Day 4

Dear Cora, We are so amazed to see how smart you are. You are so eager for us to understand you. To hear new English words every day! You want to be a part of everything. Pointing at things and talking to me as if I can understand it all. We have walked around the garden in the hotel many times looking for something… it turned out to be a bird. You wanted to hear him sing. There are so many “firsts” ahead of you.

Today we were invited to visit the orphanage but decided against it. We all agree that it would be very hard for Cora.  The adjustment is not going as smooth as we had hoped. We do not want to set things back to the beginning.

We decided to visit Cora’s finding spot. This turned out to be much more emotional for me than I thought. This is a private matter that we will not share.

After our visit, we toured different areas of Ningbo so we could get a feel of what it would be like to live here. We walked downtown to see the shops and markets. This is where the workers that commute to the factories or someone who lives locally would shop. We walked through a park called Moon Lake (or West Lake). It was more beautiful than we could imagine. There were small islands with connecting bridges, flower gardens, and great examples of Chinese architecture. The hardest parts of trying to enjoy the sites are the stares. They start staring when they see two white women with a Chinese baby, then when we get closer they see that Cora is disabled. They talk, stare, some will pull aside our translator to talk, and some will talk right in front of us as if Cora cannot understand.  She understands every word and is soon ready to go. Food always makes her feel better so Sofia talks her into going to lunch. We chose a casual restaurant close to the park. Cora was acting out quite a bit by the time we arrived and was seated. She was keeping the people beside us busy worrying about what she was doing. We were seated by a window. Soon there were people gathering, and then lining up. We are learning that people are either not used to seeing disabilities or are just rude. We took our time eating lunch and then went back to the hotel.

The bathtub is our saving grace. Cora starts getting upset as soon as we enter the room. We can just ask her if she wants a bath and she instantly gets excited. I will sit as long as she is willing just so I can see her laugh and play.  This is my favorite part of the day.

Sophie came back later to help us finish up some paperwork. She is going to take the train back to Hangzhou so we can enjoy the day with Cora tomorrow instead of taking the train and having another long hard day. Sophie is so good to us. She stayed and translated the letter the Ayias wrote for Cora, one to us, and asked Cora some questions that we wanted to know about how she was doing and if there was anything we could do to help her or make her happy. The answer always seems to be candy!