7/27 continued - We arrive at the “middleman’s” office and
as we’re barely out of the van, an older lady comes over and grabs Megan
hugging her with tears in her eyes. We
learn that she is a friend of Megan’s foster mom (PoaPoa) and was the one to
bring Megan to their house when she was only a few months old. She told us Megan called her Grandma Hwang and
she was so happy to see Megan. Once we
get into the office building we began to get more of the story.
The “middleman” is Mr. H.
and he’s the director of All for the Children NGO. Him and his wife are responsible for
connecting foster families with babies/kids from the organization and they’ve
had over 1000 kids adopted. He was so
fun to chat with and so happy to see Megan.
He was able to pull out their agency photo from 2009 and point exactly
to Megs and her foster mom. Wow! His wife took out a book with all sorts of
dates and information. We learned that
Megan had two other foster families. She
stayed with each for only a few months before going to stay with PoaPoa and
YeYe for the next 3 ½ years. As we were talking PoaPao, YeYe & their
oldest daughter came in. Hugs, smiles
& tears were abundant!
As we sat with them for the next hour and half we learned
more about Megan’s early days and shared how she’s been doing since we last saw
them in 2009. PoaPoa is quite a
character and I wish I knew exactly what she was saying! She shared that she used to buy special food
for Megs and she took extra care for her needs.
We can tell that Megan was a special child to them! They told us stories of how smart Megan was
and how she loved the other kids in the home. YeYe definitely looks older but
he is so happy to see Megs. When YeYe
gave Megs a hug and told her to study hard and always listen to her parents,
she began to cry. PoaPoa said that Megan
was especially close to YeYe and would ask him for special things and he’d give
in. (Hmm, sounds like her and her
Grandpa too.) They are both so happy to
see Megan and happy for her life, they’re very proud of her!
After a while, they invited us to dinner (she wanted us to
go back to their house but our guide politely declined that for us). Instead they asked to take us out to
dinner. We should be the one treating them,
but they wouldn’t hear of it. Off we go
to the mall nearby where they choose a restaurant and with our guides help,
they order for us. Dinner was good, it
was like eating with family! (At the
office Mr. H told us that the family were Christians as well as Gma H, so at
dinner when she prayed we all said “amen” together. Very special!) As dinner
wound down, Megan became very sad. She
walked out holding onto YeYe’s hand. We
said our “goodbyes” and gave hugs. They
went one direction and we went the other.
Megan is heartbroken. Even our
guide was emotional. He got us a cab and
we went back to the hotel. He took the
bus (his salary doesn’t afford him a taxi, that was sad too).
It was a wonderful day – full of happy and sad moments and
emotions. A day that was hard to capture
in writing and through pictures. We hope
to stay in contact with PoaPoa through WeChat, at least exchanging
pictures. We decided to not to a tour
tomorrow and instead have a day to ourselves and rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment