A Prayer Answered

As I struggled this week with the realization that our son has always been in the orphanage, I prayed that he was being cared for and that the idea of love and family wouldn't be a completely foreign to him.

Through a Yahoo group, I received a message from a woman who brought home a teenage daughter just recently from Yun Xi's orphanage.  She reassured me that her daughter is kind and loving and very well-adjusted.  Her daughter reported that the children were arranged into "families" and that she was very close to her "siblings".

I sent her a picture of Yun Xi, hoping that possibly she might have known him.  Her mother wrote back saying that her daughter saw his picture and yelled, "Xi Xi!!! Xi Xi!!!  He was my little brother!"

I wrote the mother back immediately.  I had so many questions for her daughter!  With the use of a translator, she gave me such a precious glimpse into Xi Xi's life.  She said they lived in a dorm-style room and that each child had a locker and that there was a large window into a beautiful garden.  She said that she'd known Xi Xi (what an adorable nickname) from his infancy and can remember him taking his first steps!  She told her mother that we shouldn't worry because he's "a very obedient boy" with "a bright and smiling face" and "a very loveable personality."

Coincidentally, at the very same time that this sweet young woman was meeting her family in China, we were praying over her little brother's file.  I told this girl's mother to tell her that she'll always have a special place in our hearts for loving our little boy before we could.

What a delightful and immediate answer to prayer.  Xi Xi has been loved and even in the orphanage has had a "family" where he's been cherished and where a big sister cheered on his milestones, like learning to walk.  And in this family, he's watched his siblings leave to forever homes with mommys and daddys of their own.

Soon it will be Xi Xi's turn.