Yesterday we went for a long drive to find the small village where Kai was found. Like with Hannah, I carefully considered whether to talk about this. Many people feel like it is such a private part of the adoption story that belongs to the child only, and will not share it. I understand that view completely, and totally respect it.
This is not a fun part of Kai’s past. It is not the same as playing with his friends at Little Flower. This makes us seriously reflect on what it means to be orphaned. To be left, helpless and alone, as a tiny baby.
I choose to share this part of the story because I want people not familiar with what happens every day in China to understand.
In China you have to pay upfront and in full for surgeries. There are so many people who just cannot do this. If they give birth to a baby who needs immediate surgery, as Kai did, or several months down the road, as Hannah did, then they either have to fund it, not have the surgery and watch their child die, or do the most selfless act they can do and abandon their child in a place where they will be find hoping that then their child will receive the care it needs from the government when in an orphanage.
It is a truly broken system. It is heartbreaking for all concerned.
So we will tell our sweet blessings from China that they were loved. We will tell them that their parents did everything in their power to keep them safe, and ultimately loved them enough to give them away in order to give them a chance to live.
And we will pray every day for change so that someday families will not have to face a choice that no one should have to make.
