As we drove away from the orphanage Becky asked if we’d like to see her ‘founding place’ ? ”Of course!” we both replied. We had never expected to be able to see it. We knew that she had been brought to the welfare Institute by a policman but that is all we really knew.
Our driver Mr. Li pulled in front of what looked like a hospital. There were a large number of people, in fact, mostly women and children coming from the building or sitting in places on the hospital grounds. “ This is it” Becky pointed “This is where she was found”. Though Becky didn’t know the exact spot she had been found, she knew it was somewhere on the grounds. We walked into the gate and into the front manicured courtyard. A number of people sat on concrete benches surrounding a fountain. In the fountain was a statue carved from a large white stone. It was the image of a woman looking at a child she was holding with arms outstretched.” Do you know what the name of this fountain is?” Asked Becky. “Love”, she said,” It’s called Love”.
Our driver Mr. Li pulled in front of what looked like a hospital. There were a large number of people, in fact, mostly women and children coming from the building or sitting in places on the hospital grounds. “ This is it” Becky pointed “This is where she was found”. Though Becky didn’t know the exact spot she had been found, she knew it was somewhere on the grounds. We walked into the gate and into the front manicured courtyard. A number of people sat on concrete benches surrounding a fountain. In the fountain was a statue carved from a large white stone. It was the image of a woman looking at a child she was holding with arms outstretched.” Do you know what the name of this fountain is?” Asked Becky. “Love”, she said,” It’s called Love”.
“ Love. Of course it is. Of course that’s what happened” I thought to myself, confirming what I had believed all along. Maylia had not been abandoned or forsaken. She had not been forsaken or cast aside. Maylia was left here with love, by someone who loved her very much and put her in a place where she knew she would be found and cared for. She hadn’t been left by a roadside or in a marketplace nor had she been given up at birth. Our Doctor had told us that it was unusual for her to have been given up at a few months old rather than the first few days of her infancy. Todd and I had always believed that this was a mother who had likely learned of the health problems of her child and felt they were beyond her capacity to care for. The area of Foshan and Guangzhou was an industrial area and commercial centre whose factories employed a great number of migrant workers. Her mother could have been among them, here with few friends or family , scraping by in a simple impoverished existence. At 4 months you have nursed and nurtured a child. You have seen her first smile and heard her first sounds. You have dressed her and cared for her, kept her warm and likely slept near her night after night. I can’t believe that this was only an act of desperation. For Maylia’s sake I have to believe -- and tell her to believe -- that this was an act of love.
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