Today I mailed off Cadence's care package! There is a small outfit for her. This was hard to pick out this time of year because they prefer for the kids' arms and legs to be covered, and there is not a lot to choose from in Virginia in May that isn't summery. But the outfit has pandas on it and is very cute! My mom included some socks and I put in chinese words that these were to be "shared with friends" so hopefully a few children in the orphanage will have warm tootsies. My mom also helped me sew the little lovey that had birds on it and I plan to make a bigger blanket for Cadence when she comes home. I put in a couple of small toys and included some jelly fish candy with a note "for the nannies" at the orphanage. I put together a photo album of us, the girls, grandparents, our pets, house and some friends. I taped the words "mom", "dad", "big sister", etc. over everyone's head (in Chinese, of course). Over a picture of the family I put the words "We love you". Lastly, I included a disposable camera. It's kind of ironic the price I am paying to ship a bunch of stuff "made in China" back to China!
In my ideal world, the nannies at the orphanage will enjoy the candy, put Cadence in her adorable outfit and let her snuggle with her lovey as they sweetly hold her and look at the photo album with her. They'll point to the pictures and show Cadence her mommy and daddy and sisters. They will tell her what a wonderful family she will have and how much she'll be loved. Then her nannies will use the disposable camera that we sent to take pictures of Cadence and her friends at the orphanage and the caregivers, so that as she grows up she will have a small visual of the life that she lived before she came home to us.
As for the real world, who knows! I'm sure it won't be as picture perfect as I would hope. I have read various things about the orphanages in China. They could vary as much as any of the homes in America. I've seen pictures of children celebrating a birthday in an orphanage as well as pictures of children horribly neglected and dying. I do know that adopting parents generally prepare for lice and bug bites. I know that a lot of orphanages don't have heat so children are stuffed into layers and layers of clothes when it is cold (closely resembling Randy in "A Christmas Story"!). I also know that the nannies sometimes cry when they are handing children over to their adoptive families.
We may or may not get to visit Cadence's orphanage. I do hope that we have the opportunity to see it, no matter how difficult it may be. I can't imagine not seeing it for my own eyes and not knowing how she has lived her life until she comes to be with us. Hopefully it will be on the better end of the spectrum. Until we have Cadence in our arms, though, I have to imagine her in a good and decent place... it's too much to bear to think otherwise.
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