Gotcha DayNov 13,2005
Four years ago today we were introduced to
Elise Yang Zhu Livingston.
She lived for the first 9 months and 27 days in an orphanage in a "little" town of 2 million called Yangxi.Her orphanage was not nearly as nice as Caleb's. It is better than many. Three days after we met Ellie we took the 4 hour bus ride to Yangxi to see the little place she called home for nearly 10 months. The floors were cement. The beds were maybe a foot off the floor and consisted of little more than widely set bars and a board on the bottom. Nothing more. When we arrived the cribs had already been given to a new set of children. This area of the nursery was designated for the babies who would be adopted. A baby had fallen asleep and her nanny came and laid a rather large fleece blanket on top of her. Yangxi is located in the Guangdong province and is quite warm in November. I so wanted to fold that little blanket up and put it under her body. The orphanage workers of course recognized all of the babies that had been brought back to see their past home. They kindly showed us where each had slept. My heart pounded so rapidly in my chest when they pointed out Ellie's little crib. When they showed another couple in our group that their daughter had slept next to Ellie, I imagined how they must have been very close. Reaching through those bars and touching each other. I felt so sad to be taking her away from her little sister. So sad to be taking her away from her nanny whose eyes lit up as she spoke to me, obvious words of admiration I could not understand. She had loved my daughter. And now it was my turn. I think often of the women who tirelessly cared for my daughter, when her birth-parents and her eternal parents were not present to do so. She mourned the day they put her in my arms. That is what people do when they loose something. Even very little people.Such a spark of a person Ellie is. She is so unreserved in her love of life and people. My mom says she is just like me, but I like to think she learned this even before we met.
Happy Gotcha day Princess Ellie.
I LOVE you so.
Every year the people in our group send each other a "Happy Gotcha Day" e-mail complete with up-dated photos. I haven't received any yet today, but thought you would enjoy seeing some from years past. These are all children who lived with Ellie in the Yangxi Social Welfare Institute.
Four years ago today we were introduced to
Elise Yang Zhu Livingston.
She lived for the first 9 months and 27 days in an orphanage in a "little" town of 2 million called Yangxi.Her orphanage was not nearly as nice as Caleb's. It is better than many. Three days after we met Ellie we took the 4 hour bus ride to Yangxi to see the little place she called home for nearly 10 months. The floors were cement. The beds were maybe a foot off the floor and consisted of little more than widely set bars and a board on the bottom. Nothing more. When we arrived the cribs had already been given to a new set of children. This area of the nursery was designated for the babies who would be adopted. A baby had fallen asleep and her nanny came and laid a rather large fleece blanket on top of her. Yangxi is located in the Guangdong province and is quite warm in November. I so wanted to fold that little blanket up and put it under her body. The orphanage workers of course recognized all of the babies that had been brought back to see their past home. They kindly showed us where each had slept. My heart pounded so rapidly in my chest when they pointed out Ellie's little crib. When they showed another couple in our group that their daughter had slept next to Ellie, I imagined how they must have been very close. Reaching through those bars and touching each other. I felt so sad to be taking her away from her little sister. So sad to be taking her away from her nanny whose eyes lit up as she spoke to me, obvious words of admiration I could not understand. She had loved my daughter. And now it was my turn. I think often of the women who tirelessly cared for my daughter, when her birth-parents and her eternal parents were not present to do so. She mourned the day they put her in my arms. That is what people do when they loose something. Even very little people.Such a spark of a person Ellie is. She is so unreserved in her love of life and people. My mom says she is just like me, but I like to think she learned this even before we met.
Happy Gotcha day Princess Ellie.
I LOVE you so.
Every year the people in our group send each other a "Happy Gotcha Day" e-mail complete with up-dated photos. I haven't received any yet today, but thought you would enjoy seeing some from years past. These are all children who lived with Ellie in the Yangxi Social Welfare Institute.
11 comments:
Adorable. So glad she is part of the family. Aren't we lucky. I know she is lucky to have you and Scott!
Just maybe she was a soft and faint little star that now can shine brightly.
I appreciate the nice comments about the silly poem I wrote. If you feel others would enjoy it you of course have permission to forward it along. :)
What a beautiful story, and girl. I love adoption stories! I'll bet it was hard to not bring home all of those little ones.
Gotcha day, I love it. So glad you were brought to her. She is a perfect fit.
What a sweet and heart tearing post. I love it. and I laughed out loud for the chicken costume picture. That is the coolest haloween costume ever!!!
I also love Gotcha day. Have you found her little crib mate? Elise is a dolly. She may be able to join the wild angel club that my children belong to saucy sweet strong and silly children. They are so fun
Geesh! You write such good posts about your chilluns! Can't wait to hug her tight!
I absolutely Love it! Thank you so much for sharing about your beautiful, blessed daughter! She is simply adorable ;-)
What a wonderful post. Ellie is darling. Thank you for sharing this story.
What I thought I did leave a post earlier last week! I read it and didn't write. OOPs! I love gotcha day, that is great! I love that little spit fire of a girl. What a blessed little dolly!
What an inspiration this post is. Your sweet Ellie is such a miracle addition to your family. I love seeing the pictures of the other kids too. So awesome.
this was really cool
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