The Place

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 blog while I was in country, I'm going to take the opportunity to reflect on different aspects of the trip in this space over the next few days.  

First up, The Place:

I will be intentionally vague about geographic location and names of places.  Luckily, those aren't the important details anyway.  For those who haven't caught on yet, I had the opportunity to return to the orphanage where our son, Luke, spent the first 2 years of his life.  Many adoptive families see their child's orphanage on their initial trip in country to get their child (which we did), and a good number also return with their child when they are older to visit the location (which we still hope to do).  However, very few are invited IN, truly IN, to the orphanage.  Through a US non-profit working with a local Chinese non-profit, I had the opportunity to do just that.  I spent 5 entire days seeing, experiencing, and helping with the day-in and day-out work of the orphanage.  Our primary role was to go as educators - to provide medical and developmental education to the staff, but that only took up part of our days. The rest of the time provided opportunities to love on the staff and care for the children. I gained so much valuable insight on what Luke's days looked like for his first two years.  I now know why he is a slow eater when we put a big meal in front of him (They eat small, frequent meals/snacks throughout the day; never a true American size "meal".), and why he asks for help to finish his bites (the Ayi's quickly helped any child that lagged behind the rest).  I also know why he is a good sharer and why he is quick to hold another child's hand when asked. 

I've used my medical training to serve other orphans and disadvantaged populations around the world, but to do it here was different. I'm pretty sure I took away more knowledge about my own son than I imparted on them about all of the children in their care.  

Besides the fact that this is where Luke was raised, this place is also extremely special in its own right.  Please ask me about how He is known here sometime!