Emotional visit to her homeland — and Chinese orphanage

Source: eastbayri.com

Grassy Plain Road resident Sara Emaus, left, talks with the children at the Yi Yang orphanage in China in June.

BARRINGTON — On a June afternoon in the small town of Yi Yang, Hunan Province, China, Sara Emaus stood in the old orphanage she had traveled thousands of miles to see. In the room with her were several children who were happily playing with the coloring books and crayons that Sara and her mother, Sue, had brought for them that day. They looked like her when she was that age: Black hair, tan skin and dark-brown, almond-shaped eyes.

To Sara, however, the orphanage may as well have been on another planet compared to the home she knows back on Grassy Plain Road in Barrington. The faces were different, the languages foreign. Growing up, Sara used to tell her mother that she was Chinese. But now that she was in China, the 12-year-old felt more American than ever.

The reality was that Sara herself was once a baby in that orphanage. She was adopted by Ms. Emaus before she could even begin to remember her brief life there, but Sara's curiosity about her heritage led her to this far-flung orphanage in the heart of the country, the culmination of the Emaus' three-week tour of China.

"I didn't know what I was going to find out [at first]," Sara said. Now, she wants to return again for her graduation present — "it was such a letdown coming home," she said.

"It was a really good experience, to see the culture and see where I was from."

Planning the trip

According to Ms. Emaus, she and Sara had been planning the trip for at least three or four years.

"I had always wanted to take her to China," she said. "As the years went on, it became more and more meaningful for her."

Ms. Emaus, a physician's assistant at Miriam Hospital in Providence, always had a fascination with Chinese culture. She admired not only the country's distinct art and fashion, but also its emphasis on the importance of family and respect for elders.

"I was very excited to go back with [Sara]," she said of her return trip to the country. "I had no nervousness, just pure excitement. I love everything about it."

Sara, too, was excited, though she was a little more nervous to be flying nearly 15 hours to another country for the first time. The trip to the orphanage was also on her mind.

"I was a little nervous to be going back," she said. "I wasn't sure of the people there, I wasn't sure what it was going to be like."

First, however, the Emauses were taken on a whirlwind tour of the country, with stops in several major Chinese cities. For most of the trip, Sue and Sara were with a guided tour operated by an agency that facilitates adoptive family trips. Like the Emauses, many of the other families were also bringing their sons or daughters to China for the first time.

Sara noted how different everyone looked from what she normally sees in America.

"They all looked the same — they looked like me," she said of the Chinese people. "It was actually kind of cool. I've never been in a place where the people looked like me."

She and Ms. Emaus also had to adjust to other Chinese customs while touring the cities. The food, for example, was a bit of an adventure.

"I wasn't sure what I was eating half the time," Ms. Emaus said. "But it was still good."

One of the most educational experiences for the Emauses was their visit to a classroom in the village of Hutong. Sara was actually able to help teach the fifth-graders during their English lesson that day.

When she walked in, Sara said the students "all started whispering to each other." The student she was working with seemed to relish the chance to practice her English, however — Sara said she kept saying "thank you" to her during the lesson.

"I got the feeling she thought it was really fun," Sara said. "She was smiling at me."

Sara also learned about some of the historical consequences of China's tumultuous past hundred years. While visiting a Hutong family's home, for example, the Emauses learned that the house's main courtyard was taken by the government during the rule of Mao Zedong because it was "too big."

Most of the time, however, Sara was exploring destinations such as the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, where she got to fly kites with the other girls on the trip.

"It was neat getting to see another culture," she said.

"She and I were on a high while we were there," Ms. Emaus added. "It was so educational, so emotional."

Closure

When the Emauses arrived in Hunan Province and departed on the two-hour drive to Yi Yang, however, both mother and daughter began to feel the weight of their trip.

"That was really the only point that I was nervous," Ms. Emaus said. "That was the slowest driver we had in all of China."

After their arrival in town, Sara and her mother met with the orphanage's director and several other staff members for lunch at a local restaurant. At first, the meal was relegated to mostly silent eating — "they were very quiet and reserved," Ms. Emaus said. After having a few traditional toasts, however, they "just opened up."

"It was a good thing," she said. "They started asking more questions about Sara."

Sara, meanwhile, was too struck by the experience to ask many questions of her own.

"I think she was too awed by the whole thing to even think," Ms. Emaus said.

After her visit to the orphanage, Sara became more aware of the reality of the situation.

"I wished I could bring [the kids] home with me," she said. "I kind of felt bad for them — they didn't have a family."

The Emauses were encouraged by the attention given to the children, though, and Ms. Emaus remarked that they "seemed really happy and well-taken care of."

"All the caretakers seemed really nice," Sara added.

On the return trip home, Sara reflected on her visit. Weeks later, she still wouldn't be able to put into words the feelings she felt in her three weeks there. But Ms. Emaus believes that her daughter sees her world in a different light now.

"I think she probably feels more American now than before she went," she said. Sara, of course, did return to her American life of ballet practices and violin lessons. But as she enters the seventh grade at Barrington Middle School next month, she'll take with her a new appreciation for where she really came from.

"In America, there's not many people that look the same," she said. Now she knows that behind her face is an entire country's history.

By Scott O'Connell

soconnell@eastbaynewspapers.com