Its been a wonderful return trip to Tianjin for Kai, the
last two days have happily exceeded expectations! Yesterday we left Beijing for
Lanfang to visit with Mike and Elisa Haller, who ran Luke’s House when it was
part of Lanfang Children’s Village and Kai lived there. Luke’s House was Kai’s
home for 3 years, and the love and dedication of the Haller’s shines in Kai and
all the children they have fostered and lives they have touched. We visited LCV
7.5 years ago when we adopted Kai (at age 4), and it was wonderful to visit
again!
Today was an incredible day… We began with a return visit to
Kai’s orphanage, the Tianjin Children’s Welfare Institute. When we walked in, one of the ayi’s
kept staring at Kai. She asked his Chinese name, and when we shared it her face
broke into such a lovely huge grin, she had been Kai’s nanny and her love for
him was obvious and very touching! She went and found two other teachers who
had known Kai, and they all said that he was very adored and still spoken
about. He felt so good hearing this…..!
This afternoon we headed out to the outskirts of Tianjin to
find Kai’s abandonment/finding spot. After many wrong turns, much question
asking to the local people, and a few very hairy moments… we found the country bridge where Kai was found as
in infant. We stood in the very spot where Kai’s birth parents, or a family
member, placed an infant boy with a severe cleft lip and palate with the hopes
that he would find the medical care he so badly needed. As Mike and I walked up
to the spot at the edge of the bridge where Kai was found, we were both flooded
with emotion. I was surprised at the emotions that flooded me, sadness for the
pain of Kai’s birth family, sadness for the loss that Kai will always feel, and
incredible gratitude that Kai was safe and found, and that he made his way to
our family… Incredible gratitude flooded my heart…. I wish I could find a way
to let his birth family know that is thriving and loved… In some weird way
though, I feel like they know…
Kai was a typical 11 year old boy about the whole thing,
hopping around on the bridge and enjoying burning the sage smudge stick he made
at Twin Eagles for this very moment. The smudging experience really helped to
connect his worlds… Kai was very happy to see where he had been left, and very
interested to see the area he would have grown up had he remained with his
birth family. He said he felt very happy, and a little bit sad. He felt sad
that he will likely never know his birth family, but very happy that he was
loved enough to be left where he would be found. He must have told me 150 times
that he is so happy that he found his forever family, and that we all came back
to see where his journey to us began. He found a rock and carved “Thank God”
into the spot on the bridge he was found. When I asked him what he was thanking
God for, he said “that everything worked out perfectly for me…” (happy mommy
tears…) These last two days have answered many questions for Kai, and I feel
like it has been very healing for him. He KNOWS he has always been loved,
something he questioned, that no longer feels the need to….
Yes, Thank God...!!!
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