Dedication

This site is dedicated to the Caregivers and Workers in China who provided comfort, care, and love to our daughter, Mei Ling, as well as the many other Chinese children who have been adopted internationally.  In particular, we will never forget the kindness shown to us by the Nanjing Children's Social Welfare Institute (SWI).

In our journey to Nanjing we also experienced first hand the fruits of the Orphanage Assistance Programs of Families with Children from China - New York (FCCNY) in collaboration with the Amity Foundation.  The Amity Foundation is a non governmental organization initiated by Chinese Christians in 1985.  

The FCC Orphanage Assistance Programs place children with loving foster care families and provide tuition for children growing up in the orphanages to attend schools in the community. The Grandmas Program gives infants, toddlers and special needs children the care and attention of retired nurses, doctors and teachers. Through the FCC medical sponsorships children receive critical care and surgery for life-threatening conditions, congenital problems, and serious illnesses.  If you have been a financial contributor to the FCC Orphanage Assistance Programs, please pat yourself on the back because Amity and the orphans have been depending on you and you really came through.  More.....

                                                     Our Journey Back to Nanjing

We adopted our daughter, Mei Ling (original name Chu Zi Tian) on December 31, 1997.  Zi as in Purple.  Tian as in sweet.  She has been a constant joy to us her parents, Dave and Sheryl.

     Mei Ling at home in Virginia (almost always smiling).

 

We were a little apprehensive about going back to visit, but mainly we were looking forward to the trip.  Sheryl and Dave have studied Chinese for a few years, so we were excited about speaking Mandarin again. 

As it turned out, our few weeks in Nanjing were a true blessing for us.  The caregivers at the Nanjing SWI could not have been more gracious.  We were also able to travel to several countryside village homes outside of Nanjing to visit some of the orphans in the FCCNY/ Amity Foster Care Program. 

Given our wonderful experience in Nanjing, it was not surprising that our daughter cried just before we left Nanjing.  After completing our trip to Nanjing we are now determined to accomplish a few things:

• Mei Ling in particular wishes to attend Chinese School to communicate better with her friends in Nanjing when we return

• We wish to motivate others to emotionally and financially support the FCC/ Amity Programs.  We saw the orphans with their Foster Parents and the Hugging Grannies.  We know the programs are  working and the kids are being helped.

• We wish to keep up our relationship with our daughter's orphanage (Nanjing SWI).  They are wonderful people and we will try to help them anyway we can. 

  Nanjing is a wonderful city to be a tourist and our daughter really had fun seeing the sights.  She particularly enjoyed driving the motor boats at Xuan Wu Lake.  We had a great time taking the chairlift and walking to the top of Zi Jin Shan (Purple Mountain).

Mei Ling at the top of Zi Jin Shan overlooking Nanjing in the background.  The lake shown below the mountain is Xuan Wu Hu.

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

All in all, we were blessed to have made the trip and our daughter is looking forward to returning soon.

- Dave McAfee, McLean, Virginia, August 2005

Please send questions or comments to the Webmaster.  Please share with us any experiences you have had on a return visit and we will post it to this site.