Yet Another Gift Via E-Mail

Be still my heart.  This is the youngest photo I've ever seen of our sweet little man.  He was born in July (most likely),  found in a park in September, and when this picture was taken, had been a resident of the orphanage for a little over a month.  Apparently a copy of this photo was hanging on his crib and one of the nannies remembers that he grabbed it, tore it up, and ate it.   Considering the pink outfit and bunny hat, do you blame him for wanting it destroyed?   Little did he know there was another copy!  And thank goodness.  I will always cherish this darling photo.

The only other photo that I have of him as an infant was taken a couple of months later.  In that time, his hemangioma had already gotten smaller.  I think his birth mother saw it at its worst.  She may have thought that the growth was something more sinister or may have worried that he'd be disfigured for life.  I wish she could see her handsome boy today.  Doctors and dentists have looked in his mouth, shining lights and probing his cheek and can see absolutely no evidence of the hemangioma.  There's not even a scar from the surgery.  He's as perfect as he could possibly be.

Someday I want to return to that park in Kunming and put up a poster, showing photos of baby XiXi and handsome young man XiXi.  It would bring me such joy to think that maybe his mother would see it and that she'd know that her son is happy, healthy, handsome, and loved beyond measure.  She carried him in the womb for nine months, her arms for two months, and I imagine she still carries him in her heart.