Meeting Lily

Monday December 19^th started early.  We left our hotel in Beijing at 5:30 and headed to the airport to catch a 7:45 flight to X’ian.  Having no “frequent flier status” on Hainan Airlines we were squarely in economy class and Christian’s view of flying took a radical turn from the upgrade he had experienced on the flight over.  It was a two hour flight to X’ian.  We met our guide “Rae”, and she took us to our hotel to check in.

X’ian is one of the oldest cities in China and was home to many emperors.  The drive from the airport to the hotel was riddled with mounds that were ancient burial tombs of the emperors and their families.  Later in the week we will go to the one of these tombs that is home to the Terra Cotta Soldiers.

Our appointment with the civil affairs office was scheduled for 4:00 so we had about 5 hours to kill before we would meet Lily.  Rae told us that Lily was from an orphanage about 200km away from X’ian in a remote mountainous area south of X’ian.  One of her teachers at the orphanage had driven her to X’ian this morning and she was in town waiting for the appointment.  It was strange walking around X’ian those five hours knowing that our little girl was in the same town waiting for the big meeting.

About 3:30 I gathered our family together in our hotel room and we all prayed together thanking God for bringing us to the point in our journey and asking Him to bless this meeting.  There was a peace and an excitement as Rae walked us down the block (walking down the block is too tame a description – think of walking ON Independence avenue, against traffic, at rush hour and you start to get the picture). We walked into a non-descript, government building and went up to the second floor.  We opened an office door and there stood Ling Sheia (Lily) with her teacher.  She was all bundled up in her winter coat and pensively looked us over.  We were introduced as mama, baba, and gege (mommy, daddy, and brothers).  We got down on our knees and gave her a hug, in my best Mandrain I said “Washur baba, wa I nee” (I am daddy, I love you). 

We brought a small backpack with some gifts for her.  We handed that to her and helped her open it up. She started to light up as she pulled out a coloring book, colored a few sections and then turned back to the back pack.  Pick-up sticks, a bag of cookies, a matching game, a doll, and a brush all came out one by one.  She opened the cookies and went around the room giving one to Ruthi, Drew, Christian, her teacher, and I before taking one for herself.  Drew and Christian showed her how to play various games while Ruthi and I attended to some paperwork.  Within an hour we were off to get some passport photo’s taken for Lily and then a quick shopping trip.  She quickly grabbed Ruthi and my hand as we walked the street of X’ian.  We felt blessed.

 
Back in the hotel room, Lily continued to play with Drew and Christian and was quickly introduced to “Harry” – a favorite puppet of Drew’s (Harry has a long history with our family).  Quite suddenly, Lily got quiet and started to cry. Ruthi held and consoled her but it was apparent she wanted to talk to her teacher.  She had a book with notes from her friends, teacher, orphanage director that she opened and pointed to the phone numbers.  We tried unsuccessfully to get a hold of her teacher.  We called Rae and she talked to her over the phone – I am not sure what she said but Lily responded and wiped away the tears.  Rae encouraged us to turn on the TV and find a Mandarin kid’s show and just hold her and watch it with her.  We found something and Lily slowly relaxed.  Ruthi was able to help her get a bath, which she seemed to enjoy.  She put on brand new pajama’s Ruthi had brought from home and she smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror.  She climbed into bed, Ruthi laid down next to her and they both fell asleep.   A long, special day comes to an end.