Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Glimpse of My Daughter's Early Life

We adopted my daughter Clara when she was about 22 months old. She spent more than a year of her earlier life in foster care in Jingdezhen, a small city in Jiangxi province, China. Her foster mother took in several orphan girls over the years. Just recently the family of one of these girls visited her, and we were able to get these pictures. Clara's foster mother is in the center of the picture above; on the right are two officials from the orphanage who also worked with us.

This is the house where Clara spent much of the first two years of her life. It looks like thousands of other houses in that part of China.

The neighborhood.

Despite the obvious poverty, Clara was wonderfully cared for, and when we met her she was a happy little girl used to being sung to, fussed over and having ribbons tied in her hair. This picture was taken the day we met her, at the Civil Affairs office in Nanchang.

But since this is China, change is not far away, even in Jingdezhen.

My narrative of the adoption and our trip to China is here.

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