The Place Where Maggie Was Found

On our itinerary, it said we were going to go to the "abandonment site." I prefer to think of this location as the place where Maggie was found. To me it is the "site of salvation." Before we agreed to go, we spent some time talking with Lina and with our driver to better understand this location. It was a separate district, about one and half hours driving from the welfare home (orphanage). Essentially, it was a suburb on the outskirts of Xiamen. By the description from the "registration form", it appeared that it was an intersection...that was the only description; a cross street. It was described as the XinXu intersection. XinXu was the name of the village in the district (suburb) of Xiangan. This would be like saying it is at the corner of State St. and 3rd Street, in the town of Geneva in Kane County.

We got on the bus and started driving. Ashley wanted to know where we were going and we tried to explain.. her reaction was something like "great, we're going see some dumb street." They didn't really comprehend it. Maggie was quiet, and I think completely understood where we were going.

As I mentioned earlier, Linda and I cannot believe how much Xiamen is built up. We really can hardly recognize it. Today we counted no less than 12 high rise cranes on the landscape. We walked back to the Holiday Inn Crown Plaza where we stayed 13 years ago. At that time, it was the swanky new western hotel; very new and very modern. It was the tallest building around. It was surrounded by one story older buildings..there wasn't much around. Now, it is considered old, it is a Millennium hotel and it is dwarfed by the surrounding skyscrapers. The little shops in the one story buildings that Linda walked past holding her nose on the way to McDonald's (remember she was pregnant with Becky and the smells of live animals, seafood and dead chickens did not set well with her) are all changed. All these shops have been modernized and replaced with designer hand bags, the Disney Store and many up scale shops.

My reason for relating this story is that Xiamen and the Xiamen area has changed radically from what it was 13 years ago. As we drove through the Xiangan district we were on brand new 4 lane highway, new buildings were everywhere. As we approached Xin Xu the driver took a right turn onto what looked to be the main street of a small town. All the buildings that lined the street were new. He stopped at a little motorcycle repair shop to discuss the location with the locals. He and Lina had long exchanges in Mandarin. We learned that everything along this street had been torn town and rebuilt over the last few years. There used to be intersections along the road, many of them now gone. At first Lina believed that the description of XinXu crossing could have been anyone of the cross streets along that main road.

It was clear that this had been a rural farming community. As we looked down a few alleys, we got a glimpse of what the original buildings looked like. We even saw the foundations of where some had been torn down. Farming families lived here, working the land and living a very labor intensive life. The streets were likely not paved 13 years ago, and the town lived in the little 1 story houses like the one in these pictures.

Just before we were going to leave, Lina made a discovery. The main road we came in on had a street sign (the small road sign in blue that says XinXu Lu). The road we were on in fact was XinXu Lu (XinXu Road). We were standing at XinXu crossing, we were standing at the spot were the couple discovered Maggie. We believe she as left there by her mother or family. Based on these surroundings, one might imagine that the locals in this area were all farmers. Farmers rely heavily on their sons to help work the land and to care for them in their old age. With a one child policy, having a daughter would be a great hardship if you and your wife were rural farmers. So, it is not hard to image a situation where Maggie was born to such a couple, and they were faced with a gut wrenching decision. Realistically, they had options, several of which are abhorrent to even imagine. Thank God they chose the path they did. This one single decision, to leave Maggie at that intersection, changed so many lives for the better, and also showed the tremendous love this mother had for her new born baby. Linda and I still say a prayer for Maggie's biological mother...mainly to ask God to be kind to her for making the decision to preserve Maggie's life, and to let her know that the life she brought into this world has brought immeasurable joy to so many.

Before we got back on the bus, we stopped and took pictures with the locals that were at the motorcycle shop. I couldn't help but look at the young ladies and think, this could have been Maggie. One decision, by one individual has changed so many lives...and made these lives so much richer than they otherwise may have been. But for me, none of this was a matter of chance. I believe that from the moment Maggie was conceived, God's plan was for her to be ours. It matters little how you enter this world...what counts is what you do while you are here. I don't care how Maggie got here. I only care that she got to us.