Friday, July 4, 2008

The Kindness of Children

This morning at breakfast three little Chinese girls and their American father, mother and grandmother were walking around to each table where newly adopted children were seated. Two of the girls were eight year old twins that were adopted from this province when they were 10 months old and other girl was their older sister (via adoption). These girls were handing each child a large, beautiful Gund stuffed animal lovey. As the girls were doing so, their father was explaining why. The family has returned to China for a heritage visit. In preparation for this journey the three girls had been raising money for the last year-and-a-half to buy several of these loveys so that they can deliver them to two orphanages. Since the girls themselves had been given a similar item by their parents many years ago and they still went to bed every night with these very precious loveys, they decided that they also wanted all the children that were in the restaurant that morning who just found their forever families to have one also.

The girls’ grandmother stood back and watch everything take place. I walked up to talk to her and as she fought back her tears she expressed how proud she was of them and wonderful it was to see so many orphans with their forever families.

Next to the experience we had Monday when Chloe was placed in our arms for the first time, this has to be the most moving experience of this trip. These girls worked to raise their OWN money so they could give something special to the children in the orphanages. And it was so touching that they also wanted the lucky little girls who found their new homes to have a lovey also so they can feel safe and secure was too emotional for words.

Here is a picture of the three very sweet girls with Chloe and Ted.

Today we were given Chloe’s Chinese passport. Tomorrow morning we head to Guangzhou for the last leg of our journey. We will be there until July 10 in order to complete the process of Chloe becoming a U.S. citizen and so we can obtain her American travel visa.

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