Our new family in Lanzhou

We are truly sad to leave Lanzhou today, to leave the friendly people who take such interest in Hu Dong Ling, smile broadly, ask questions, wave to her. Yesterday was especially memorable. Truly one of the most moving days of my life, one that I will tell Dalia about forever. Our guide, Megan (a great tour guide and historian) took us to the Five Springs Park in Lanzhou. Set into the mountains that circle Lanzhou, the park has winding stone paths, many trees, pagodas, courtyards, and statues of Sun Yatsen, Confucius and Huo Qubing who is said to have created the Five Springs here in the desert of Lanzhou when he was sent to fight the “Huns” in the Han Dynasty.
The grounds are especially colorful now as it is just after the Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival – huge faces/masks from Beijing Opera characters, large animals made of silk in which lights are placed at night. So many people, mostly the young and the retired, walking, dancing, sword dancing, playing the overisized two-handed yo-yo on a string which Tal joined in! Few were wearing the latest fashions; most were wearing padded jackets or other simple clothes, most of the eyeglasses were oversized, from another decade.
From the second we got out of the car with Dongling/Dalia, people looked at us and looked at her and smiled. Some questioned Megan, our guide “Was this our baby, will we operate on her mouth, where are we from? and more. Many, many thumbs up and big huge smiles. The only words in English were from a couple, “ thank you, thank you, you have great heart.” One man looked at Tal and crossed himself. One woman walked alongside me and said (in Chinese), “Oh, you have so much troubles, but your heart is happy.” I think she meant something like “Its tough being a Mom.” She has several grandchildren and is in her 60s. One man passed by, stopped to look, passed by Megan and smiled broadly – there was something very special about his face and about him.
We continued, Tal heard singing and asked Megan if we could go hear. She hesitated to take us within this particular place as she usually doesn’t take adoption families there but she changed her mind. We walked down some stairs, and suddenly, there was the man with the wonderful, bright face, along with two women friends. I was carrying Dalia. He put his cheek next to hers and his hand on the other side of her face, smiled and pressed. I smiled back and spoke to him.
This man and his two friends -- one is his wife - are deaf and mute. The two women smiled and made sounds to each other; one could say a few words to me and both could read Megan’s lips. They touched Dalia, smiled, clapped with her, held her, bounced her, laughed and laughed. They gave us thumbs up, thanked us, communicated with their hands and faces that our bringing Dalia home to the United States was good, that we are giving her a fortunate life, that they approve of our taking this precious living treasure away from China, away from her culture and history, away from them. They know that we will repair her lip and mouth. We took a picture while I was holding back streams of tears. The two women took turns holding her and touching her while I watched, while the man wrote down their addresses so we can send the photos. The women inspected her closely, pulling open her split pants, smelling – commenting that she is very clean, touching her hair, looking at her hands, touching and kissing her legs and arms, along with more bouncing and hugging and smiling. I had a hard time saying goodbye to them. I keep thinking about what it would be like to stay here with her, to bring her to the park, to have Chinese people around her to talk with her and teach her.
While this was happening, in the courtyard of this building were about 25 people singing beautiful traditional folk songs from Lanzhou. Spirited, loud. We took a few steps down the stairs and caught their attention. Many came to the side of the courtyard and smiled, asked questions,smiled, waved, touched Dalia. There were only about 6 people left singing when the song ended. Then a voice shouted, “Zai chang yi bian!” “One more time!” We all laughed.
We continued walking up in silence, to the Tibetan temple at the top of the mountain. Incredibly peaceful. A monk sat next to another man, who was smoking. During the Cultural Revolution, the monks fled, and hid, but fortunately, the Temple was preserved. One of the most fascinating things about Lanzhou is there are 40 of the 56 official “ethnic minorities” living here including many Tibetans.
That night, we went for a walk in the neighborhood near our hotel – a shopping district. We ended up near the walking street/no cars, many high-end shops with an underground mall as well. Couldn’t have been a greater and more jarring contrast to the park. We decided to take some narrower streets back to the hotel and went into a small, very simple baozi and jiaozi (steamed bun and dumpling) restaurant. I had soup and some bean sprouts. Entire meal was about $1.25 and simply delicious.
Dalia continues to amaze us with her curiosity, her abilities and her sweetness – giving me her stuffed elephant, giving her bottle to her stuffed yang yang, running up to waitresses to be held, and waving to bellman. In recent days the little panther has devoured the peaceful buddha just when the parents are most exhausted. And in the last 24 hours she has eaten bananas, rice cereal and hard-boiled eggs. Mama is overjoyed. She is so comfortable with us.
Thank you again for your emails and your welcoming words to Dalia. We are off visit the Yellow River, the water wheels (used for irrigation), have a quick bite then to Guangzhou. Dalia's official medical visit for her U.S. visa is tomorrow.
Love,
Dina and Tal