Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pearl's Forever Family Day



Two years ago today, Pete and I brought Chloe, at 2.5 yrs old, and Daisy (a former exchange daughter from Beijing) with us into a small conference room at the orphanage in Chengdu China. This was the nicest building I could imagine in which an orphanage would be housed, which is probably why they allowed foreign visitors on the premises.

Not even a minute had passed when the orphanage staff brought in a tiny little girl, clutching a photo album, wearing a sheepish grin. Without hesitation, she walked right up to Pete and said "Baba", then she looked at me and said "Mama", and then she turned to face Chloe and said "MeiMei". I was pretty shocked at how brave and smart this little 3 year old child was. She looked so thin that I didn't recognize her from her referral photos.

The only time she cried was when we went to get in the van to leave. I think she was expecting us to come live with her. She had proudly shown us around her orphanage to see her teacher, her classmates, and her bed. The tears were short-lived and we have been on an adventure with this sweet little girl ever since, now our daughter forever.

6 comments:

Donna said...

What a sweet story! I guess I didn't realize that we were in China at the same time!

Congrats on your 2nd anniversary!

Donna

Ladyblog said...

still the same adorable grin, i see! Your girls are both beatiful.
~Rebecca

Somewhere In The Sun said...

Happy Family Day! She has changed so much. That dress in the updated referral photo looks like you could have made it!
I love the story of brave she was!

~Lynn

Kay Bratt said...

That is amazing that she called on all of you from the first moment...what a pretty family you have.

Just hoppin' through.

Kay

day by day said...

Happy Forever Family Day!!! I love the photo collage....so fun to be able to watch them grow and change!

Jill W said...

Happy Family day! We were also impressed with the Chengdu SWI when we met Macie there.