Our Day

WOW! This may be long so bear with me. First of all let me explain the pictures. The first one is of us in Yulin today. The one of all 3 girls is from last night eating lollipops- Kate thought that was good! The final picture is where my post begins. We drove to Yulin City today and although it was long, it was well worth it. We drove miles and miles past rice fields with workers working the fields. That is an amazing task- so everytime you eat rice, remember those men and women who are doing some back breaking work providing it. Also, we saw water buffalo and for those of you who are Veggie Fans, this caused Drew to break out in the "Water Buffalo Song." Then as we got closer into Yulin, our thoughts became more focused. For you see, it was one year ago to the day that Kate was brought to the orphanage. So today was very powerful and emotional for that reason alone. As we rode along, I could not help but wonder how that mom felt that night. Was she alone? Was that drive one of the longest in her life? Was anyone there to comfort her breaking heart? Then, as we walked around Yulin City, I found myself looking in the eyes of the women, wondering if I was looking at the birth mother or relatives of our daughter. We then drove to the "town square" so to speak and met the foster family. They were so great with Kate. Kate smiled when she saw them and the mom immediately began fixing her hair in these little pigtails. Kate immediately began pointing out her "jie jies" as if she were proudly introducing her big sisters to this family. It was so funny. We took many pictures and got to see two other little girls who are being adopted by Lifeline families. Drew and I had the opportunity to thank the foster family for taking such excellent care of our Kate. Then, the visit to the orphanage. Sadly, Guangxi does not allow people to go inside the orphanages so we were not allowed inside. But, we learned that the children are on the 3rd floor while the senior adults were on the bottom two floors. Kate was at a social welfare institute which covers babies to senior adults. Several of the caretakers were looking out the windows calling for Kate- they seemed excited to see her. We then went to the main gate which is the third picture I posted. This is where Kate was found on April 19, 2005 and here she is on April 19, 2006 with her forever family in the exact spot. So I post it with such grateful hearts, such thanksgiving and celebration. And again, as we drove away, I saw a deeper message.... So, that photo is one of my favorites from the entire trip.
How did Kate do? She did great. She came right back to me from the foster family and fell asleep in my arms. She did have 3 episodes while napping where she would scream and not be fully awake- like a small night terror, but did okay. Then she would not let Drew hold her in the car after we left the orphanage. She just wanted mama. But, after she got out of the car, she was back to her happy self- happy with Drew or me. We are thankful that she found comfort in my arms today. The girls are asleep and have had a great day. We have some down time tomorrow. We get her passport tomorrow evening and then to Guangzhou on Friday morning. On the lighter side:
What we have learned so far on this trip:
*we are really good at boiling water to brush our teeth, etc.
*kate may be little, but she will hold her own just fine in this family
*there is much humor in having two potty- trainING children half way across the world-some pictures we can't post ha!
Thanks again for all the prayers. I don't know that I could ever adequately describe what we saw or felt today. My post does not do any of it "justice" and I apologize for that. It is truly just slowly sinking in.