Good Morning, Saigon !

Grande première dans  « La Gazette de Shanghai » : Julie écrit ! Elle nous raconte, en anglais, la langue dans laquelle elle se sent le plus à l’aise, comment elle a vécu l’arrivée de Luna dans la famille…

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My mother gave birth to two children, my brother and me. Then my Dad and her decided that they didn’t want anymore children. But then Luna came up to their mind.

It all started when we moved to China seven years ago. Life went on just fine. Dad and Mom would go to work and Tom (my brother) and I would go to school for six hours, come home, do homework, have dinner, and go to bed. I guess our life was like most people ordinary life. On my Dad’s birthday he asked for another baby. My Mom didn’t say no but she certainly didn’t say yes. She said that we are happy us four together and that she thought that two kids were enough. But some how it stayed in her mind.

After a few month had gone by, Mom told us that she was going to start working at the orphanage. We were all so glad for her. She would work there three times a week in this room of children from about a few month to five years old. When she came home from her first trip to the orphanage, she was so excited and told us how they were all so cute. I specifically remember her mentioning a little girl that sat in the corner of the room just about eighteen month old. A little baby with almost no hair. Her name was Ling An Hong. A Chinese name of courts. « Ling » was for the year they found her, « An » for the month, and « Hong » for the Chinese good fortune color red. We all thought it seem like a jail number.

Overtime when my Mom would come home, she would always have some cute and funny stories to tell. In her stories, she would always mention that cute little girl with eye as dark a coal in shape of a fish. The little girl that smell vanilla cream. The little girl with skin softer that the emperor’s silk robe.

One evening at dinner Mom said that she had something to tell us, something important. I emptied my mouth from the spiced chicken curry she had made that evening. The smell of the spices tickled my nose. I looked at my parents in a scared kind of way. My brother on the other hand didn’t even look up. His eyes where fixed on the pile of vegetable he had been sorting out on one side of the plate saying that that pile he wouldn’t eat. He knew very well that my Dad was still going to force him to eat them.

Mom smiled and cleared her throat. These are her exact words (but in French of course): « Kids, Dad and I have been thinking, and we have come to a conclusion : if it’s OK with you, I guess that we might adopt !!!! »

I was frozen on my seat. I didn’t even realize that thin cool breeze coming out from the ajar window. Finally when I could speak again I jump into their arms and cried of joy. I can really tell you what my brother’s reaction to it was, but when I finally turned around to look at him, I saw him with a big smile jumping up and down on the couch.

We were told to not tell anyone till it was sure. That was very hard. But for Christmas, yes indeed, we had the cute little girl with the eyes as black as coal. The little girl that smelled like vanilla cream. The little girl with skin softer that the emperor’s silk robe. The little girl that now goes by the name of Luna meaning, in Chinese, « dew in the morning ».

It will soon be the third Christmas we spend together. Luna has changed a lot since the orphanage. She can walk and speak French. She loves to go to school and see other children. She seems really happy with us… ☼

Julie