Explaining Lillia

(by Suzanne)

Before leaving for China, I asked our friend Yen Wen how to say “we adopted her; she’s from Guangdong”. I figured people would be curious. Are they ever. People do double takes, and talk about us as we pass; I hear “foreigner”, “child”, and occasionally “adopt?” Sometimes they come right out and ask, sometimes they just look so concerned or nonplussed that I feel compelled to explain. After my opening statement, I am often peppered with more questions. So my spiel is now more like:

We adopted her. She’s from Guangdong. When we adopted her she was 10 months old; now she’s five. We live in America, so she speaks English, but she’s studying Chinese in school.

Sometimes at this point I’ll pull out my ipod and show pictures of her in the orphanage (gueryuan). And lately, I’ve added something new. I’ve noticed that of all the many babies we’ve seen, at least 80% are boys. So now I say “wo xiang nuer bi erzi hao” (“I think daughters are better than sons”), just to give them something to think about.