Guess Who Visited Kate?

Notice the hands

Before I begin this post (which yes, is the post I have been waiting to tell you about!) I want you to think about how many siblings get to meet their sister while she is waiting in China. Not many. Well, Drew did that. What a mighty God we serve!

Could she be any cuter?

As many of you know, I have two older brothers. Drew is the oldest and he is 20. He is in his third year of college and decided a while back that he wanted to do a semester abroad in China. He left at the end of August and his group toured different provinces of China before they arrived back in Beijing and classes started (which was today!) Anyway, once we found out that Kate was at Philip Hayden, we decided to see if Drew could visit her once he was in Beijing. (PHF is in Tianjin which isn't too far from Beijing.) We have a few American contacts at Philip Hayden who welcomed Drew there. This past weekend being his first in Beijing and without the busy-ness since classes hadn't started, Saturday was the best day to go.

Our precious Kate!

Drew connected with one of the American PHF workers and worked out how to get there and times and on Saturday, he set out for his great adventure to Philip Hayden. He had to take buses, cabs, everything (and he definitely used his mandarin skills to do it!) and finally arrived at Philip Hayden where he got to meet his little sister and tell us ALL about her.

Giggly girl with those two little bottom teeth!

He said that she is SO sweet. She is very quiet and very observant of what is going on around her. He told us that she is itty bitty and pretty much the exact opposite of AnnaClaire. She was slow to warm up to Drew and cried when he held her, but he talked to her (in Chinese, of course) and eventually she held his finger and he held her sweet little hand. We have been told that Kate is afraid of strangers, so this was no surprise. Kate's nanny did tell Kate that Drew is her brother (we were told that they would not tell her) so that was good!

Lunch time!

Kate is very, very attached to her nanny. I take it she has had the same nanny most of her time there, as when she moved from HOP to HOL, her nanny moved with her. Drew said that he could tell that her nanny really loved her and took great care of her. She interacted with the other kids, but loved being with her nanny and was the happiest with her. She was smiley, giggly, and very playful! Drew was able to carry on conversation with Kate's nanny and said that she was SOOOO sweet and he really liked her. Drew stayed until Kate took her nap. As he left, he told her bye (in Chinese). Before he even waved, she waved at him. (So sweet!)

Love this picture of her... she doesn't look so happy, but she has the SWEETEST face!

Drew was extremely impressed with Philip Hayden. Trust me, that is a lot coming from him! He was able to spend time with some other kids who we know the waiting families of. He especially loved hanging out with one sweet 9 year old, Elijah. Drew said that everyone at Philip Hayden was extremely nice and it was very well run, organized, and clean. Of course, we can tell that from all the pictures. They truly do such an AWESOME job. He said that he could tell how happy and well-cared for all of the kids were. They were all keeping busy with activities, and the nannies were right there interacting with them. Obviously, PHF houses kids with SN. Drew said that many of them had severe needs, but that did not keep them away from the activities. The nannies made sure that all of them were as involved as they possibly could be!

Kate right before Drew left, going down for her nap

So that's about it. As you can imagine, we are so excited. It almost seems unreal and then you look at that picture of Drew and Kate and it's like, "My brother has met my sister and my mom hasn't even met her!" There she is, in China and Drew, who (of all semesters he could've gone) just happened to be in China (this was planned long before we even had Kate's referral!) was able to visit her. And of all places where she could be, she is not far from Beijing! How awesome is that? It was so fun to find out all about her and of course get some more pictures! Of course, we are even MORE ready to get her now! 1 week down of the TA wait! I do ask you to pray along with us for her attachment. As you can tell, she is VERY attached with her nanny. That is actually a good thing that she is so attached with her. We are so glad to hear that she is loved beyond belief, but we know it is going to be very difficult for her to come to us. It is good if she grieves. Just pray that her little heart would be prepared for what is about to happen in her life.

I just can't get over how awesome our God is. How amazing it is that Drew was able to meet Kate... only GOD could allow that little meeting to occur :)