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Saturday, March 4, 2006
Tomorrow we fly to Nanchang to meet Zoe! After a year and a
half of imagining this moment, we will finally be able to hold
her in our arms. We are excited beyond words, mixed with a few
jitters of new parenthood. We are praying that the more than 8
hour journey from Ruijin to Nanchang will go quickly for Zoe
and that she will have an easy transition to her new life with
us. It is so amazing that “gotcha day” is actually tomorrow!
This morning we were woken up by our alarm clock. We are on
China time! We spent the morning today volunteering in a
foster home for children preparing for and recovering from
surgeries. It was wonderful to see the children in such a
caring place and they were all absolutely beautiful. The
director who founded the home is an amazing woman. She is so
loving with the kids and was very open in talking to us and
answering our many questions. We spent most of our time
playing with the children. A little boy with a heart condition
had fun throwing plastic shapes with Steve and showed us very
plainly that he doesn’t like to swallow noodles. An 11 month
old girl who doesn’t have use of her thumbs spent most of the
morning painstakingly picking up papers and a plastic cup with
her first two fingers. Her concentration and determination to
pick up the objects and try to shake them was absolutely
beautiful. An almost four year old with a repaired heart
defect showed us how she was beginning to learn to write her
numbers and was both charming and stubborn. Our heart was
especially taken with a six month old baby who has a repaired
heart defect and is working on putting on weight and gaining
strength. Her eyes were so expressive and she looked deep into
our eyes with such trust and longing that we carried her away
with us in our hearts and have talked quite a bit about her
tonight. This morning made us so ready to have Zoe in our arms
and left us with a sense of just how beautiful the spirits of
the children we played with are in spite of all they have been
through and what they are now struggling with. Or perhaps it
is that which has made the beauty of their spirits even more
apparent to see.
We spent the afternoon at the Temple of Heaven and the Lama
Temple. The Temple of Heaven itself was closed for
renovations, but it was a beautifully sunny and warm day today
and walking in the park felt wonderful. In China, people often
meet in the parks to play Chinese chess, sing, dance, do Tai
Chi, or play instruments together. It was fun to walk along
and see the sense of community everyone there was sharing and
to watch so many people enjoying themselves. The Lama Temple
was peaceful in spite of many people coming today to burn
incense and pray, as today is an auspicious day to come to the
Temple.
Please share a few of our pictures from today. The first shows
the founder of the foster home with two of the children. The
next has Steve holding the baby recovering from heart surgery
– one of the few moments Amy let her out of her arms. The girl
in the next picture was born with only one bone in each arm
and thus does not have use of her thumbs, but is overcoming
that nicely. Then on to the Temple of Heaven and some local
people having fun – traditional dancers and a musician –
within the long corridor. The final picture is the best we
could get of the Temple of Heaven as it undergoes renovation.
Tomorrow we will fly to Nanchang and meet Zoe around dinner
time. At this time tomorrow she will finally be in our arms!
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