say cheese

I knew she looked young, but I just couldn't tell why she and 2 other women were carrying Asian babies on the airplane.

So I had to ask.

I walked up to the three white women right after we got off the flight in China and said, "This may sound really weird, but do you all have a blog?"

Lame, I know. I was really uncomfortable about asking outright, "why are you carrying Asian babies" because clearly that would be weird. So instead I opted for the blog route. Everyone has a blog these days, especially infants.

And I was right. The babies do have blogs and tonight as I remembered talking with these women in the airport I searched and found the blog.

These babies are not just any babies. They are orphan babies. I don't know the circumstances or their stories but I know that they have no parents and each of them has a cleft lip.

They were one their way to have surgery funded by Operation Smile. What a beautiful organization. I asked the women to tell me more about themselves because at that point I clearly couldn't keep it together if I knew the babies stories, so they began to share.

They were all volunteers. One of them had been doing orphan work in China for many years, another was a mom from England, and another was a college student. Like it was no big deal the young one said, "yeah, i am just on my summer break so I volunteered to take a baby to have surgery and stay with him in recovery". A college student, from Maine or something.

It was such a brief encounter, but life-changing. I walked away so proud, so thankful, so hopeful that people exist in our world like these women. If this story on June 19th doesn't redeem humanity for you, I don't know what will.