A return visit

This summer we had the amazing privilege to return to Emma's orphanage. This time we were only visitors. Many have asked us if we were going there to pick up another child. If only it were that simple! We were given a warm and hearty welcome. The directors treated us like family. They gave Emma gifts. They let us play with the children for a long time and they treated us to a delicious lunch. They sent us home with an extra special gift (but that too is another post.)

This is where Emma spent the first three years of her life.

Langfang SWI

The outside isn't much to look at, but the inside is filled with colorful walls, fun toys and equipment, loving caretakers... and children waiting for families.

The woman on the left is one of the directors. The women on the right cared for Emma since she was a baby.

Look at that smile!

Selfies are fun for everyone

lunch time for the littles

8x10s of all the children who have been adopted from their orphanage

Emma was especially interested in returning to see her friend "Rui Rui". She's never really stopped talking about him since she was adopted. We've always known there was a special bond between the two of them. Before going, we talked about how if he was there, it would be good to see him. But that if he wasn't, that might be good too, because hopefully that meant he had been adopted and was now in a family. Well, he was there. And she followed him around the whole time. 

Abundant smiles

 Sometimes he acted like he too was excited to be around Emma and sometimes he ran away and acted like he didn't care, or maybe he enjoyed being chased. He doesn't talk much. I know he enjoyed the attention. Emma wasn't too interested in saying much, until we had to leave...

Goodbye happened over lunch. 

Mark was busy with Elsie and so I was navigating this emotional moment on my own. She turned to me with a serious look and said, "Mom, why hasn't Rui Rui been adopted?" Tears. Immediate tears. I didn't know what to say. I think I said, "That's a hard question to answer, honey." And we both cried and she didn't want to leave. And the rest of the day she was asking me if we could adopt him. We wish we could, but we can't.

She was sad when we left...

I was sad too. Back in our hotel room that night I cried and cried. Tears for these sweet little ones who desperately want to be loved. Don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful facility. They have resources that many orphanages don't have and we can see improvements they've made in the three years since we'd been there. They're using their resources to benefit these kids and that's such a special gift to these children. Still, my friend has a saying, "Kids need families." And they do, they each do. And so I cried for them, growing up in an institution with hired workers to care for them and not growing up with a mother and father who love and delight in them. And I cried for me too, wondering if God has another adoption in our future.  It's a complicated question, but one we keep asking because kids keep growing up without a mom and dad and babies continue to be abandoned. 

This is right at the gate of the orphanage, it's one of the "baby boxes" that you may have read about in the news. Men and women wishing to abandon their babies can do so here, in hopes that the baby will be safer than abandoning him/her in some other location.  It's all so sad. 

Would you pray with me that we would find our place in God's story for these children?