Thoughts on Family Day

While we posted photos of receiving Ava, we didn’t have time until now to write about the experience. It was one of the most magical, surreal experiences of our lives. We all boarded the bus, and drove to the orphanage about 45 minutes away. We took the stairwell to the third floor, hearing the sounds of the other children while we looked at the photos of some children lining the walls. We walked into a room between the playroom and the crib rooms, and the babies were there! All of them were in the playroom with the nannies. The parents stood outside the little fence and Scott spotted Ava immediately – she was looking right at him while playing on the floor.

They called the families’ names alphabetically, so we were the third family called. They called our name, and a nanny stepped over the little fence holding Ava. She went into Anne’s arms without crying. She just looked at us trying to figure us out. It was quite chaotic as most of the other babies were crying and people were trying to hand cameras to each other. One of the other dads pointed out he had spotted Ava’s crib, as it had the photobook we had sent weeks ago. It was on the blanket, opened up with the picture of us.

It was obvious that the nannies cared about the babies and the families so much. They presented us with a care package of Ava’s formula and rice cereal, and also a little scrapbook with a few photos of Ava when she was younger and stamps of her little footprints. There is some Chinese written in there, too, so we’ll have to get that translated. They also took photos with the disposable cameras we sent in the care package, which will be priceless. Some of the nannies had tears in their eyes, which made sense as they had cared for these 16 little babies for the past 10-15 months.

Half an hour later, we were back on the bus. All of the parents stared at each other in awe, trying to comprehend how quickly our lives had changed….for the better. And then we had to scramble to figure out what to feed them!