Priceless Photos

Six years ago, on April 6, 2002, someone left my daughter, at the base of the Songtai Mountain in Wenzhou, China. That mountain is really a small hill. At the base of that hill sits a church and beside that building is a small market.

Today I came across some photos of that finding place. They were taken for us by a couple who has adopted several children from the same SWI (Wenzhou City Children's Social Welfare Institute). They had returned to China and the SWI for a visit and they offered to take photos for us. They are just priceless pieces of Grace's life.

I had the idea to make a collage of the photos, with one of Gracie in the middle. Lo and behold I had a frame, that I bought years ago, but never found any photos that I wanted to make a collage out of...until now!

I showed Gracie the photos and asked her if she knew what they were. She said no, she did not. We've shown them to her many times in the past but obviously she just was too young to process the information. After I put the pics in the collage Gracie asked if she could take it to school to show everyone.

When the other children saw the collage they all had questions about where they had been found. Matthew wanted to know where "Grace's chinese house was". He still does not have the understanding that he, Grace and Analiese were orphans. He takes what he has now and generalizes that he, and the girls, must have had the same things in China but he just doesn't remember what it looked like or who his parents were.

Grace, after being home almost six years, is asking some questions. The other day she asked how she got her birthday; how did the people in China know when she was born? We explained that they didn't know but the doctor made the best guess he could based on how many teeth she had, her size and whether she was walking and other things like that. Grace thought about that for a moment and announced, "I like my birthdate, it's close to summer but not so close that I can't celebrate at school." And that was the end of that conversation.

We will continue to talk about the children's beginnings and answer the questions as they are asked. Hopefully we can help the children make some sense out of what happened to them as babies and toddlers.

When I tucked Analiese into bed tonight she hugged me and said, "I'll always have your love". Yes Analiese, you will ALWAYS have my love.