Xinying was 4 years old when she was sent to Liu's home. Liu tried to teach her how to call her "mom" every day. But over a year passed and Xinying still did not know how to pronounce it. Liu was anxious.

On a fall morning in 2016, Xinying suddenly opened her mouth and called out "mom" twice. "I was too excited to say anything, and urged her to call me several more times," Liu said.

The orphanage calculates a birthday for every child based on a health assessment when they were received. Yiding's birthday is on May 12.

May 13 marked the last Mother's Day Yiding spent with Liu. According to regulations, foster children have to be transferred to a social welfare institute when they turn 18. Yiding needs to leave the home where she has spent the past 15 years.

Liu knows that Yiding must go and learn to be independent, but she said she hates saying goodbye to her daughter.

"I taught her some basic embroidery skills and hopefully she can find a job," Liu said. But she knows that Yiding's future is full of uncertainty.

Liu has spent 15 years raising orphans by herself. "Including my own, I'm proud to say that I have 12 children," she said.

In Huifeng village, in Yinchuan's Yongning county, 100 disabled orphans are now living with 57 foster families. Over the past 17 years, 328 children have lived in 102 households.

Yang Jinkai, 27, was lucky to spend his childhood in a foster home. He now has a job and is comfortable interacting with society.

"In addition to material satisfaction, I found psychological comfort from my foster parents and siblings," Yang said. "Without them, I would have become a kid without parents."

Du Yong, head of the Ningxia children's welfare home, said compared with children who are raised in a welfare institution, children from foster families are emotionally healthier. The parent-child relationship and family life are valuable throughout their whole lives.

Wang Jin, director of the welfare home's family foster-care center, agreed.

"As people like us, orphans have the desire and are entitled to live with a family and feel the warmth extended by people around them," Wang said. "They have been abandoned once. Society cannot let them be abandoned again."

Xinhua