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For the sake of love
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Wu Yan
SINOLINK Garden housing estate houses a very unique family, four members all who have different family names. The husband, Michael Back is an American who commutes to Hong Kong daily by the Sinolink shuttle bus. The wife, Zhou Zhou is from Shanghai and the two six-year-old girls come from a quite unusual family--the city's orphanage in Shenzhen Social Welfare Centre.
The couple have the two girls with them every weekend. "We want to give them as much as possible a family," said Back. "You see, we have turned our home into a children's centre," said Zhou smilingly. The couple's semi-circle living room is crowded with toys and other children's things. This is quite different to what it used to be like before the children came. "We used to have a quiet home," Zhou said.
Maomao, one of the kids, has an obvious illness - albinism. "If we could, we would adopt Maomao," said Mr Back. "An albino is considered disabled in China, and that will make her future life more difficult. The sun doesn't agree with her, and her eyesight is very weak." Maomao also appears to have a lower than average mental ability.
The other child, Yinglian is a hepatitis B carrier. "I suffer from the same illness, so I know how to take care of her," Zhou said.
Asked why they want to give the children a weekend home, Zhou said that a newspaper article about weekend adoption inspired her. Back talked about his experience of helping poor children in his home country.
While I was there, the children talked a lot and happily played around the house. Asked what she thought of "uncle" and "auntie", Maomao just smiled and answered: "Good" without moving her eyes away from a photo album. When Yinglian was asked the same question, the playful expression disappeared from her face and she moved to hold the shoulders of Back, tears welling up in her eyes.
While I was there, the children talked a lot and happily played around the house. Asked what she thought of "uncle" and "auntie", Maomao just smiled and answered: "Good" without moving her eyes away from a photo album. When Yinglian was asked the same question, the playful expression disappeared from her face and she moved to hold the shoulders of Back, tears welling up in her eyes.
While I was there, the children talked a lot and happily played around the house. Asked what she thought of "uncle" and "auntie", Maomao just smiled and answered: "Good" without moving her eyes away from a photo album. When Yinglian was asked the same question, the playful expression disappeared from her face and she moved to hold the shoulders of Back, tears welling up in her eyes.
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