Comments From Parents That
Have Adopted From Hengfeng
From one of the adopting mothers: "We left Chicago O'Hare on Jan. 6th and arrived in Beijing the evening of Jan 7th. We flew to Nanchang on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 9th. We were part of a travel group of 8 families, however, our daughter was the only child from Heng Feng. We stayed at the Lakeview Hotel which is where our daughters were placed with us the same evening we arrived. Our daughter, Jenna (Cen Qin) was brought by the orphanage director via a four train ride. We met her at approximately 7:45 that evening and were able to spend about twenty minutes learning about Jenna from the orphanage director through our translator. We were told that Jenna had only lived at the orphanage since May 1999 at which time she was 18 months old. Considering that she was only in the orphanage for 8 months and probably lived with her family for the first 18 months of her life, she has adjusted to her new family much better than we had anticipated, especially since she was 26 months old when placed with us a little over a month ago. We are certain that she is calling out for her "auntie" or caregiver when she wakes up during the night (which is becoming much less frequent) or when she is upset. But she calls me Mama and points to her sister and daddy when asked where they are. She has had a tremendous appetite. The buffet served three times a day at the Lakeview Hotel was just the thing for her. There is practically no food she does not like. Jenna did well during our stay in Nanchang and even tolerated her first airplane ride to Guangzhou without much fuss. She got along well with the other girls in our group, who are all younger than she is (from 10 months to 21 months). Our consulate appointment was on Jan 18th and we left Guangzhou on the morning of Jan 20 for Hong Kong and later that morning flew to Los Angeles and arrived back home in Chicago at 6:30 pm Thursday, Jan 20th. I was amazed at how well Jenna did on the long flight home. She fussed a little at the beginning but then settled in and ate, played and slept and flirted with the people in front or in back of us on the plane. Many family members and friends were waiting at the airport in Chicago to welcome Jenna home. She loves her big sister and wants to do everything she does. Jenna has a great sense of humor and her giggles melt our hearts." (JC, a. 1/00)
And from another adopting mom: "Our daughter and three other girls were from Hengfeng SWI in Hengfeng, Jiangxi. It's a small, very rural, and very poor SWI up in the mountains. It only just recently has been referring children. We were not able to visit the SWI itself as it's very remote (about four hours away from Nanchang). The director was a very nice woman who really loved the babies and they seemed to know and respond to her as well. According to her there are only 30 kids in this SWI. So it's fairly small." (BP, a. 10/00)
And from an adoptive dad: We recently adopted a little girl, Cen Qian, from Heng Feng. We traveled with Family Outreach International out of Ottawa, Ontario from January 12th to 24th, 2002 and picked up our children on the 14th. Our total group consisted of 14 families, of which four went to Nanchang and received their babies from Heng Feng. Our impression of Heng Feng concurs with the previous reports, in that it seems to be a relatively poor institute but the Director and staff take a very real and caring interest in the children. Within our total group, we would have to say that the Heng Feng babies were overall the healthiest and best-developed. Our most recent information is that Heng Feng now has 68 children. I know that in most cases families cannot choose their babies nor the orphanages from which they come but, if you are referred to Heng Feng, we believe you can feel comfortable that your baby has been well cared for. Our daughter is doing wonderfully - she has been back in Canada for almost three weeks - is healthy, eating well, walking more and more steadily and really starting to enjoy her life here. It's an incomparable experience, both for the parents and for the children. (2/02, TD)
From a mom adopting a 13 month old in We've been back for six days now. Things are going very well and our daughter has adjusted to the family. She learned to walk while we were in Beijing. She weighs 22 pounds and has no delays in motor or cognitive skills. She has already learned to say five words. She could speak a bit of chinese, our guide told us twice of the things she had said. We did get to question Ms Ye Shui Lan the director of the orphanage. She was very nice and answered our questions. She said that the name Cen was a famous mountain in Heng Feng. I also found that the children from this orphanage were not underweight and motor skills were quite good. (JT)
Please e-mail me at webmaster@gurrad.com if you have any additional information or if your child is from here and you would like to post a picture here or other contact information.