Visit to Suixi

Thank you to Director Han and Vanessa and the approvals they had to get for making this visit possible for us. This was so important to us to have some information for Taylor about her early years so that when she comes back to visit China she will know where to begin:

We got to Suixi about 11:00 am. Director Han and an aide picked us up at the airport and took us to lunch. We had boiled chicken, cut up, including the head and feet. Director han ate one of the feet and I couldn’t let him outdo me, so I ate the other one (even though I didn’t know where the feet had been) We had spicy lamb, squid, and scallops (with bellies still attached). As well as some kind of soup (didn’t ask) and a really good, thin and sweet bread.

I think the director and his staff were surprised at Uncle Doug and me being able to eat and like the foods. I think they were waiting to see how the American’s liked their style of foods, though different from ours, and we enjoyed them to their surprise and comfort. None of them spoke English and we didn’t speak a lick of Chinese but we got along just fine.

They then took us to Wutang where our Taylor was from. It was quite a moving experience. The area is very poor by our standards, but the people seemed very happy and smiled and laughed at our round eyes.

We then drove back to Suixi (they pronounce it “Sweesee” and to a book store where the director bought us a book about the town and its people.

After that we went to the orphanage, which is in the middle of town and had a nice visit, where we were treated to bananas and tangerines which are the local product. We saw where the children play in the playroom, there were about 8 – 10 kids there while we visited, they seem to have been comfortable in the play room until we
"strangers" arrived. I appreciated seeing the room as that’s where our Taylor spent about ½ of her short life (until now).

All in all, it was an emotionally draining day but a wonderful one in that Taylor now has a record of our trip and her life before us.
Thank you again to Suixi and Director Han for giving us as much of Taylor's first year (15 months) as possible.
Andy - Taylor's Daddy for life!