Finding Ad...

Today we received MeiMei's finding ad. For those who do not know, when a baby is abandoned in China, the orphanage publishes an advertisement in the newspaper called a Finding Ad. This ad describes when and where the baby was found and where he/she is currently being cared for. It runs for several months in hopes that someone from the birth family will come forward to claim the child. Unfortunately most babies are not claimed and become orphans. The children are then raised in orphanages, foster care or adopted domestically and internationally. Brian Stuy provided us with an original newspaper, an enlarged negative of the ad and the English translation. It was very humbling to read the details of her story written within the pages of a public newspaper. Rows upon rows of other children on the same page as our MeiMei. All with similar beginnings. Parallel stories of how they came to live in an orphanage. Very very humbling. For the sake of our daughter, we have decided against sharing the details of her abandonment with the world. We feel this is HER story to tell. Not ours. IF and when she decides to reveal that information will be up to her in her own time.

(photo above is an EXAMPLE of a finding ad--it is not a copy of MeiMei's finding ad)