Lullaby for Luke

Many who know Luke's story and read the last post are probably pondering, "wait, she didn't mention the Ayi that Luke was so close with at the orphanage."  This is a woman that we were told over and  over again had a very close relationship with Luke.  She bought him a special outfit for the day he met us, and when he had to leave at the orphanage, and Kanhka had to take him out of her arms, was the only time he cried for the first month we knew him. And I mean, a heart wrenching cry... Luke called her Grandma in Mandarin (Lao Lao) so it seems only fitting that shortly after Luke left the orphanage, her daughter had a baby, and she had a new little one to call her Lao Lao.  Grandmothers from the father's side and the mother's side are called different names in Mandarin, and Lao Lao is the maternal side.  I learned this six month after we had been home, and we were able to Facetime this special woman.  At that point, I asked the person who was interpreting w...

As the Sparrow Fund website so eloquently states, the purpose of our trip was "to love and serve children, caregivers, and orphanage administrators, seeking to communicate in everything we do that they matter, that they are valuable, and that someone outside themselves is for them". In that triad, the caregivers and administrators are often overlooked. People mainly focus on the children, but forget the very important role these providers that stand "in the in-between" (between biological and adoptive families) play in the social, emotional, and developmental outcomes of these children.   The Sparrow Fund has worked hard to build long-standing, trusting relationships with the orphanage administrators.  Because of that relationship, we were invited in to do training with the staff.  The staff is mainly women who do not have high level, formal education, but they work extremely hard, with medical resident training hours (literally q4 overnight call shifts in ...

I've been home two days now and the sensation hasn't left.  This feeling of gratitude...and awe.  China as a country was no different than I had expected.  After all, I've "been there, done that" before.  But the trip. The mission. The people. The place...  I still stand in awe of what an amazing experience this trip was for me.  The unique opportunity to go back to where Luke is from and not only learn more about his first two years of life, but also use my knowledge and skills to help the staff and orphans currently there wasn't lost on me before I left. But the reality was so much BETTER than I could have IMAGINED.   (Luke's "wall photo" from his time at the orphanage.  Before you ask, we didn't know he had been given the English name "Micah" when we named him.  In reality, the orphanage staff do not use these names anyway.  He was Li Min, the characters on the second line)  Since I clearly failed at keeping up the...