something really cool happened today

Before we went to the orphanage yesterday I asked Rosa, our guide, if we'd be able to talk to Lily's nanny and she said she thought we would. But the morning turned out to be more rushed than we thought so we didn't get to. I was sort of disappointed but I figured it was good enough that I knew she existed. After all, she was an answer to a very specific prayer and I was so delighted that the Lord provided someone special to love Lily, not just take care of her.

Fast forward to today when we had 2 appointments to finalize the adoption. The first was at the civil affairs office, where some gotcha days occur. There was one happening in the very room where we were doing our stuff. It was a 16-month-old from Lily's orphanage going to a French family living in Shanghai. It was cool to watch. All of a sudden, one of the ladies that was with the baby ran over to us and shouted "Doonghwa!" (her Chinese name, phoenetically). Lily was very happy to see her, and the lady was clearly very excited to see her. Turns out, it was HER!! She was the cutest lady and we have tons of pictures. We were there with her for at least a half an hour, and Lily would go back and forth between me and her. If I would have thought about it before I would have worried about it, but since I didn't know it was going to happen I didn't think to hope that Lily would want me back. She totally did. I'm her mama and she knows it!

The nanny was showing off all the things Lily could do, like walk around furniture and sing along with a song that has hand motions. It was so cute. She also told us (with hand motions-- would have been great to have an interpreter) that she wrote all the reports about her, which we have already but will need to have translated. It was really neat to see Lily with this nanny who clearly loved her very much. There were other nannies there playing with the other kids in our group but none seemed to have the same bond as this woman did to Lily. It about killed all of us when she left. I cried and cried, thinking how hard it must be for her to love these babies and then send them off. But then I'm comforted to know that I've taken care of babies as a nanny and loved them like they were my own, and I eventually got over the grief when I no longer cared for them. And they all turned out ok too :) But it also killed me thinking about how much Lily must miss her, and it makes me sad that she won't remember her. But we will make sure she knows all about the Angel in China that God sent to love her while she was waiting on us.