LingYi's Family - The Distance between Us Fades
Wuhan Foster Parents Zhou Yongyou & Wang Taoying write:
On the 20th of September last year, we took our four children back home for the first time. At that time it was still hot in Wuhan city. The four children all wore summer clothes—thin top, thin trousers and summer slippers. From then on, we sent the children to school, picked them up from school, and took care of their three meals per day. We also prepared autumn and winter clothes and shoes for them and some toys as well.
In order to help our children grow up in a cozy and healthy environment, we tried our best to prepare their diet with adequate nutrition. For breakfast, we have milk and eggs; for lunch and dinner, we prepare four dishes and one soup that are combined with meat and vegetables and we change the recipes every day in order to give the children a fresh feeling. From time to time, we cook rib soup with lotus root for them in the summer; when the weather becomes colder, we prepare hot pot for them. And they are never short of fruits, cookies and cakes for snacks.
During the holidays and weekends, we often take our children out. We have visited the “Yangtze River Bridge” (the Yangtze River is the longest river in China), watching the ships in the river and enjoying the night view of Wuhan. We go to the Plaza Park to play in the water, enjoy the fountain and appreciate the flowers in the park, and take lots of pictures of our family.
On another outing, we took the children to visit East Lake with two other foster families. All of the children from the three families played together in the beautiful scenery, rode the bumper cars, and played on the swings. They all loved the trip.
In addition, we have twice taken the children to take part in our relatives’ birthday celebrations. All of our relatives like our children very much; they hold them so they can get into and out of the car easily, they organize the best seats for them at the birthday dinners, they offer the best food for the children and help them put the food they like in their dishes and add drinks and soup for them. Their hospitality makes 
the children fully enjoy the time when they are there.
At first the children treated us as strangers, but gradually they built a deep emotional bonding with us. After a few months of being in our family, the distance between us and the children faded away. They feel safe when they are with us. Although sometimes we feel exhausted, when we see the positive changes in the children, we feel all of our hard work is worthwhile.
“Lingyi will run to us, calling ‘mom, dad!’ constantly"
Lingyi is five and she is our youngest child. Lingyi has epilepsy and she also is mentally challenged. [Lingyi had spent some time in a temporary foster family arranged by the Wuhan institution, but that family had found that disabilities made it too difficult for them to raise her in their home.]When Lingyi first came to our family the only word she could say was “mom” in a very unclear voice.
At first Lingyi refused to go to bed to sleep. Instead, she sat next to table and put her head on her arms to sleep. We waited until she fell into a deep sleep around 11 PM and then carried her to bed. If Lingyi woke up, she would cry and shout in terror of something unseen. The only way Lingyi could be comforted was to take her back to her seat by the table. Eventually, Lingyi became comfortable and secure in our family and agreed to go to sleep in bed with her mom.
Lingyi also started getting interested in toys that move around; when she saw toys moving, she would keep laughing for a long time. When her older brother and sister were playing with toys, she started taking the initiative to join them. Sometimes she invited us to play toys with her. We seized that opportunity to teach her some simple words, like “dad, mom, older brother, older sister, grandpa and grandma”. Now when we go to kindergarten to pick her up, as soon as she sees us in front of her 
classroom, she will run to us, calling “mom, dad!” constantly.
Lingyi has also learned how to put on her socks and shoes on her own and she insists on doing this every day by herself. She is very sensible now. She likes to help me do housework; for example, when I am cleaning and tidying the table, she will drag the rubbish bin next to the table so it’s easy for me to throw the used napkins and leftover food leftover into the bin. When I am sweeping the floor, she will put the dustpan in front of me, so I can sweep the dust into it easily. When we praise her, she will smile at with joy and say, “I am great!”
We patiently taught Lingyi how to count the numbers from one to ten. Now she can pronounce one to ten and use her fingers to count. We also taught her some simple dances. Now she can truly dance!