Precious photos

Some of you know that our adoption story is a little different than most Chinese adoptions.  

Here's a little background info.  :)  When Sarah was just six weeks old, she was transferred from her province orphanage to New Day Foster Home (on the outskirts of Beijing).  At New Day, she received excellent care and had surgery to repair her cleft lip.

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know how we feel about New Day.  New Day lovingly cares for special needs children and provides life saving surgery and therapy for them before they are adopted.

While at New Day, Sarah was placed with a foster family.  When we traveled to China to bring Sarah home, we were blessed to visit New Day, meet some of the amazing staff and kids, and also meet Sarah's foster parents.

This is the photo of us with Sarah's foster parents. (We were jetlagged and incredibly excited and nervous.  We hadn't met Sarah yet and the entire experience was both beautiful and overwhelming at the same time!)

During our meeting with Sarah's foster parents, I tried to express my deep gratitude to them for loving and taking such good care of Sarah.  And of course I couldn't say that without crying a puddle of tears.  Sarah's foster mom was also teary as she asked us if we could send her a family photo when we returned to home.
I told her of course we would send pictures! 

And so I try to keep my promise and send family photos to New Day at least once a year.  I got some ready to send this February:

... and just this week I got an email from Karen (New Day director-- she is truly an angel on earth) saying that the pictures had arrived.  And better yet, Karen also sent us new pictures of Sarah's foster parents!

As I sit here typing, Sarah just came in and said, "There's Yeh Yeh (Grandpa) and Nai Nai (Grandma)!" and then skipped off again.   I'm so grateful that we have this connection for her. 

And as for me, even though we speak different languages and only met for a brief time, I feel a very strong connection to this sweet Chinese couple.  I'm not a "well traveled" person, but in my limiited travels, I will say that I have discovered that although we live different lives, people everywhere are more alike than different.  We want the same things, and we have many of the same worries, hopes and dreams.   And I treasure the opportunity we have to be a small part of this family's life.