With a lump in her throat and salt water starting to well in her eyes, Kacee Rhodes set foot into the Sri Lankan orphanage she was adopted from almost 30 years ago.
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The enormity of what she was about to experience didn’t set in until she was on her way to Sydney airport.
Her mind had been pre-occupied by plans for her upcoming wedding and organising her dad’s surprise 60th birthday party from a world away in Canada where she now lives.
Kacee hadn’t thought about how emotional things might get when she returned to her birth place with her dad Mark and fiance Phil Jegard.
“Even the days prior to going to the orphanage I had no concept of what I was about to experience,” Kacee said.
After a surprise visit to Maitland for her dad’s birthday, their pair flew to Sri Lanka, meeting up with Kacee’s fiance.
Kacee had two missions – to see where her life began and to visit the orphanage that saved her life.
She had already given the children’s home a donation of $6800, the result of a Go Fund Me page she set up earlier this year.
“I asked the orphanage’s management if they could direct the funds towards education, health care and nutrition,” she said.
Kacee met with the trustees of the orphanage the day before she visited. “They expressed their gratitude for the donation and were very excited I was going to visit the home,” she said.
“They asked a lot of questions about my life, my family and listened to dad’s stories from 30 years ago and provided updates about a child that my dad remembered from his first visit to the orphanage.”
Kacee, a nurse, was also interviewed by representatives from an advertising company who were creating a campaign to help raise awareness about the children’s home in the hope of gaining more donations and support.
Kacee’s first stop at the orphanage was to the home’s nutrition centre which looked after orphans aged four weeks to three years.
“This was the one that broke me,” she said.
“We were taken into a room where there were about eight cots, each with the most precious little angels occupying them. My heart broke when I looked into their eyes and wondered how anyone could possibly abandon one of these beautiful little souls. They were all so innocent and perfect.
“Then my heart and soul were completely stolen by a baby girl named Bahhundee. The instant she looked into my eyes with her angelic big brown eyes, gorgeous long lashes and adorable big smile, I was in love, the kind that would move mountains just to see her smile again. It was the kind of love I knew was only 1/100th of what my mother must have felt when she saw me for the first time when she and dad adopted me.
“She looked up at me from her cot, smiled, held her arms up to me, telling me she wanted to be picked up and the instant I held her I said “well I guess I’m not putting you down ever again”.
“It was then that I knew all those fund raising efforts from everyone who contributed was well worth it,” Kacee said.
Next stop was the toddlers home for three to five-year-olds.
“How I didn’t break down crying is beyond me. They were all so beautiful, so happy, so precious. They all turned around and said good morning in the happiest way. They were absolute perfection.
“It was clear these little ones were being well looked after. They were all clean, healthy, well nourished and happy. The orphanage is doing an amazing job,” she said.
In the girls’ home there were about 40 girls aged between five and 18, all princesses according to Kacee and curious as to who she was.
“All of these children have their own unique story about how they ended up in the home, stories I was dying to know but I also knew it would break my heart if I ever found out.
“Then every happy memory I had as a child came flooding back, each one was like taking a bullet because I knew if it wasn’t for this home taking me in as a baby and if I was never adopted I wouldn’t have those happy memories or the life I live.
“It was clear that the women who worked in the home had nothing but love to give these children which was the only way I was able to leave Bahhundee, knowing she and all the other children are well taken care of.
“It breaks my heart to know that some of these children will never be adopted or have a wonderful childhood as I did,” Kacee said.
“I was one of the lucky ones. I was shown only love.”
