Neela's Foster Family

Today has been a very big day.   Dave is posting about the start of our visit to the orphanage.   I will post about meeting Neela's foster family.   There will be other posts on the day as well. 

After our tour, they took us over to one of six apartments on site run by the Half The Sky program (see link in side bar).  Neela lived in one of them with her family and 5 other kids.   She continued to go play in the orphanage rooms during the day and was with the family at night and on weekends.   We are still not clear exactly how long she lived there.  They said 3 months today but that doesn't match up with other info we have.   Maybe since she was 3 months old? 

When we walked in, both the mom and dad were there and were SO excited to see her.   The mom came over to hug her and then had her come sit on her lap as she had always done before.   The dad ran around getting snacks and seats for everyone.   He then sat next to them and held Neela's hand for quite a while.   Dave and I both cried to see her so loved by them.   We are so lucky and grateful to have been able to come here and meet them with Neela.

They told us how they were so sad when she left them but so happy to see that she had been well cared for.   We shared the photo album that we made for them and they really enjoyed seeing photos of Neela growing up and being taken care of by her brothers! 

We looked around the apartment and saw a bed like one she had slept in and the room she slept in.   The mom fed some food to Neela that she had ready for the other kids and offered some to the boys also.   The mom said it was a most precious thing for her to see Neela today.

When two of the little babies came back for lunch, it was time for us to go. It was really sad to have to go so soon after meeting them  -  it seemed so quick.   They asked us to keep sending them photos via email. We hadn't sent any to the orphanage in a long time but will definitely do more in the future since we now have met them.   

While this whole trip has been great, this was really the most amazing thing to be able to do.  Neela was very quiet the whole time but smiled a lot when they were so excited to see her.   She was a good sport about the tight hugs and lap sitting.   She is not sure what to think about it all yet and it may take some time for her to digest it all but she is really glad we got to go and meet them. 

Marnie