CATCH SOMETHING SPECIAL

Marcia Norwood
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

Text and Photographs Copyright 1999 Marcia Norwood

A child's life is like a piece of paper 

on which every person leaves a mark. 

Chinese Proverb

    

  I first met Zheng-Kang on December 1, 1999.  She was 5 years and 11 months old.  

She  didn't speak one word of English when she walked into our room at the Grand Sun Hotel in Changsha City, Hunan Province, China.  

She weighed 36 pounds.   

I had been pregnant with paperwork for nine months waiting for her adoption.


 Zheng-Kang lived at an orphanage, China Welfare #1, for almost six years until we met.  She was blinded as an infant by a blunt trauma to her right eye that left scars on left eye.  

Part of her name means "Health."  

Someone gave her the name as a WISH that this little blind girl would be healthy.  

God heard their prayer.

(Circa 1997)  Humble Meal at the Orphanage:  Sarah Zheng-Kang is the second child from the right - holding her spoon in the air.  This photograph was a gift from Daniel and Evelyn Schmidt.

 

Treasured photographs of  Zheng-Kang's life in China before she became our daughter were gifted to us by Daniel & Evelyn Schmidt, who visited Sarah ZK's orphanage each year.  

We met Daniel at the Changsha orphanage in December 1999.  When he returned home to Switzerland, he and Evelyn sent us photographs of Sarah ZK from the time she was taken as an infant (1994) to the orphanage. 

This photograph of Sarah was a gift from Daniel and Evelyn Schmidt.

This photograph of Baby Sarah was a gift from Daniel and Evelyn Schmidt.

 We kept her Chinese name, Zheng-Kang,  as her middle name, and gave her the name Sarah, which means princess.  

  Sarah Zheng-Kang Norwood  (December 1999)
    Guangzhou, China

       Marcia, Sarah ZK and Ed (December 1999)
       American Consulate in Guangzhou, China

We were home in the heart of America for three months, when Sarah Zk's team of pediatric specialists told us she would never see from her blind eye.  It was heart-wrenching to sign the papers to remove her eye. 

Patches for Sarah ZK and Po

My story about Sarah ZK was published in...

Chicken Soup To Inspire The Body and Soul 
                    Edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen,

Dan Millman, Diana von Welanetz Wentworth
ISBN # 0-7573-0141-X
Marcia's Story: The Beautiful Girl in the Mirror" - Page 233

 Click on the link below to read more:  

http://tellmeastory-marcia.blogspot.com/2012/01/he-is-greater-than-mountains.html

I wrote a series of articles for Mother & Child Reunion in 2000.  Sarah ZK was learning about our culture, our family, and how to speak English.

Catch Something Special   

Copyright 2000 Marcia Norwood

 

 My six-year-old daughter and I spent most of the day in the garden.  Sarah Zheng-Kang added a few of her own touches to our manicured, cottage gardens.  

She dragged all her neon-colored foam fishies from her upstairs bathroom outside, and cast them in the "Two Tiny Ponds" by our front walkway.  

She placed her yellow, plastic fishing pole gently on the bench beside the ponds.

 "For sharing!"  She beamed!

Funny - I would have never dreamed of this addition to our water gardens - but it works!

Sarah fished several times, and invited others to join her.  Our grandson, Joshua (2 years old) was ecstatic when he caught a lavender fishy. Now Sarah's two rubber duckies have made their way from her bathroom to the two tiny ponds.  It is really quite irresistible.

If you are ever in the neighborhood - stop by.  Sit a spell on the banks of the two tiny ponds.  You just might catch something special.            

God answered the wish/prayer for Sarah's health in amazing ways. 

 She sees with spiritual eyes.  

Sarah ZK

 She instantly knows right from wrong and good from evil.  

Daughter Sarah ZK, Granddaughter Emily Grace, and Grandson Joshus Taylor

 

She  has supernatural vision in her left eye - 

despite the scars.  

Sarah ZK at Dance Recital

 Sarah is the first one we all go to 

when we need to find something. 

    

Sarah ZK

 

Princess Sarah ZK

 She has become exactly 

what her name implies:

 a Healthy Princess,

Daughter of the King of Kings.

   

"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery 

to fall back into fear, 

but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons,

by whom we cry, 'Abba!  Father!  

...If children, then heirs -

heirs of God

and fellow heirs with Christ."

Romans 8:15, 17 

The Holy Bible

Marcia and Sarah ZK, 2002

Thanks for stopping by!

Come again, and bring a friend!

Marcia Norwood,
Sarah's Mom
America's STORYTELLER
Telling Untold Stories in Photographs, Prose and Public Speaking

Sarah ZK and Marcia, 2000