Gifts from Shenyang SWI - Skylar's Orphanage

On Skylar's Gotcha Day we received some very unexpected gifts from his orphanage. The orphanage personnel presented us with a Disney gift box that contained a pretty Mickey and Minnie Mouse ceramic bowl, cup, spoon, and chopsticks set. It is so cute. Of course we are saving this for Skylar until he is much older.

The orphanage personnel also presented us with a beautiful red velvet box containing a large engraved pink crystal. To my best recollection I think I was told it basically says love, home, family. The velvet box has a false bottom. In this false bottom is a small bag of soil from Shenyang. I think it is lovely that the orphanage representatives gathered soil for Skylar to take with him, so he always has a piece of his birth country and origins with him.

We also received an official, hard bound congratulations on our adoption and thank you for donating money to the orphanage. We were even allowed to designate how this money was spent.

In addition to all of these wonderful, unexpected gifts we also received Skylar's foster family mailing address and e-mail address. We were also given a large blue plastic bag that contained almost every gift we had sent Skylar over the past year. It contained most of the clothes, coat, pajamas, toys, books, and even both photo albums containing our family pictures we had sent to Skylar. In one of the photo albums we had given Skylar his foster family had added a group portrait of Skylar sitting between his foster mother and father. It is a very sweet photo, and a very treasured picture.

We also received all three disposable cameras we sent last year. There were 7 or 8 photos in each camera. These photos were taken in a very rural area and are a great representation and glimpse into the environment where our Skylar spent two years of his life. In each photo he looks very relaxed and content. In some of the photos are members of his foster family. We are so grateful for these photos.

Lastly, we also received a photocopy of Skylar's finding newspaper ad. Under each child's photo their finding date is listed and the location. My heart breaks for all the children pictured here. However, I know that if these finding ads were placed maybe these children found their forever families, Skylar did.

I feel so blessed to have received Skylar's foster family contact information, and photos from his life with them. I also feel blessed to have been given so many links to Skylar's past. I know he will appreciate these blessings when he is older.