Orphanage and Foster Family Visit - Part 2

We left the foster family’s home and headed towards to the old orphanage building. About two years ago, the orphanage moved into a new building, but Maelyn never lived there. She spent the first few months of her life at the old orphanage, before moving to her foster parents’ home.

The room where Maelyn’s referral photo was taken…

We made our way back to the orphanage and we were told that we would have the chance to meet the little girl that Maelyn lived with while at the foster home. She no longer lives with the foster family. Because of the new orphanage building, they changed the way the foster system runs. The foster families now live in small apartments within the orphanage itself and care for 4 to 5 children at a time. For Maelyn’s foster family, moving into the orphanage was not an option, as their son and grandsons live with them.

After four years of living with the family, the orphanage moved Maelyn’s foster sister into the orphanage, about six months ago. Both parents and child were devastated. My heart simply broke for the little girl that has had to go through that. Without having even met her, I wanted to scoop her up and take her home. I just kept thinking that that could have so easily been Maelyn.

Maelyn didn’t seem to recognize her foster sister, but she did recognize Maelyn. We left after a few minutes of visiting with her, with a heavy heart.

We joined the director and many of the staff members for lunch. We were welcomed with dish after dish of wonderful food. They also showed us the banner that they had made for Maelyn and they gave it to her as a gift.

After lunch we headed back up the director’s office and we were given a chance to look through Maelyn’s file. We were really hoping to find new information – anything at all. Although, I was silently hoping and praying for a note from her first parents or the outfit she was found in. The piece of information that we did find was her baby footprint – so cute! The rest of the paperwork was simply the paperwork that we had to complete for her adoption.

The director offered to copy the file for us – what a gift!

Before we left on our adventure, quite a few families sent me picture updates of their Shangrao children to pass on to the orphanage and foster families. I gave the package to the director and the workers started shouting and yelling – they were so excited to see pictures of the children they helped care for. One worker ran to get the foster mothers of those in the pictures. It was a tremendous sight to see – the children were so loved and the staff genuinely enjoys receiving the updates.

We said many goodbyes and headed back to the hotel to rest and absorb the enormity of the day. We couldn’t believe our good fortune and we are so thankful for the information that we were able to find for Maelyn.