March 22: Last time together as a group and Norah’s bully status is confirmed

Tonight was the last time our group was all together. It was our celebratory Peking Duck dinner. Mary had arranged for vegetarian options for us and we ate well – they brought out at least 4 different courses for us. Before dinner we had group pictures. One picture was of all of us together, another of just the babies from our orphanage, and a third of the babies from the other orphanage. For the picture of our babies, we placed the children in strollers because not all of them can sit up yet. The picture taking had barely begun and Norah proceeded to hit Matilda, who was sitting to her right. Matilda is a sturdy little girl compared to Norah’s petite stature, but Norah didn’t seem to notice. After making poor Matilda cry, Norah turned to her left and picked on little Abbey. Finally, all three of them were crying, and of course other babies joined in. So, it’s official – Norah’s a bully. When I apologized to Matilda’s parents, Paul and Paula, they said they didn’t mind because they were glad Matilda had finally met her match!

Some of the group leave tomorrow and the rest of us leave on Friday. It was sad saying goodbye to people, but nice to see everyone so excited to get home and start their new lives. It’s amazing how attached you become to people so quickly. We’ve been like one big family, watching each other with our new babies. We’ve all lived out some of our most joyous and most difficult moments in the presence of each other. It is amazing that we’ve all shared together what is usually such a private process. And to think that we were all essentially strangers to one another just a few short weeks ago. I can’t imagine doing it any other way. Through this experience of a lifetime we share an incredible bond.