Miracles Are Made in China

 In China, when you find yourself pregnant, afoul of the one child law, you face severe repercussions for your family, potential loss of job, health care and access to resources.  If you give your child up for adoption, you may be arrested.  Many women are pressed into making desperate choices; leaving their newborns in an outlying area where they will not be seen, or worse  killing their child.

In the early hours of an October morning, 15 years ago, one brave woman risked all of that, wrapped her baby girl up in a basket and left her in front of a bar in the middle of town directly across the street from an orphanage. She was approximately 3 days old.  The police took the baby to the orphanage where they cleaned her up and gave her a name, Ji MeiQin, in english, "beautiful music".  She was placed in a wing with 80 other babies and thus began her miracle.

One year passed. And then one day, in a shabby little room in a social services office in Foshan City, China  an orphanage worker walked in and placed that little girl in my lap and thus began my miracle.  I loved her immediately.  And I would be the only mama she ever knew.  And as I sat staring at every single detail of her, just as I did with my biological children when they were born, I felt a strange pain deep in my gut.  Somewhere nearby was a young woman who would wonder, for the rest of her life, about this baby I held close to me.  I whispered a "thank you" and asked God to put it in her heart.

Because of that brave woman, my daughter, Naomi Mei,  celebrates her 15th birthday tomorrow.  She is light and joy everywhere she goes.  For those of you who know her, and will be wishing her a happy birthday, please remember to ask a special blessing for the woman who made this miracle happen.

I love you, Naomi.  You are a miracle.