Adoption

I played babysitter again today by fetching little Claral from one preschool, giving her lunch, and sending her to another preschool. She is such a sweetie.

Anyway, we were a tad too early at preschool number two. The classroom was not open yet, and we were left standing outside the door. Along came an ang-moh daddy and his little girl, who looked Chinese. We started chatting, and Daddy revealed that his little girl is adopted. She is from Hunan, where she was "found". Her age is estimated to be three by the doctors, and she is given a birthdate too.

Incidentally, this is the second case of such an adoption I have seen since we were here, one between an American family and a Chinese little girl. I begin to wonder if this is the result of China's one-child policy. It is scary to realise how real this is, that little baby girls are literally thrown away and picked up along the streets.

This little girl must be considered one of the luckier ones, with an intact family now. I fear to think about how many more are left unadopted, or did not survive. It must have taken a lot of courage and love for Daddy and family to adopt a little one who is culturally/racially dissimilar to themselves.

It was fun talking to the little girl. She was holding on to her Mummy's scarf, and Daddy explained that it has Mummy's perfume on it. She has a dog and an older brother, and likes the former more than the latter. She likes collecting rocks, and has her pockets full of them. And she proudly showed me her glitter-lip-gloss. She must be the first three-year-old I have met who can say "glitter-lip-gloss" without getting her tongue tied.

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On a not-so-related note, me and Shisheng are planning to be foster parents to another guinea pig! Dr Becker has a whole house of GPs who need TLC, so we will be going down to her place to bring one GP home this weekend.