Shaling & Francine

Back in China, Shaling had an older foster sister at the orphanage. Yu Bei seemed to be very maternal, taking care of Shaling and several of the other younger girls. It was apparent that Shaling cared a lot for Yu Bei, because she safeguarded a letter that Yu Bei gave her to bring to America with her. We were able to meet her on December 31st, 2010, when we were allowed to tour the orphanage and the "foster home" (really just an extension of the orphanage) where several of the school-aged kids lived.

We were able to convey to Shaling that Yu Bei would be coming to America too, but we didn't know when. In November 2011, Yu Bei became Francine and came to the state of Illinois, specifically the town of Mendota. She has three Chinese sisters, one older and two younger. The family came to Springfield yesterday and is staying through tomorrow in order to tour some of the Lincoln sites. Francine's mom, Cathy, let me know they'd be in town so we could arrange a reunion of sorts.

Yesterday afternoon, we met them at their hotel and let all of the kids swim for a couple of hours. Then, we took them to Dublin Pub for some local fare. The girls seemed so happy to see each other again that we then invited Francine to spend the night with us, which she did, and Brock took her back to the hotel on his way to work this morning. It was so great to hear them giggling and happy.

Here is a brief video of all of the kids swimming:

Shaling & Yu Bei Reunite from Amy Reynolds on Vimeo.