Monday, November 2, 2009

Orphan Sunday, 11/8: What good will it do?

(Orphan Sunday, 11/8, makes me think of our adoption story, which begins here.)


Part 3


In October 1995 I visited friends in Asia. Later, I wrote about an one afternoon with them.


In the crib room of a government home, I see babies and toddlers who can’t toddle. One is hydrocephalic and can’t raise his head. One has frequent convulsions. A newborn is so frail, she probably won’t be here next week. Most lie lethargic. One child shrieks piercingly at intervals, and the others, hearing him, whimper.


I walk from crib to crib and lay a hand on one child and then another. I reach for bare skin – my palm resting on stiffened hair, with fingers caressing forehead or ear or nape of the neck. Tears fall from my eyes, and I pray. For peace for this moment and for God to give this little one happiness she can understand. Each falls silent as I touch her and pray. The room becomes peaceful.


In the midst of them is Wen Qing, a solemn old lady of a toddler, standing on the bare oilcloth of her crib, watching silently. She’s the size of a 9-month-old, but she’s probably 2 or 3. An older child gently lifts her over the crib rail and stands her on the floor.


Holding my finger, Wen Qing wobbles around on stiff, straight, unpracticed legs.


Why is she here? Because she’s a girl? The older child looks up at us, “This is a case to pity, isn’t it?” Wen Qing will remain in this crib room until she dies or is able to walk out and join the children in the next-older house.


The older girl is Qiu Ying – Autumn Hero.“What a handsome name! Were you born in the autumn?” She gives a one-sided smile,exasperated, sad smile:“How should I know?”


She's 13, but looks 10, and walks bent forward because of a growth at the end of her spine. No one is sure what it is. Even if they did know, what could they do about it?


Qiu Ying shows us around the compound, which is neat and fairly well cared-for. Everyone here, from newborns to the very elderly, shares the same surname – Dang – which means “The Party”, telling the world that they have no mothers or fathers to give them a name, and so are wards of the state.


With Qiu Ying and Wen Qing lodging themselves in my heart, I think about adoption. “What good will it do in the midst of the orphan tragedy in this nation,” my American friend asks, “to remove just one or two children? And besides, the children in this small provincial institution are not registered for adoption, and maybe won’t ever be.”


We put Wen Qing back into her crib and Qiu Ying holds our hands as we walk toward the front gate. Just then, the porter runs past us, cradling a cardboard box found at the train station. A newborn lies swaddled inside.


“Will you be back?” Qui Ying asks.


I can’t bear to think or say no, and so I say, “I don’t know.”


In English she says what she must have heard from other visitors, “See – you – tomorrow.”


I have prayed and wept for Wen Qing and Qiu Ying, whom I may never again see on earth. My friends who live near the girls wrote me later. They had accompanied a surgeon when he visited, but Qiu Ying was too scared to let herself be examined. And they didn’t see Wen Qing in her crib. Perhaps she had walked to the next-older house. Perhaps.


I'll try to explain next time how this story is somehow part of our adoption story.


(to be continued)

(Picture of the 2 little girls)

Part 4

5 comments:

Denny & Bonnie said...

Thanks for sharing this moving experience. It has truly touched our hearts and we continue to pray for God's leading in our lives as to whether He has some form of ministry to orphans as a part of our future.

These Three Kings said...

Wow....thanks for sharing.. I cant wait to hear the rest..my heart is so bruden for the orphan/fatherless of our world...may the LORD continue to send godly couples such as yourself to display the KINGDOM of God to them.
Grace to you
Nicole

roBUT & loLER said...

As an adopted orphan from Asia myself, I am very moved by your post. It's such a great reminder of God's compassion and grace for His children, and how He asks His children to be good stewards of that compassion and grace.

Anonymous said...

In a few minutes a baby girl will cry in her crib...and I will be the one to pick her up because I am her mother. She came home from China a year ago. Abandoned because of a deformity of her ear. The difference that adopting one orphan can make is enormous for my Lydia.

Thank you for sharing this powerful story that brings me to tears as I remember seeing for myself the orphanage that my other daughter called home for the first year of her life. I look forward to the rest of your story with great joy! --Andrea

Amanda said...

I am so moved by your story - my daughter's last name used to be Dang. But 3 years ago she received a new name, a family, and a heritage. Although we can't help every child, we can do what the Lord has called us to do, and one at a time HE CAN make a difference - in their lives and in our own! I pray for those precious children who are forgotten by the world. Praise God that He has not forgotten them.