Musings on Xinran's Book

I finished Xinran's book. It was a tough read. If you haven't read it, and your a China parent, I recommend taking the advice of the other travel families from our group. Take it slow, reading only a chapter a day. Give yourself time to mull it over and digest what you've read. It's not pleasant, happy, and it doesn't give you a warm fuzzy feeling. But, that's not what I expected. What I got in return satisfied my constant curiosity over what drives people to abandon children. As a person from Western society, the topic confounds me.

Yes Mommy, you make take my picture, but only if I can have crazy hair.

Reading the book peaked my curiosity. I think about and pray for Sidney's birth family on a daily basis. That they might find the resources they need, if they are living in a difficult situation, but mostly I pray they find peace. I don't know why it's been my constant prayer. I guess I sense there is pain on their part. Pain they couldn't take care of their daughters health, pain from abandonment, and sorrow the situation couldn't turn out differently. Abandonment is tragic for the child, but it's also tragic for the parent. Xinran tells this part of the story well. It was also a reminder, my daughter has a whole other story I will never know or understand, and Tom and I have the responsibility of helping Sidney find a place of contentment. Of course, my beliefs tell me some day, Sidney will meet her birth mother. It just won't be in this universe.

And just as I have a serious conversation, I look up to see Sidney attempting to balance a spoon on her nose. Where did all this spunk come from?