Orphanage Visit

Thanks so much for all of your prayers for our visit to Lily’s orphanage in Dongguan. The day was perfect and we couldn’t have planned a better day.  From the ride to the orphanage all the way to our flight home…it was amazing!  We were so thankful we got to go to visit the place she spent the 1st 22 months of her life.  I left there with such a thankful heart for the dear people who had taken care of my daughter for almost 2 years.

  

From the moment we walked into the orphanage, people with great big smiles on their faces were calling out “Xiu Li!  Xiu Li!” (that’s Lily’s Chinese name).  They were so glad to see her and their love for her shined through them.  What a great welcome to us!  I was very impressed that the random ayi (caretaker) walking through the lobby would know her….they care for 200-300 children and are in charge of another 500-600 who are in foster care.  They also have 300 employees!!  

As soon as we got there we went up to a small receiving area on the 2nd floor and meet several of her ayis and even one of her close friends, Fei Fei. 

We asked her ayis all about her personality and her likes and dislikes.

 

They were so loving towards her and I really could tell they were so thankful that she was being adopted.  A couple of them got teary eyed while playing with her.  I was so thankful that we speak Chinese and were able to talk directly to them instead of through an interpreter. 

This is one of the nurses that was there the day that Lily entered the orphanage.  An orphanage doctor is who named her.

We also were able to meet some other children who are about to be adopted and got to take pictures and videos of them to send to their adoptive parents.  It was fun to be able to hug those kiddos and tell them that their parents were coming quickly and that they loved them.

 

This is me and Lily next to her old bed.

We also were able to find out some about Lily’s surgery.  It is pretty crazy but our sweet little baby’s surgery was just on August 10th of this year!!  Our precious Lily was in the hospital for 48 days preparing for and recovering from open heart surgery.  It is amazing how quickly she has recovered.  The more I’ve thought about the details of surgery, I’ve just been so thankful for a lot of things.  Thankful that we have a daughter who came to us well, for the orphanage being willing to spend their funding and donations to pay for her surgery, thankful that God chose to leave us completely out of it so that He could get the Glory, thankful that He really held her when I wasn’t even aware she needed special holding, thankful that God spared us the stress and worry (and possible trips to see her) of even knowing what was going on. 

 

Above all…we left the orphanage that day with a very happy little girl who got to say good bye to her friends and caretakers, and parents with very thankful hearts to see how well our Lily was cared for. For the Lord is so good to us!