This was an initiative that was set up in 2003 to acknowledge the amazing children that had and continue to be adopted from China and to raise funds for those still in China. When we first heard about Hands of Hope, our first adoption was in the early paper-gathering stages. We had no clue who our new daughter would be or if she was even born yet, let alone that we would return to China 2 years later to adopt her brother. All we knew was that China was where we would be heading to grow our family.
The idea behind the Hands of Hope was to build a wall in China that would be covered in tiles donated by adoptive families and those connected to China adoption. It was to be a place where our children could one day return and see that they had roots and a history in China, and for them to know they were not alone.
Unfortunately the project hit some major problems moving forward and there was a time when the reality of the wall looked impossible. The people behind the project did not quit and after finding an alternate site, the wall eventually became a reality. Although, initially the wall was going to be built on Shamian Island in Guangdong Province (this is where all American adoptees pass through to get their US visa), it was actually built near Beijing thanks to the Philip Hayden Foundation at the Shepherds Field Children's Village.
Each participating family was given the opportunity to sponsor a tile on the wall with their own personal inscription. We happily drew up our template and sent off our money hoping that one day we would get to see the tile in person.
Fast forward to June 2009, when a family who would traveling to the area where the wall is, offered to try to find and photograph anyone's tile who was interested. I immediately looked up our information and hoped for the best. Until this week, I had forgotten about it, but over the weekend I got an email from the Fielding family. They had been inundated with requests (over 100) and were finally getting them sent out to each family. Due to the large number of requests, the Director at Shepherd's Field, Matthew Winn had personally gone out and located each of the tiles and taken the photos prior to Paul Fielding arriving on his visit.
I cannot tell you how amazing it was to open the attachment and see our actual tile for the first time. When Richard and I worked on the inscription, we were a family of 3 living in Florida, now we are a family of 5 living in Shanghai. It seems incredible that so much as happened over the years. One day, we hope to take the kids to see the tile ourselves, but until them we cannot thank Paul & Linda Fielding and Matthew Winn for bringing this piece of our family puzzle home to us.
For more information on Shepherd's Field Children's Village - click here
To view photos of the wall during construction see the Angel Covers website click here
Here is our tile....
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It reads: By following our red thread to China, we come full circle and our family is complete.
The full circle is with reference to Richard's father Frank, who also left China as a child and immigrated to the US after being unofficially adopted by another Chinese family (he was a paper son). After joining the US Air Force,Frank traveled to Japan, where he met and married Richard's Mother, Yasuko. Unfortunately they both passed away before meeting their youngest grandchildren, but in our hearts Richard and I know that Frank and Yaskuo live on in the faces and personalities of our children. Aimee has a biological connection to them, which is evident just from looking at her, but even without biology Cadence is petite and cute just like Yasuko and Hansen has the same bone structure and look of Frank. I don't know how they do it up at the CCAA, but they matched us to the perfect children.
Unknown to the Fielding family, they sent the photo of the tile on 8.8.2009, which would have been Frank's 73rd birthday. I cannot think of a better day to receive this photo.
