Walking down one street they had these food markets where they were grilling all kinds of meats - we were walking and looking - it seems one of the local favorite things to skewer and grill are silk worm pupa - which is the 2nd stage of silk worms - they were squirming in the dish, then they got skewered and grilled. NO, I had no desire to try one at all!! They looked absolutely disgusting!!

More Monday morning pics

Here are more pictures from our 1st morning in Harbin! Off to lunch now and touring..

Monday morning

It feels as if we never had a Sunday. We went from over 20 hours flying, getting to hotel and now it is Monday. Guess who slept late - yes, Ben did not want to get up.

The Shangri-La is just as lovely as it was 10 years ago. They have redecorated the lobby and rooms from what we remember. We were all up early except Ben. It is amazing how good a shower, hairwash and clean clothes can make you feel! We went downstairs and you can see in th epictures what a fabulous buffet they had - from sushi, to congi (3 different kinds of rice coup) to a noodle station where they made you fresh noodle soup - to steamed dumplings. Then there was the typical made to order eggs, and a donut station where they fried fresh donuts. My favorite to see was the tea hard boiled eggs. Did not try them, but they were very pretty! Hannah had noodle soup and dumplings for breakfast. I had an omlette and then a fabulous noodle soup and some dumplings as well. Very delicious. After breakfast we took a long walk on the river. Herb and I told the kids about when we woke up at 4:00 in the morning on the day we were getting Ben 10 years ago-- it was bright outside and we walked the river then, thinking about how our lives were going to change. We watched the older folks exercising, fisherman. Today when we walked we saw many of the same sights. There are more buildings now and the smog is absolutely horrible. Our guide is coming in a few minutes to take us to lunch and touring. I will say that we recieved many, many stares from people, curious smiles and nods.

Saturday Travel....long!

We are here in Harbin! We left the house, 10:00 Saturday morning. Our luggage - 4 checked, one carry-on and 3 backpacks. All bags weighed under 44 pounds - had to for domestic China flights. Barley said good-bye, taxi picked us up. Flight on time. 14 hours straight to Beijing. Long flight, but thank goodness for United points and Business class. Hannah slept 3 hours. Herb, Ben and I never fell asleep. UGH. Had a 4 hour lay over until our flight to Harbin. Herb, Hannah and I nodded off a bit on flight (1.5 hours) to Harbin. Ben never slept. We got on the plane and then had over a 2 hour delay due to thunderstorms. Arrived in Harbin around 10:30 p.m. Our guide was there who took us to the hotel. It was midnight China time when we arrived. Kids starved so roomservice pizza and pasta.

Last one - have to go back and finish packing!

In January 2008, on Herb and my 10th wedding anniversary went back to St. Croix where we were originally married - on the back of a sail boat - this time, with the kids, renewed our vows, (and I wore the same dress) barefoot again, on the back of the SAME sailboat! The kids loved it. The 2nd picture I think is from the same trip.

The third picture is one of my all time favorite pictures of Ben. He was only about 4 or 5, and we were down in Georgetown watching the dragon boat races - what a face! The 4th picture is Hannah hamming it up with Barley - probably last year. The last was taken probably in St. Croix when we were exploring the island!

You'll hear from me in a few days - from China. Hope all my friends and family family out there have a wonderful weekend!! Hugs,

More...sports, smiles and dogs

We took the kids to Cox Farm every fall for years. The top picture is just one of those great moments. The next picture is fall, 2009, right at Thanksgiving down at my Mom's house on her dock - we try to take our holiday pictures down there each year - the weather was fantastic! Barley, our 3 year old goofy golden doodle loves going down there. The third picture is several years ago. Ben was ring bearer and Hannah was the flower girl at Herb's niece's wedding in Rochester NY. They loved to dance. Ben played cello in 4th grade. He decided just to stick with piano this year. Ben played soccer for a number of years - he hasn't for about 3 years now, but is big on tennis - but we have no tennis pictures. he is however, much more interested again in soccer with the World Cup!

These grown up looking pictures are actually from spring break 2009, when we took the kids on a cruise down the Mexican side of the Carribean.

Sitting on the curb was just this past spring at the Lincoln Memorial.

Skiing in 2009 .

The bottom two pictures are at sand dunes in Colorado! yes, there are dunes in Colorado and if you haven't seen them you absolutely need to take the trip!

It is almost 9:30 p.m. on Friday - tomorrow we leave! Well, we seem to be about 90% packed. The kids are going wild tonight - they are very excited about the adventure. We almost had a hiccup. Herb was checking flights last night and seats again and couldn't understand when he pulled up my tickets and checked for seats, the seat availability was totally different than his (we are on different ticket reservations). It turns out that when we made some minor changes to the tickets about 2 weeks ago, United book two of the tickets on the wrong day! If Herb hadn't discovered that we would have had a fine mess tomorrow morning. Thank goodness he is the detail guy he is! He spent over an hour on the phone with them late last night - they fixed it, were very apologetic and we each got 9,000 extra points in our account!!