The Perfect Pickup

Well, it happened. We picked Mae up and are now back in Taipei. What an incredible experience. It was such a surreal moment when the caregivers walked through the door with Mae in their arms. Another one of those "I never imagined in a million years that I would ever be doing this" moments. I'm still an emotional wreck.

She is very bright and responsive. She learned to walk over the last couple of weeks, but is still shaky. She has a great temperment. She only cried when we had to clean up her hemangioma. It's huge and has a couple of spots where it's bleeding. But otherwise, she smiles and laughes. She doesn't seem as freaked out right now as I thought she would. We'll see how things go. (We're working on pictures).

As we flew back to Taipei, my thoughts turned to the twin concepts of loyalty and commitment. I often wonder where I'd be without both the loyalty and commitment that I've had from my great family, in-laws, and good friends. Mae is no different. Her birth mother and grandmother came to the orphanage yesterday to say good-bye. She left us a note. It has gotten somewhat easy to forget that she has a young birth mom who loves her and wanted what was best for her. Inspite of giving her up for adoption, her mother showed extreme loyalty and commitment. Her mother's committment to her, and that of her family, evidenced itself by making the decision to send her to the orphanage, knowing they simply could not provide the life for her that she deserved. I was impressed that she came back to say goodbye. She has asked that we send pictures every year. She knows we're in the States, but doesn't have a clue where Utah is.

I contrasted that idea with the incredible loyalty and commitment of the caregivers at St. Lucy's. They really loved her. A couple of them had a really hard time saying goodbye. One girl is a college student who came to the orphanage today just to say good bye. I was so grateful to them for the committment they made to care for her over the last year. They gave her all they had for the short time she was there, but knew that she couldn't stay there either. Again, committment evidencing itself by giving all you've got to a person for the time you've got with them, however long or short.

I've been inspired today. Inspired to give more of myself to those I love and to commit myself to helping them achieve joy in life.

More tomorrow. Unless Sara wants to add something.