A glimpse of where Mason came from.

Today I had the once in a lifetime chance to travel and see Mason's orphanage as well as his finding place. The Holt guide and Lotus driver were absolutely amazing. Once in the village, we stopped several times to ask locals for directions to Mason's finding place. This is a photo of our guide asking a woman for directions.

The village where Mason was found was in an area with a mixture of farms (banana fields, rice, corn and other fruit/veggies) as well as factories.

The above is a photo of a banana tree field--not sure if he's a newly planted field or if it's one that's been flooded. I forgot to ask! All farming is done by hand--planting and harvest.

Many little shops lined the streets of this village. The people live in the shops as well as sell things. The people that work in the factories come and buy food/entertainment from these shops when they are off work.
Below is the market place where Mason was found. Likely he was left here at dark so no one could see the mother dropping him off (it is still against the law to do this). Also, it is likely that the mother/father lived in another village and traveled to this village to leave Mason, so that no one would recognize them. We talked to the storekeeper and showed her Mason's certificate which stated the date he was left here, but she did not recall the event.

This is the police station that was then called on 11-30-09. The police came to pick him up and took him to the orphanage, where he lived until a week ago.

Next we headed to his orphanage, about 45 minutes away from the village.

I got to meet the woman who cared for him the majority of the time. She was very sweet. She was concerned with how Mason was adjusting to all the changes. I could tell she had a special bond with him. I also got to see all the kids that he played with/lived with. This little one was apparently one of his favorite friends. They liked to chase each other and hold hands.

This is the room where he spent the majority of his time. They pointed out which bed was his.

The staff visited with me and the Holt guide for quite awhile, asking us questions and answering ours. They described Mason as being very curious, preferring females, and pretty much being the King Tut over all of the other kiddos. I would say those are descriptions that fit him to a T based on what we've observed over the last week.

I am so glad I was able to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to the village where my son was born and also to see the place he lived for 2 1/2 years. We was definitely well cared for and loved. I will be forever grateful to the staff at the orphanage for caring for him and to the biological parents who chose to give their son a life that they could not provide.

It's truly amazing to think about the events that made it possible for Mason to go from the village to the orphanage, then to meet us 3 hours away from that area. The drive was crazy and the world so different 3 hours from here. How much more different it will yet be once we fly 15+ hours to the other side of the world where he will eventually live in Iowa. There's no question about it--God had his hand on this little guy from day one. He orchestrated it all so that we could be a family. No human being on this earth could have made this all happen. I am truly amazed by what I saw today.