Trip Summary - Sammie's Finding Place

On Saturday, October 29th, the weather cleared and was only a little cool. Neil and I took this day to explore Sammie’s “Finding Place”. This is the place where she was abandoned when she was 11 days old. Sammie’s Finding Place was under a bridge in Changsha. It was a very large (road) bridge, and underneath is a parking lot, an intersection, small sections of gardens along the sides of the streets, and the streets are lined with old and new China (typical-looking Chinese establishments as well as a Kentucky Fried Chicken and a McDonald’s!). Again, we spent a few hours here absorbing the reality of where our little Sammie had come from. Almost like from under a cabbage leaf! (Please forgive the humour, but sometimes it helps to lighten the morbidness of it all. We spent many hours crying over the abandonment of our little girl and all the other little girls and the lives most of them will lead. A lucky few escape by international adoption. And, trust me, you don’t want to hear the stories of those abandoned and not found by honest folk.) While at Sammie’s Finding Place, we took many pictures of this area for her Lifebook, as well as getting a bag of dirt and a smooth rubbing stone from this place where she was found. Those will go into her keepsake box should she some day need to see or touch something tangible connected with her past.