Piper and her Ayes at House of Peace

These pictures are in the exact order of our journey into the House of Peace, where Piper lived for a year. I wasn't sure whether her ayes (nannies) would remember her, but boy was I wrong. Not only did they remember her, but her main aye was in Beijing and immediately rushed to come to Shepherd's Field to see her. They also showed us the 3 pictures they still had on their wall of her. To just say that these women love the kids seems so understated. I am so happy we were able to show them the end result of all of their hard work and compassion.

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As you can see, Piper immediately bee-lined through the house. Then she turned and told me that she remembers.

At first, she was nervous when they tried to hug her and talk to her. They spoke Mandarin to her, but she did not answer in Mandarin. I wondered, but now we know its completely gone.


These were the first few hugs before I explained to her that they all wanted to hug her and talk to her. Once I took her aside for a bit, she was much better.

Finally, she is more relaxed.

And with this aye, she was really comfortable. Look how perfect they look together. It makes me wonder what she would look like with her birth mother if they were in this pose.

This was one of the pictures upstairs still hanging. Ting Ting is in the photo above her and is stuck in the same situation as Jacob Jai - great family waiting, but an orphanage that will not do her paperwork. The other picture of Piper was one of her and Jacob Jai, but I was getting a little misty eyed at that point that I couldn't take a picture of it.

This is Piper in her old bedroom. She was in a bed like this and seemed to really enjoy going back in her bedroom.

Starting to say goodbye, but then we all gathered later outside/

This is her main aye who came from Beijing to see her. All of the ayes said they couldn't believe how much she has grown and how talkative she is. They said when she was there she was so shy - umm, not so much anymore!

Overall, for me these moments were the highlight of my trip. I loved getting to show Piper where she used to live, but more than that, I really loved being able to see how the ayes reacted to her. Just priceless on so many levels.