Rick was a smart, good looking, sixteen-year-old high school student when he attended my evening English class at the foreign language school where I taught in Lanzhou, China. His parents were both taxi drivers, which meant that they didn’t have much time at home, so Rick was alone a lot.
When we arrived in China in January 2005, we were taken to a large two-bedroom apartment that we were to share for three months with a seventy-two-year-old, American woman from Calif. Her name was Martha and she was there just for short term to help out the school until they could get long-term teachers. Rick was in her English class that I took over later. Rick would come to our apartment often as a solution to his problem of always being alone at home. Rick was also interested in studying the Bible.
One day when Rick came he was very unhappy. Slowly he revealed the reason for his unhappiness. He told us he was very close to his grandparents, his mom’s parents.
One day his grandma was at the hospital, sitting in a chair waiting for something, when a young woman came up to her with a baby and asked her to hold the baby for her. Of course, she agreed and held the baby. But … the mother never came back.
Grandma and grandpa, with the help of the government offices, did everything they could to find the mother but couldn’t. So, the baby stayed with them while the search for the mother took place. She was never found. Grandma and Grandpa decided they wanted to adopt this beautiful baby boy!
This was a huge shock to the family! In China the children are duty bound to support and take care of their elderly parents and all their needs when the parents are no longer able to work. Rick’s grandparents had been retired for some time at this point. Of course, the children in the family were dead set against this adoption and loudly voiced their complaints. A baby is just too great of an expense and the grandparents were told by their children that they could not go through with this adoption. Well, the grandparents were not easily daunted! They were going to adopt no matter how loudly their children complained and ranted and raved. So, Rick, along with the rest of the family, was VERY upset!
By this time, it was February and time for the biggest holiday in China, Spring Festival, which lasts for fifteen days. The first day of the festival is the most important. That’s the most important day for families to come together, a little like our Christmas Day. This was our first time to experience this holiday. Rick’s family invited us to their home for the day.
They picked us up about 10 a.m. that morning and took us to their lovely home. The coffee table was loaded with all types of seeds, which Chinese people love (sunflower, pumpkin, watermelon, etc.) as well as candy and all kinds of fruit and peanuts.
With the one child per family law in China, boys are usually treated as “little Emperors”! However, Rick did not bear this stamp.
Rick again voiced his strong objections to his grandparents adopting this baby. I decided to ask him a question.
I said, “Rick, what if that baby had been YOU?” I wish you could have seen his face and the myriad expressions of emotions that passed over his face in little more than a split second!! It was obvious that his next response was truth!
He repeated my words, “what if that baby had been YOU?” several times and then recognition lit his face. He said, “I never thought of that before! What if that baby had been me?”
I said, “Yes, if that baby had been you, wouldn’t you have wanted someone to give you a good home, and to love you and care for you?”
