HEFEI, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- As soon as her five children return home from school, Zang Liping, 50, serves up meals while her husband Yang Xingwu helps them wash their hands. The giggles of the children fill the air.
However, the Notes on Oral Administration on the wall and children who appeared clumsy at eating hinted that there may be more to the family than what meets the eye.
Zang's family is among the 13 foster homes in Sunshine Home, an organization that provides family-based care for orphans in the Children's Welfare Institute in Hefei, the capital city of eastern China's Anhui Province.
The institution, established in 2001, has employed 30 couples successively over the years to take care of some 300 orphans with disabilities.
Unlike widely adopted institutionalized care for orphans, family-based care enables children to form stronger bonds with their foster parents and grow under their care.
"We want to create a stable and warm family atmosphere for the orphans and enable them to feel the love from other children and parents," said Wei Zhihui, vice director of Sunshine Home.
The institute offers support for foster parents, including a house with three rooms as well as a monthly living allowance of 800 yuan (about 116.6 U.S. dollars) for each child they care for.
In the case of Zang's family, the stay-at-home foster mom is responsible for taking care of five children with a salary of about 3,000 yuan while the adoptive father goes to work.
Most foster parents in the institution are over 40 years old, and their own children have grown up and started working, giving them more free time to help care for children in the facility.
"My husband and I both love children, and when I first met those orphans, they called me 'mom,'" Zang recalled. "I burst out in tears."
Later, she decided to give up her family business at a local clothing store and enlist as a foster parent for five children.
Orphans living in Sunshine Home all suffered from some form of illness or disability. In Zang's case, the children she cares for have down syndrome, cleft lips and palates and congenital heart disease.
Teaching simple skills takes patience, and Zang could hardly manage all the different needs of the children in the beginning.
"I spent over two years teaching a child how to put on his shoes correctly," she said.
However, they never give up. Over the years, they have taught the children basic life skills and filled their home with toys, books, snacks, plants and family photos.
"We raise them like we raised our own children," said Zang.
Each night, after the children fell asleep, Zang writes in a journal to keep records of the children's growth and the progress they have made.
Their 10-year-old daughter He Feisi was born with severe congenital heart disease. Zang recalled that she was weak and timid when they first met.
Under their care for over eight years, the girl has grown by leaps and bounds, becoming more outgoing and cheerful. Today, she likes to perform on stage and help her parents with some of the housework.
The couple also feels the love of the children. "They can recognize my footsteps and often open the door to throw themselves into my arms when I return home," said Yang.
Over the past eight years, Zang and her husband have raised a total of eight children, among which three were adopted by families in the United States and Spain.
In 2010, China issued a guideline to encourage qualified children's welfare institutes to offer family-based care by buying or renting houses in the community or building apartments inside the welfare institutes.
In recent years, the family-based care model has been launched in many places, including Beijing, Tianjin and Wuhan.
According to Wei, the vice director of Sunshine Home, many children growing up in the institute can find a job in society and live independently in the future.
Wei Dongwen, 30, one of the first children to enter Sunshine Home, is now a dance teacher in Shanghai, and she often goes back to visit her foster home.
"I can never forget how I was bathed in love from my parents. I had low self-esteem and was insecure when I was a child, yet eager for love," said Wei. "The Sunshine Home satisfies the need to be loved."
