You know when you know....

You know, when you know that someone is having a hard time?

This is how it was for me, the day I met this beautiful Foster Mama and her 2 Treasures....

She smiled, said all the right things, but something in my heart told me that there was more...

so I probed, asked, asked again, got Mathew to ask, and sat and listened whilst I was told over and over again that she was ok, her needs were met and all was fine.

So why couldn't my heart settle?

Why as a mother of twins did I not accept these answers? Having 2 able bodied babes was hard enough, this amazing Mama had 2 babes with many Special Needs!!! Surely she had needs of her own???

So.... it had to be me, I was asking the wrong questions, i was assuming too much, maybe all the info was getting lost in translation...mmmm.....

it was time to back off and have a prayer and a think....

everyone looked happy, just time to sit back and enjoy...

and then all of a sudden, we were alone, me her and Huang Qing, time to ask again....

Mama, are you sure that there is nothing that can make your life with the children a bit easier?

Maybe some equipment? anything that would just take the pressure of a wee bit?

and as she relaxed, a smile came across her face, and a nod and a request....a pushchair.

A pushchair so she wouldn't have to carry both boys, one on her front, one on her back, to the shops, to the clinics, to where ever she went, a pushchair to ease her strain!!!!

And so the chase was on, I asked Mathew, who asked the Orphanage Director, who agreed to drive us to the shop, where we debated, tried, chose and un chose, the Queen of Pushchairs, which could fit, if Mama wanted, her 2 children in it.

So back we came, racing against time, (Mrs Greenshields runs a tight schedule) and showed Mama what we had found....she liked it, but the little one will have to get used to such a contraption.

But the best for me was when we all tried to fold it down and put it back up again and try as we might we couldn't work it out.

It took Ossi, an engineer, to finally sort what was fast becoming an embarrassing situation : )

how to fold and un fold this new contraption!!!

He sorted it, a shout of praise rang out in the hotel lobby and we were off again....

a quick photo, before we had to leave...

I left with so many questions in my mind....why did it take so long for her to voice her needs, how does she smile when her needs are so great, why is the world so unbalanced, why is life so hard for some....

but as I sat in our bus, mulling things over I was overcome with a sense of awe, that here I was in this wonderful nation that is China, sharing in a small part of a fellow woman's daily struggle and in it all, all I could remember was her smile.

And woman are doing what they have been doing so well all over the world, for millennia, loving, caring, supporting and smiling, through life's many challenges on a very real, daily basis.

Much love

xxx

Shawn