china trip : changde swi visit

It was an emotionally charged trip today, to Phebe's orphanage.

I should mention that Phebe is the best little sleeper ever! She sleeps from 8pm - 7am as well as a 2 hour nap in the early afternoon. This morning started out a little rough, Phebe eat well, but no smiles today. It's only day three, so we are trying to give her the space she needs. She doesn't cry much, but she does grunt a fair bit and she pushes all of us away from her, about 70% of the time. We're trying so hard to take is easy on her. Lilah told us last night that she doesn't like to see her little sister sad.

Anyway, we were picked up by our driver and guide at 8:30am and settled in for a long drive, 3 hours to Changde and 3 hours home again! Phebe did amazing on the drive, I was fully prepared for her having travel sickness, but that wasn't the case, thankfully. Our little trooper napped for over an hour each way and her big sister probably had more ipad time in one day, than she's had in six months. Ha!

We arrived at the orphanage at 11:30am and Phebe was very pleased to see her nanny again. They walked hand in hand, right into her little room. The nanny had rice prepared for her, for lunch. She is the sweetest and most warm lady, her smile could light up a room. It's so obvious that Phebe was loved by her, in a big way. It's also easy to see why our little girl is grieving the loss of this wonderful lady.

After Phebe eat two bowls of rice... yes, you read that right, she sat up on the little seat, opposite her nanny and downed two bowls of rice in less than 10 minutes! Our little girl can eat! Anyway, after that we headed next door to the little school that the special needs children attend. Phebe has also attended this school since Bonnie pulled a few strings, back in March! We met Phebe's best friend, Rocky, who obviously adores her - he will start attending the public school next Monday, he is super excited... so excited he's already wearing his backpack for the occasion! We met her two wonderful teachers, who obviously do so much for these children - they were making flowers today and they gave Phebe one, she was so very thrilled with it and wore it right up until she went to bed tonight. We also gave out the care packages we'd prepared for all the children, craft supplies for the school, toys for the children to share and gifts for the staff. It is hard to put into words the emotions we go through on a meeting like this. Words can't describe the gratitude we feel towards these people that cared for our daughter, for almost 2 years of her life. And words can't describe the emotions we feel about the children we leave behind. It is so very hard - so many of them capture a piece of your heart.

We heard little stories... like how Rocky followed Phebe out to the gate of the orphanage on Monday, the morning she left, just so he could say goodbye. How today was her Nanny's day off, but she came in just so she could see Phebe again. How Phebe cried for 20 days when she started attending the little school, back in March. We also met the lady that found her, outside the orphanage gates.

All of it was emotional. We cried happy, sad and thankful tears.

Afterwards, we took some of the staff out for lunch. It was so delicious. I'm not sure if I'm going to have a stomach left after all this spicy Hunan food, the hot pepper dishes are absolutely amazing!

After lunch, we came back to the orphanage to drop the staff off, we captured a few final group shots and then it was time to say goodbye. I had myself prepared, because Phebe did not come near us the whole time we were at the orphanage and restaurant, but she calmly got into the van with us and waved bye-bye to the staff. Her calmness was a huge answer to prayer and we know that only the Lord could have given her the peace she had in that moment.

We knew this wouldn't be an easy day. But for Phebe's sake, we knew we wanted to meet her nanny and the staff that took care of her. And to see and know where she lived for the first two years of her life. These are the memories that we can tell her about, one day.

********************************************************************

********************************************************************

********************************************************************

[ the flickr set is here ]