Sending a Care Package

It was nearly 3 years ago, shortly after receiving our daughter's referral, that we packaged our items and sent them to Ningdu. What did we send? 2 disposable cameras, several pictures, a stuffed animal, finger puppet, casette tape recorder and, of course, the blankie!

We had never heard of anyone sending a tape recorder. What a wonderful gift, I thought, to send a recorder with 2 extra tapes for the caretakers to have when they're with our daughter. In my letter that was translated into Mandarin, I said, "Please keep the tape recorder as our gift to you. What we would like is to have these tapes recorded with the voice of our daughter's caretaker so we can play these back when we return from China."

Interestingly, when we received our daughter, we also received every item that had been sent in the months prior to our arrival in Nanchang. Both disposable cameras were returned and the photos were priceless! In fact, there are several pictures with her primary caretaker holding our daughter in one arm with the tape recorder in the other hand. I know they appreciated the gift. If you notice the post on January 28, 2007, you'll see orphanage staff with our daughter on the table. Sitting by her right foot is the tape recorder we sent! Having the pictures confirmed what we had hoped for.

Something others may want to do with their blanket to help with a sure return when you receive your daughter. My wife stitched our daughter's Chinese name to the blanket so there would be no confusion as to whose blanket it was as staff and kids prepared for their departure from Ningdu. We also tagged every item we sent with her Chinese name and that's probably why we received everyting back when we went to China.

What we received in the last few minutes of our exchange with Ningdu orphanage staff in the Civil Affairs building in Nanchang are treasures that will last our lifetime, and our daughter's!