Funny Stories
c. 2005 – When we were in the process of adopting our son, Christopher, there was a window of time in which we knew we were getting him, but couldn’t go over there yet. During that time, we were told we could send him a care package. We carefully assembled a package with a blanket and a photo album. In the album, we included a picture of each of our family holding the blanket.
We knew his name was Lian Chen Yang. Leslie had a Chinese friend translate small messages for each page. And on each page, Leslie typed the message “Lian, we love you.” Or “Lian, we can’t wait to meet you.” Then we mailed our personalized package to his orphanage with great expectations.
Unfortunately, we can never be sure if it had much impact. You see in China, they name people last name first. So Lian was his last name, not his first. What is worse, the convention in China is to name all the children in the orphanages after the province in which they were born. Since Chen Yang was born in Lianyungang, his last name was Lian. And so was every other child’s in the orphanage.
posted by Douglas R. Morrissey, MD @ 8:08 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
That's not funny. That's sad. Did you get the album and blanket back when you went to China?
Christal
Love the blog! This reminds me of a book my good friend has. Her mother wrote down virtually every funny or touching moment she witnessed in her children's lives. Years later, my friend's father had all of these "journal entries" bound into a beautiful book. I sat for an hour one evening at her house reading the funny little things she and her siblings had said or done when they were little. It was so sweet. At that moment I vowed to do the same when we have kids. Keep up the good work - they'll cherish it.
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