Lost in the Mail!!!!

I was asked by the Christian Writers Guild curriculum to write a 4-6 scene personal narrative (kinda like a short memoir) about a time in my life and send it to my mentor. She would critique it and send it back to me. She suggested that I publish it! Well, it hasn't been to any editor's desk yet, but I want to post it here anyway. Feel free to comment or critique further! Here it is:



The roof shaded the walkway of the second-floor shops from the glaring sun. I walked out of the theater where I had just finished taking an acting lesson. My mom, Tracy, and my brother, Brant, were coming to meet me.



"Hey," Mom said in her friendly, glad-to-see-you manner as I enveloped her in a hug.



"We got our referral," Brant said, answering the question I longed to ask.



"We did?" I replied eagerly.



Mom's blonde hair swished slightly as she turned her head to fix her blue eyes on Brant. "No we didn't."



His chocolate eyes looked at me incredulously as we walked to the car. "You honestly believed me?"



"Where are they?" I asked.



"I don't know," Mom said disappointedly.



On the way home, we chatted animatedly about my class. However, the referral was still in the back of my mind.





A year earlier....



Darkness held its temporary reign over the snow-strewn land. The night was cold and peaceful, with the stars shining overhead. A tiny house, tucked away in a small village in Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, was doubtless one of the happiest homes in the world that night. Its four inhabitants, Dad, Mom, me, and my brother were practicing a Valentine's Day tradition in our family.



Dad gave his us gifts, starting with a joke or some candy. He'd end with a more serious thing, such as an inexpensive toy.



"That's it," he said, saying what he said after every single object he brought out. "That's everything."



Brant and I looked at him half-expectantly, attempting to feel out if he meant it. Eventually, we began to become interested in our gifts once more.



"Oh, I've got one more thing. Tracy, you get on the couch, too."



Bewildered, my mother obeyed him. She positioned herself with her face down in the couch's back cushion with her hands behind her back in the way that we did when we were receiving our presents.



He came back from his room and placed something in our hands. My inquisitive fingers wandered up and down the object, trying to guess what it was.



Newspaper? I wondered. But why would Dad give us newspaper? Could this possibly be what I think it is?



"Okay, you can look now."



We turned around. A scroll of lined paper, secured by a rubber band was in our hands. Removing the band, we unrolled the papers.



A thrill of exhilaration ran through me. Over the past six months, I had written Dad contracts (we got our dog under a contract, so why not try for what I wanted most?) and letters, pleading with him to adopt a child. We didn't even know that he had saved them, and yet here four of them were.....signed!!!



I looked up at my mom. Her eyes wer already crimson and teary. "Honey, are you serious?"



"Yep," he said, nodding.



Next thing I remember, my father was sitting on the love seat, dazed as my mother sobbed tears of joy onto his shoulder. I flung myself onto his other shoulder, thanking him and laughing at Mom's tears as my own spilled down my face. Brant just witnessed the joyful scene, laughing at the two of us......



And now, over a year later, we still had no information. No, we didn't even have a picture, of our precious bundle from China.







Mom went to check her adoption internet group for any signs of referrals (the packet that contains the baby's information and picture). As she came back into the living room, I asked, "Any news?"



"They're lost in the mail."



Lost in the mail! I thought. After waiting all this time?!



I sank down into the leathery comfort of one of our living room chairs. After a while, Mom asked, "What's wrong?"



"Nothing. I was just so expecting to get it today."



"God is in control."



The next few days, we heard no news of our referrals. Furthermore, we weren't the only ones. Sixty-four of the referrals from the agency Great Wall and all of the referrals for our agency, CHI (Children's Hope International), were nowhere to be found.



"If they don't find them soon, they'll have to redo them," Mom told me and Brant.



"And how long will that take?" I asked.



"I don't know."



The days passed. What Mom read got worse. The Center of Chinese Adoption Affairs told Anna, a girl working for the neighboring CHI, that they had no tracking number for the destination that she requested. But they did have a tracking number for Children's House International (also a CHI) in Utah.





Once I was in bed that night, I contemplated our situation. Where was our baby? Was she happy or sad? Was someone giving her the love that we couldn't yet show her? Mom had so often said that, "God is in control," but waiting for God to do what we wanted when I could see no reason for it, was hard. I sighed, remembering the prayer that Mom had prayed that night.



Oh God, I prayed, like Mom said, help the referrals to be found soon, but if it's not to be, then so be it.





My feet hastened down the hardwood steps to retrieve the ball that had rolled down the stairs. I began to give it to my brother, for it was his turn to try to score at my goal in our homemade game that was somewhere in between soccer and volleyball.



The phone! We froze momentarily. Without a word passing between us, we we dashed down the very same steps that I had just ascended. Just the day before, Children's House International had called our agency to affirm our suspicions; they had received our referrals!

Mom was already answering it. "Hello?"

Brant grabbed for the camera as I just stood and eavesdropped on the part of the conversation that I could hear. Flashes went off from all angles as Mom asked questions and wrote down all of Mary's answers on a sheet of paper that had been laying near the phone, poised and ready for the call. So far, the following information had been filled out:

"Chinese name: Xi Ai Mei

Province: Anhui, Dingyuan SWI" (SWI is an orphanage)

"What's her date of birth?" Mom asked. 7-17-05 appeared on the page. Our little girl was a mere 7 1/2 months. The call that we had awaited for such a long time had come!



Two months later.....

The hallway of the Civil Affairs Center in Hefei, China was lined with foreign families. They searched the faces of each baby, hoping to find the slightest detail that would give it away as the child they had prayed for, thought about, and held dear from thousands of miles away. A nanny smiled at us joyously, probably trying to hide the pain she felt by mixing it with the joy she had for the baby in her arms.

Suddenly, a little girl in a man's arms bent backward and looked straight in my direction. Recognition struck me. My sister!

"Mom, I think I see Brielle!"

"Where?' she replied quickly.

I pointed towards her. Mom got Dad to snap a quick photo.

Minutes later, cameras and tears of joy entered the scene as one-by-one, the babies' Chinese names were called out. The families entered a room empty-handed, and left smiling and holding a precious Chinese treasure.

"Xi Ai Mei," our coordinator, Wendy, finally announced. "Whose baby is Xi Ai Mei?"

That name! I had memorized it. I had stared at the pictures of her. I had thought aout her even before she could remember anything at all.

We stepped into the room where we were destined to meet our little bundle of love. Tears flowed over Mom's cheeks as an almost ten-month-old girl with chubby cheeks, thick eyebrows, and beautiful almond eyes was placed into her arms. Another famiy captured the scene with our DVD recorder.

What all the recorders in the world will never be able to capture, however is the feeling which some would call happiness. But, from experience, I think that God alone can put this emotion into words.

I looked into my sister's face. So this was the child that had once only been a letter in my hand, and before that, a dream in my head. We had trusted God, and, once again, He didn't let us down.

The bonding time which followed strengthened my affection for the girl who had once been Xi Ai Mei. She was a nobody in her own land, but, through the miracle of adoption became Brielle Goodrich and means the world to us. There is no doubt about it. We are family.