Thoughts about LIFE

See him? See how he has grown? Well, I get to be his mom, and that's pretty amazing!

Yesterday in my county, an newborn infant was found. Dead. The baby showed signs of trying to survive. The question is WHY?

The full story hasn't been released, but I'm struggling. We have options in this country! A hospital, a police station, a fire station, a crisis center...any of these places would have taken this baby and found a family that would have taken care of it and loved it. This is senseless!

And then I look at my boy. In China, there is no where to take your baby. Abandonment is illegal in any form, and yet it happens everyday. Babies are also discarded (to put it nicely) due to the one child only policy. If you are familiar at all with China, or not, you should...no you NEED to take the time to read "Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother" by Xinran. She mainly writes about the deaths and abandonments of girls, but we know that children with special needs also fit into this category.

I know nothing of Tyson's birth parents, but I can only imagine their pain to see that their baby boy had a cleft lip...something of taboo in China's culture. It could have meant he was cursed. It definitely meant he wasn't perfect (even though in my eyes he's completely perfect). So as I read that book a few years ago, I thought about the choices that Ty's parents had. Even as I write this, I swallow hard and fight back heavy tears.

I don't believe that we were meant to be Tyson's parents, but through the course of life's events, Tyson was left somewhere to be found so that someone else could raise him. That someone is us. How lucky are we? Just LOOK at him! Yes, the world moves too slow for him, so he goes through life at 100 mph. Yes, he's loud, obnoxious at time. But every morning he comes to me to sit on my lap to snuggle. Every night, he says, "Mom, come read me a book!" because that is OUR time too. He has a mischievous smile and infectious grin. He'll talk to anyone who will listen.

And he has defied all odds. Tyson is a survivor.

And that baby would have been a survivor too, and could have made some family very happy. Instead, the baby is dead.

That's why I'm hugging my boy a little tighter this weekend. His birth parents had to make an awful choice, and I'm not thankful they abandoned him. I'm thankful they loved him enough to take him somewhere that they knew he would have a better life. I hope we are making them proud.