This guest post was written by Chloe Mooneyham for projectvirtue.com
“We were not abandoned. We were chosen.”
Wow.
I can’t even begin to describe how much I love this quote! I came across it while reading an adoption article a few days ago and it has stuck with me ever since. This empowering statement was written by a woman who was adopted, and I wanted to share it with you all because I truly wish that every orphaned child was adopted and able to speak the words, “We were not abandoned. We were chosen”. Unfortunately, this isn’t a possibility right now. Why?
Because there are over 140 million orphans who are still waiting to be adopted.
140 million.
My heart completely sank when I read that statistic, because I was one of these children at a certain time in my life. Before my second birthday, I was abandoned by my birth mother and my future was destined for a long life of poverty and despair. Thankfully, my life was saved through adoption by the grace of God, and now I want to share my story in hopes of advocating for all the ones who are still waiting to say the words, “We were chosen”.
My story begins in Wuxi, a city in the Jiangsu Province of Eastern China. At the time of my birth in ‘99, the One-child policy was in effect for many regions of China. The One Child Policy and extreme poverty forced many parents to abandon their children or put them directly in orphanages. My birth mother was one of the millions faced with this heartbreaking decision. When I was only fourteen months old, she abandoned me on a busy sidewalk near a local police station. When the police finally discovered me, I was wandering through the middle of a crowded street. The police immediately took me in and I was put in the orphanage soon after.
*Before I go any further, I want to make one thing clear! Since I was only fourteen months old when all of this happened, I have no memory of my abandonment or life in the orphanage. This gray area in my life has been filled in by the police who found me, my mom, and the adoption agency.*
The orphanage that I stayed in was the home of nearly three hundred forgotten children. There were a limited number of caretakers for us, and most of them were poor untrained women from local villages. Every room of the orphanage was overcrowded by endless rows of baby cribs and beds for the older children. The babies would lie in those cribs all day, and would only be held two or three times throughout the day to be fed. It’s heartbreaking to know that many of them would go several hours without any kind of affection or human contact. Because there were so many of us, the younger children were forced to wear several layers of clothing that acted as strait jackets. If we couldn’t move then we couldn’t cause trouble or get in the caretakers’ way. The orphanage was constantly low on food and hygienic supplies. Consequently, all of the children in the orphanage suffered from hunger, poor hygiene, and neglect. During the short six months I was there, I spent so much time in a crib that I completely lost the ability to walk. I also became malnourished and developed a severe skin infection that would last many months after my adoption.
I know all of this sounds pretty sad, but we’re getting to the good part of the story now! While I was in China, my adopted parents and sister were living halfway across the world in Tennessee. When my mom found out she couldn’t have another biological child, she and my dad decided to do an international adoption. They spent over a year working through the adoption process, and when they finally completed the last round of home visits and paperwork, the adoption agency sent them a photo of me!
Shortly afterwards, my mom flew all the way to China to bring me home. Before going to the orphanage, mom got to see a lot of cool places like The Great Wall of China and the Shanghai River, but she said the best part of the trip was meeting me for the first time. Mom said that when I first saw her, I was scared because I had never seen somebody of a different race before. Apparently it took a couple of days for me to really warm up to her, but I was completely attached by the time we were ready to leave for The United States. After a 12 hour flight, our plane landed at the Nashville airport, and we were welcomed home by a crowd of family and friends. (See below)
I think it’s awesome that most of the amazing people that welcomed me home are still a big part of my life today! Along with so many others that I’ve gotten to know and love over the years.
Adoption gave me a second chance at life. It’s honestly overwhelming to think about all the blessings and opportunities that have come from it. I am forever grateful to my parents for opening their hearts to the idea of loving and raising a child that was not their own. I am who I am solely because of them. My parents pointed me towards Jesus from an early age, and as I grew older, they showed me what it means to truly love His people. To me, loving His people includes advocating for them, which is why I wanted to share my adoption story with all of you. I hope that my story has inspired you to consider adopting a child someday or perhaps encouraged you if you are working through the adoption process right now. With each adoption, there is an immeasurable amount of love and sacrifice involved, and I truly believe it is one of the greatest acts of kindness you can do as a Christian. Remember that there are still millions of children in this world that need a forever home. They need to be taught who Jesus is. They need to know what love is. And they need someone like you to show them. Let it be our goal for every orphaned child in this world to say, “We were not abandoned. We were chosen.”
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