Now it is my turn to blog on our day at New Day Foster Home. The morning started by trying to figure out how to make us and our luggage fit into a car the size of my Corolla for the drive over from Langfang. Needless to say we figured out a way to make it all fit, Elisa & Mike started commenting it was like when we were younger and were trying to figure out how many people we could fit into a Pinto or VW bug. The trip there was actually through villages and the driver took many of the “back” roads. So we were able to see who the majority of the Chinese people live. You see very proud people doing mundane tasks that we could not image having to do each and every day. There are people whose job is to sweep a given section of roadway with a handmade broom or shovel dirt from one place to another. The majority of the time they are in the fields preparing them for the spring planting. They plant trees everywhere and we were told that is to try to hide the common people from views from the major roadways.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.
Love Now it is my turn to blog on our day at New Day Foster Home. The morning started by trying to figure out how to make us and our luggage fit into a car the size of my Corolla for the drive over from Langfang. Needless to say we figured out a way to make it all fit, Elisa & Mike started commenting it was like when we were younger and were trying to figure out how many people we could fit into a Pinto or VW bug. The trip there was actually through villages and the driver took many of the “back” roads. So we were able to see who the majority of the Chinese people live. You see very proud people doing mundane tasks that we could not image having to do each and every day. There are people whose job is to sweep a given section of roadway with a handmade broom or shovel dirt from one place to another. The majority of the time they are in the fields preparing them for the spring planting. They plant trees everywhere and we were told that is to try to hide the common people from views from the major roadways.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl named who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl named who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.
Love to Now it is my turn to blog on our day at New Day Foster Home. The morning started by trying to figure out how to make us and our luggage fit into a car the size of my Corolla for the drive over from Langfang. Needless to say we figured out a way to make it all fit, Elisa & Mike started commenting it was like when we were younger and were trying to figure out how many people we could fit into a Pinto or VW bug. The trip there was actually through villages and the driver took many of the “back” roads. So we were able to see who the majority of the Chinese people live. You see very proud people doing mundane tasks that we could not image having to do each and every day. There are people whose job is to sweep a given section of roadway with a handmade broom or shovel dirt from one place to another. The majority of the time they are in the fields preparing them for the spring planting. They plant trees everywhere and we were told that is to try to hide the common people from views from the major roadways.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl named who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.
When we finally arrived at New Day, it is in the middle of a small village. However, once you are inside the walls you begin to feel as if you are not in China anymore. We were greeted by smiling faces of people (Karen, Grace, Doug and Carrie) who I have been e-mailing or had seen pictures of. It was nice to be able to finally be able to give them a great big personally hug of a greeting. It was like seeing old friends not strangers. Once all our items were stowed away in the guest house we proceeded to the pre-school were all the kids were awaiting our arrival. Needless to say there was great trepidation on my part to see our new daughter for the first time face to face. Like we had expected she peaked around the corner to one look, saw the wheels turning and then retreated to the comfort of arms that she knew. It was all the other kids who greeted us open arms, they immediately wanted to reach out and touch us to feel the people they had seen in Leah’s picture book. As the morning progressed Leah was doing her best to keep some separation between us but at the same time keeping her eyes on our every move. After we went outside to play, she warmed up to Hannah and James and played with them. Then she gave me a moment I will never forget, they had gotten out the baby bunnies to show Hannah and James and Leah was trying her best to figure out a way to hold it but was scared of it at the same time. She allowed me to show her how to hold the bunny like a baby cradled in your arms and rock it back and forth. The light bulb went off, she understood “baby, rocking” at first she still did not want to but the urge finally overtook the fear, she began to hold it and rock the bunny. Her smile of conquering her fear was overwhelming then, she said “Momma” and motioned for me to follow her, so she could show me the other bunnies and the goat. That was it a brief moment but it was a great glimpse of the beginning of our journey to Momma and daughter.
It was then lunch time and we were showed the dining hall where Leah at first sat down with the kids but then was asked to sit with her new family, she did not hesitate and was thrilled that our food was different that on the kids table and her eyes grew real big when Hannah brought her an orange drink from the store. Of course it took us awhile to realize that she needed a cup and had no idea how to drink out of the bottle. After lunch it was Jeff’s turn to have his moment, the kids were playing in the courtyard a game and Jeff joined in, when you fell off the rope you had to perform in the center of the circle so Jeff fell off and he persuaded Leah to help him sing the “Monkeys on the Bed song”.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with some quite time with Leah and her Ayis and us alone in the family room. Being the girlie girl Leah is she found Hannah’s high heel shoes and immediately was enamored with the noise they made on the wood floors. Then we were given another gift, New Day had just had a new baby boy brought to the center and they said Jeff and I could be the ones to name him his English name he will be known by while he lives at New Day – so we named him Jameson. We were expected to see a small petite little boy since his difference was a heart defect, for we had just been holding the most beautiful little 18 month old little girl named who is also a heart baby. She was so light and petite but full of smiles. However, Jameson was a Buddha boy – chubby cheeks and big crocodile tears. Since we were given the gift of giving him a name, we are now responsible for praying for him each day and ask all who are reading this blog to please put Jameson on your prayer lists along with all the other children at New Day who are trying to get stronger so they can receive their first or second or third surgeries.
Love to all - Kim and Jeff
You made me cry "Momma"! I hope you are teaching Leah Hope not to be afraid of crazy aunts that are going to hug her to pieces! Love you all, Aunt Angie
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