The View From Here

Being here now
I see them.
I see them everywhere.
I see them when they were babies in these precious little Asian faces.
I see them as toddlers with their split pants.
I see them as teenagers walking with their friends.
But I also see her.
And I see him.

This morning I was standing in front of our hotel room window drinking my coffee and taking in the sights.

And I saw a mother emerge from her high rise apartment building with her baby wrapped up tightly against the cold.



Maybe she was on her way to work.
Maybe she was on her way to the market.
Wherever she was headed in that moment
I saw her.
I saw both of them.

I saw them and what it must have been like that day.
Did they too emerge from their home one morning with their precious, sick little boy in her arms.
Wrapped up tightly against the cold.
Clutching that baby boy so tightly to her chest.
What must it have been like that day.
What must it have been like to leave your baby.
What must it have been like to have loved him for so long
and
then
leave
him.
It is more than my head or my heart can really grasp hold of.

So instead I will just simply love.
I
will
love
them.

Today is January 16th, 2011.
Their last day as orphans.