The director met us at the hotel to drive us the short drive to the SWI. As we got out, fire crackers started going to welcome Anna and her family. The children welcomed us too.
A special banner was made up for us - one in English and 2 in Chinese. (When we left our guide gave us the one in English to keep)
Also waiting for us were Annas foster family. We were so glad to get to meet them.
I must take a minute to write about how we came to be in touch with the foster family.
We adopted Anna in October of 2000. At that time, I had often read of people finding notes from the foster family. When we started to undress Anna, I very carefully took off the clothes in case there was something. The last thing I took off was the red ribbon in her hair. There was writing on it which we could not read. At that time, I was under the impression that foster family's were not supposed to be in touch with adopting family so I only told Stan and one other person about it. I carefully packed it away thinking when we got home, I would find out what it says. I put it away so carefully, when we got home, I could not find it. Six months later when we were getting ready to travel again, I found it. I called a friend who said it was a name and phone number but when she tried to call it, she learned that area code was no longer working. Of course I saved that red ribbon. I had pictures of the foster family because we had sent a disposable camera to the SWI when we got our referral so they could take pictures.
I guess because we don't know about our children's first years of life, it makes us even more curious. So many of us want to know, especially about the foster family's who care for the children, knowing they will be going to a family in another country. We know they loved them and often we just want them to know that they are loved and are doing well.
Years passed when someone posted on the Rujin yahoo group that they were in e-mail contact with their foster family who could possibly help find foster familys. I e-mailed her our pictures. More time passed when we received updated picture of the family with writing on the back. Unfortunately it had somehow become blurred and people had trouble reading it. Of course I kept the picture. I called the friend who had translated the red ribbon to let them know we were moving to England. Then I remembered about the updated picture of foster family. I e-mailed it to her, she read it and then called them! That was so exciting. She let them know we were moving to England and planning on visiting China but were not sure when. She got an updated address from them.
When we realized we would be going to China sooner then we had planned, this friend translated letter to foster family and we mailed it to them. In talking with group who were organizing our visit, I got them the information we had on foster family and they called them only to learn the address was no longer a good one. I e-mailed them letter we had written, they printed it off and mailed from China to the new address.
I am writing all this to explain all that has happened and the people who have helped us.
It was so exciting that the foster family were there waiting for us too. This was the mom, dad, and the son. Later when we had chance to talk through the guide, I told her about the red ribbon. It was like when a person is finishing your sentences. When I told her about the friend looking at red ribbon she said but the area code had changed. She also said when she got the letter from us, she slept with it under her pillow. I also let her know that we still have the necklace Anna was wearing when we got her. We had put together a photo album of Anna over the years and there were number of pictures of Anna wearing this necklace.
This is the mom, dad,and son.
After all the greetings, we moved inside to a room where there were other foster moms with children. Through group organizing our trip, OCDF, we had been in touch with orphanage to ask if there was anything they needed. They had told us they needed calcium which we purchased and had delivered to them. The box was there and Anna and Lauren helped to hand out.
After this we went to a meeting room where they had oranges and water to drink. The director present Anna with a wonderful necklace. We spent more time visiting then were off to lunch.
We went to lunch and were met by the former director who was there when we adopted Anna. When we adopted Anna, I had asked him why she was named Peng which means friend. He said because she was so outgoing and friendly, he hoped that one day she would grow up and help improve relations between China and the US. We were so touched that he came. 
It was a great lunch with lots of toasting. People enjoyed how well Anna and Lauren used chop sticks and asked how did they learn and how old they were. Stan and I have used chop sticks before we had the girls. We enjoyed Chinese food but after our first visit and trying all the new dishes, we started cooking more at home. I started collecting traditional Chinese cookbooks. Having Chinese food and eating with chop sticks became a regular meal for us so the girls saw this. Anna was probably 2 when she started with the type of chopsticks that are attached and 3 when she went to the regular kind.
Anna om March 26, 2001 
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