Weekend fun

We took a trip to my dads this past weekend.  It was time for Kenley to meet Papaw and Mamaw.  There was a little added fun to the weekend because Papaw and Mamaw had 18 new puppies that the girls got to hold and love on.  My Dad and his wife raise Golden Retrievers, they are the cutest things you have ever seen and really the best dogs ever.  Just ask the girls big Sis who owns one of  Papaw and Mamaw's pups, his name is Cash or take a look for yourself on her blog Blissfully Cotton.

Yesterday I posted about Chinese Adoption and a book I read this weekend.  Kenley's adoption has, I am guessing, made others feel more comfortable in talking to our family about adoption and specifically why there are so many orphans in China.  I am happy to share about our experience.  I hope through our girls others will see that there are amazing children in the world who just need a family to give them a chance at a life outside of an orphanage, a chance to be a part of a family.  So a little more of where I left off yesterday.

There are orphanages in most provinces in China.  Tatum's orphanage had 500 children, Kenley's 1000, I have heard of an orphanage in a very poor province which has 2000 children living there.  The children are cared for to the best of the ability of the staff at the orphanage.  There may be 2 Nannies looking after as many as 20 infants or toddlers.  The children have a very structured schedule. The basic needs of the children are met while in the orphanage. Many children are fostered to families who are willing.  The orphanage pays these families for food and basic needs for their foster child.  Neither of our girls were in foster families but others I know have adopted children who were cared for by foster families.   The goal for the orphanage, the foster families and the Chinese officials is for the children under their care to have a forever family, whether it is a family in China or from one of the 15 countries that adopt from China.  Photos and health reports are prepared and the officials in China work with agencies all over the world to place the children.  That is where ours and others stories begin with our children.  Just as each child's beginning is different.  The child's story continues differently with a new family that has been chosen to adopt them.  How all of these children's stories are the same, they now have a family who wanted a child who needed a  family.