Discovery

a girl and her Bunny

I am sure those of you who were adopting your children during the "great Slow down" in china around the same time we were 2006-2008 will remember how we all clamored to find things to do for our children we did not know yet.

It was during this time that Build-a-Bear Workshops held a charity event. It was May 2007 when they partnered with the Joint Council on International Children’s Services for that charity event.
Build-A-Bear Workshop, that super fun store where kids can choose, “stuff”, clean, name, dress and accessorize their very own stuffed animal, held a “Stuffed with Hugs: Hugs Sweet Hugs” on May 19, 2007 where people could go into their local Build-A-Bear store and create a stuffed bear for orphans waiting to be adopted, for FREE.

Each Build-A-Bear store letting 200 free bears be created so that they could be donated to orphans.

Build-A-Bear Workshop has chosen the Joint Council on International Children’s Services as their charity partner for 2007. The bears were on display for a short period of time in the Build-A-Bear stores, and then were shipped to JCICS partner agencies and then sent on to the children those agencies serve and advocate for. The bears were distributed to both children waiting for adoption in the United States and children waiting for adoption around the world.

The Stuffed with Hugs:Hugs Sweet Hugs program was designed to celebrate adoption and to help give a small gift to children in need.

Sophia was lucky enough to be one of those children who received one of those Build a Bear Charity bears. In her case it was a Bunny and she came to us on Family day with it. It is HUGE but soft as can be and Sophia sleeps with it every night.

I am just posting about this now because we just realized that her Bunny was one of these "Build a Bears" On our 3 year Family Day anniversary we were looking at all of the things she came to us with that Steamy hot June morning in Nanchang,China. We took out the bag they brought to us and looked at the clothes Sophia wore that day (a lavender sweat suit). The sweet little white socks and the really dirty shoes, the bottle she was drinking water from. The silver bracelet Sophia's foster mother gave to her on the morning Sophia left her. It was very emotional for all of us to look at all of those things . In the bag was the Giant Bunny and when we started to look at it Riz noticed the tag said "Build-a Bear May 2007' . This is when it all clicked in my head where this bunny came from. I wish I knew who the family was that made the bunny so I could thank them. It always made us happy to know Sophia had a soft, cuddly bunny of her very own before our family day now it makes me happy to know that another family took the time to create that bunny for her. So if you created a bunny during that event I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Very Special....