"The Red Thread"

 "There is an invisible red thread that binds us all.  The thread may bend and tangle but it will never break." --an ancient Chinese belief

Few people have done more to help us on this journey than Jennifer O'Cain, the mother of Jian Hong's best friend, Lily (Zhu Bi Hong), from the Zhuhai SWI.  Jennifer happened upon Jian Hong's adoption referral photo by chance on the internet last Spring, and has since done all she can to assist us at every stage of this process.  Without her, I have no doubt that we would still be sitting at home waiting to hear when we might travel.  The girls' story--and their shared history--served to make all of the waiting and wondering during this past year bearable by providing us with a sense that our daughter was not so terribly far away, either in distance or in time. 

What Jennifer could not have known was that on the night that our daughter was feeling most vulnerable and afraid, her daughter Lily's photographs--and the wonderful life story that those photographs reveal--would make all of Jian Hong's fears wash away.  Jian Hong sees in Lily's beautiful face the lifelong friend that she has never forgotten--and she sees in Lily's photographs from the last two years the life that awaits her:  one in which she is welcomed with open arms by a family who loves her with all their hearts. Each day as we return to our hotel, Jian Hong races to the computer and asks if we can please transfer her photographs to share with Lily.  Ah, the unbreakable red thread....

Here is Lily and Jian Hong's special story, as told by Lily's very special Mom:

http://www.theocaincrew.blogspot.com/2011/12/red-thread.html#links

Lily and Jian Hong