Hope for a happy ending
When a conversation via charades and our translator app somehow turned to babies, Lydia was inspired to grab an iPad and show him this…
THAT’s why she looks like me. She was an orphan too.
He pointed to Lydia and said “Zhōngguó” (“China”) and then he pointed to the other kids, naming them one by one—”Ash-a-lyn,” “Evan,” “Drew”—and then pointed to my belly.
He understands. He totally understands.
He watched it again with Evan.
He watched it again with Ashlyn.
Since I took that video, he has watched it again and again. When he wants to watch it, he draws the shape of the iPad in the air and says something into my translator app that translates to “Lydia previous small.”
Yesterday, Ashlyn and I stood watching him watch it once again. He doesn’t seem sad at all as he watches. Instead, he names the people he recognizes, smiles, and checks in with us throughout as if to share with us the joy of a happy ending.
Ashlyn said, “I was sad for Lydia that she was in an orphanage for a year. But, he has been there for 8 years.”
There’s no sense in that to me. A friend asked me how I was doing processing this whole thing—hosting a boy for a month who doesn’t speak English, advocating for him, partnering with our children to show him mercy and grace, preparing to send him back to China next week. Not okay was my answer. But, I’m content to be not okay. For his sake, for the sake of all the children who have not yet seen some sort of happy ending, I’m okay to be not okay.
Praying that all this—every tear shed without explanation, every laugh over a silly thing he tries to say, every frustrating interaction to get him to put on his seat belt correctly, every loud chorus of “Happy Day” we scream out in the car together, is somehow being woven together to become part of his own happy ending.
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We are currently hosting the boy MAA calls “Brett” for advocating purposes; our friends are hosting “Jasper.” If you feel the nudge that one of these boys may be your son and you would like to learn more about him, email me and/or Sara, the social worker at Madison who is working hard to find them families too. Note that Madison is offering $3,000 in grants towards each boy’s adoption with possibly more available!
It’s such a catchy song
He had been bopping around singing this song. We thought it was cute. It only took about 3 rounds of it to get us all singing along. It was a catchy one. I even found myself humming it while I folded laundry and the like.
Then, I looked over his shoulder when we were giving him some downtime to watch some Chinese videos on the computer and saw this.
And, I learned that the chorus we had all been singing along to actually meant “wipe my butt.”
Perfect. Just perfect.
Whatever. We have a popular children’s book called Everybody Poops. And, hopefully, no one in the ice cream section at the grocery store understand Mandarin.
America through his eyes
When being in front of the camera did not work at all, we decided to try letting him be behind it. Since the moment we handed him that little red Samsung camera, he hasn’t left home without it.
Here are a few of my favorites from his memory card:
those are cute little piggies.
Clearly, the frog was more interesting than Lydia.
That’s “baby.” Baby sleeps next to him every night and gets lots of hugs and kisses (and sometimes can be found wearing American Girl doll clothes).
Poor GeGe.
That’s my can-I-stop-smiling-yet smile which is slightly more flattering than the following two pictures I found on his camera.
He chose that filter as he photographed Lydia’s gymnastics class.
This is exactly how it was. No editing. No cropping.
I hope these stay in his personal memory card for a long time.
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We are currently hosting the boy MAA calls “Brett” for advocating purposes; our friends are hosting “Jasper.” If you feel the nudge that one of these boys may be your son and you would like to learn more about him, email me and/or the social worker at Madison who is working hard to find them families too. Note that Madison is offering $3,000 in grants towards each boy’s adoption with possibly more available!
