Where there is a mother, there is love

Ma's three children—7-year-old daughter Jingyi, 4-year-old son Yangyang and 2-year-old son Dongdong—are happy to live with her in the Children's Village.

Dongdong never lets Ma out of his sight.

"I love my mom and I love my family," Dongdong said.

Over the coming years, Ma will become a mother to eight children, which is the standard number in an SOS family.

"Sometimes I feel stress taking care of my three children. Fortunately, I have got support and training from the Children's Village," Ma said.

She will live with them just like any other family. "I do the same as an average mother does for her children—cooking, laundry, doing housework, playing games with them and teaching them," she said.

Her eldest daughter, 7-year-old Jingyi, will begin primary school next semester, and Ma is busy preparing her for school life.

Prior to her decision to become a full-time foster mother, Ma was a company secretary with a bachelor's degree.

"I earned much more before. Money is the last reason I chose to be a mother," she said. "I love children, that is the only reason."

Now she and her children live in a two-story house in Children's Village. There are 15 houses altogether.

Ma's bedroom is located on the first floor; two bedrooms with four beds in each are on the second floor. Each bedroom has a toilet and all the furniture and household appliances are brand new. The living room hosts a stack of books that were donated by the public.

She is satisfied with the new house, which she considers an excellent working environment, because she considers being a mother in SOS Children's Village as her job.

"I am a mother, a professional mother," she said.