A Special Visitor And A New Kid

Here at New Day Foster Home we regularly welcome visitors who come as short-term volunteers. This month though, we had the privilege of welcoming a very special volunteer; a New Day graduate, visiting China with her parents.  Meet twelve-year-old Janai, adopted in 2007, pictured standing underneath a photograph of herself as a toddler, still on display in our playroom!

Janai's mom explained that they had arranged the trip to help Janai begin to discover where she had come from and learn about her life before she joined their family;  "Janai has said to us that she feels like she knows other people better than she knows herself; she needed to come and see people that knew her before I knew her".

Janai lived at New Day for three-and-a-half years, and even though it's been such a long time since she left, she is fondly remembered by many of the staff.  The first morning  here, as soon as Amy (Foster Home Manager) walked into the room and saw her, she exclaimed "Ai Xin!" (Janai's Chinese name) and rushed over to give her a hug.

We asked Janai what it was like to have 'strangers' recognizing her, and she said that it was "kinda weird, it was cool seeing my picture and it's cool that they recognize me".  The nannies remembered her lively and crazy personality, and were able to tell some stories about the mischief that she used to get up to here.

Janai was excellent with the little ones in the playroom.  Freddy took a real liking to her, and she formed a special bond with Rosie.

It's beautiful to see what a tender and compassionate young lady mischievous little Ai Xin has grown into.  Janai said that she really liked playing with the kids, and wished that they were spending the whole of their time in China at New Day (they were heading off to visit her birth city next).

Speaking of 'kids', Janai was given a special task while she was here...picking a name for a new arrival!

Our nanny goat, Bella (far left, the dad, Zeke, is on the right), gave birth to the cutest little kid last weekend.  Janai named her 'Smore', which we think suits her perfectly!

Smore took a liking to Janai too!

Gan Lu has been taking lots of cute pictures of the little ones meeting Smore, but we thought you might like to see Tom meeting her (under the watchful eye of mama Bella!).

We're so glad that Janai was able to visit, and to know how loved she was here.  We hope that it has given her a valuable insight into the early years of her life, and we're sure that she will go on to do great things in the years that are to come.