-sign from outside the Philip Hayden Foundation/Chinese flag in focusWhile in China, we got to walk along the Great Wall, which I will blog about in the next post, but at Shepherd's Village (the name of the orphanage) I got to visit an even greater wall, in my opinion. There in the middle of the compound is a wall of handprints. Families can design a tile to celebrate a child's adoption. I was glad that it was God and I walking along the wall together. I was brought to tears as I thought about the word "home" for the kids represented on the wall. But it was bittersweet as I pondered all the ones who have no home yet. I think the tiles speak for themselves....
The highlight of the day was getting to go into the houses where the kids live, get on the floor and play with them. Their smiles and giggles were infectious! In fact, after this trip, I believe that laughter is the universal language and we all need to follow the lead of our children on this. The kids I was with played, shared, giggled, rolled, and hugged along with all the other children despite the language barrier. Somehow words didn't matter, but playing did!!
2 comments:
Wow, Tara, what amazing pictures! One that caught my attention is the two children face-to-face although I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite out of all these. They are all so beautiful! As a newlywed, adoption or otherwise helping orphaned children is something I have been seriously pondering.
With the high-speed nature of the trip is was hard to download - I love your reflections on the day at PHF. It was my favorite - aside from Forever Day.
I, who have two former-orphans in my home as my own children, continue to be questioning what is MY place in God's plan when it comes to orphans far and wide.
And further, if it were clear, would we be willing to unlock the door? (a caption for your pic)
Ash
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