Gao You Girls Again...in Shanghai!

This past weekend we hosted the girls from the Gao You Foster Home that we visited in June. We brought the girls to Shanghai for a touring weekend. For most of them it was their first big trip! Here is a group photo of all of the girls and the host families that they stayed with:

Two of the girls stayed in our home for the three days: "Nancy" and "Peggy". Here are photos of them! Peggy is on the right in the photo of two girls. Since Alex had just left for the U.S. just about the time they arrived last Friday, I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of taking care of my own girls plus a few more over the weekend. However, they were amazing! Both girls loved kids and just wanted to play with Wendy and Vera when we were at home. Nancy told me she had been taking care of babies in the orphanage where she grew up since the time she was 8 years old. She said her strongest desire in life is to be a mom and take care of her own children. Having the girls in our home was such a special experience and really allowed me to see how the foster home the girls are now in has changed them. It really is inspiring. I read a statistic that said 55% of orphans in the world are over the age of 12. These girls are in their late teen years, and were already when they entered their foster 'family' last September. But it wasn't too late for them...many of these 11 girls have seen their lives turn around in the last year, and we can really see that many of them have had the trajectory of their lives redirected. They are going to be able to enter society, work, have families of their own, and impact the lives of others in ways they probably could not have if someone had not taken them in, loved them, disciplined them, and encouraged them to live better.