Thankfulness and Pie (and Something Bittersweet)

Thanksgiving is an all-American holiday, but in this little corner of China, it ranks alongside Christmas and Chinese New Year.  We gather together - staff, nannies, foster-parents, volunteers and precious children - to eat the traditional foods, the kids wearing the fun paper-hats that they made in preschool. We may not all know the story of the first Thanksgiving, but we all know what it is to be thankful.

All of this thankfulness and sweetness, and back in the office an email is waiting.  The 'bio' for our newest little one, Zhi Jin, who just arrived this morning and hasn't been given an English name yet.  It's already translated from Mandarin into English, just needs a little 'polishing' before it's ready to be put onto the website.

Every new arrival is bittersweet; sweet that we have an adorable new baby to get to know and to love, alongside the sorrow of abandonment and loss.  Reading and working on the bios for newly arrived children is painful.  To read the story of how they came to be here at New Day; how old they were when they were abandoned, where they were found, their medical needs...it hurts your heart.

Zhi Jin was born on April 15, 2015 with heart disease. She was abandoned near to the orphanage on November 15, 2015, in a paper box. Someone found her and reported it to the local police. When the police could not find her parents they brought her to the orphanage. She is very aware of what is going on, and it broke people's hearts when she kept crying and looking for her mother. Zhi Jin came to New Day Foster Home on November 27, 2015, and we can't wait to see her grow and blossom.

When you're writing, or reading this, it's not easy to see the reasons to be thankful, but they are there nonetheless.  We are thankful that Zhi Jin is here now; that she will be able to have the surgery that she needs, that she will be loved and well-cared for.  We are thankful that we will get to see her grow and blossom and start to heal.  This start to her story is heart-breaking, but we are thankful that she has hope.