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[#1]

Today was more than we could have ever hoped for. We went to the orphanage where my daughter spent her first 11 months. We were greeted with a sign on the building welcoming her home, using her chinese name. 

The staff gave her gifts (they even had something for my youngest daughter) and the director told her she would always be his girl, his daughter. 

We also met a nanny that cared for my daughter when she was just a baby at the orphanage. It has always been a dream of mine to bring her back to meet all of the wonderful people that took such great care of her before we would ever even meet. The nanny sat with my daughter and stroked her hair as if all of that time had never even passed. 

I wish there was a way for me to better translate all of the love that was in that room today through words. In fact, I was so emotional the entire time it was hard for me to use the Mandarin that I did know to really say thank you. I had a feeling this would be the case, so I had written a letter thanking the staff for making our family complete, and then had it translated into Mandarin. The director said he was moved and would read it to the staff, and I am so glad I had a way to thank them properly and let them know how grateful and humbled we are by the hard work they do. 

As we were leaving a man ran up to us and said he has worked there for a long time. He told us how much he loves holding the babies, so he knew he had cared for my daughter. He was so hapy to see her and kept hugging us. 

As for me, I'm still crying 10 hours later but I wanted to share this magnificent moment with all of you. The people we met gave us an incredible gift - my daughter now knows she is cared for on both sides of the world.