Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, a little girl was born. To be precise, the time was June 5, 2004, and the kingdom was Qingdao, People's Republic of China. For reasons that will forever remain unknown, her parents could not keep her. Three days after she was born, they wrapped her in a blanket, lay her down at the edge of a wheat field, and then walked away. We may speculate on who they were, and how they felt at that time, and whether they called her by name in their memories. But we do not know those answers, and this is not their story.

This is the story of the little girl who was found by the farmer who worked in the wheat field. She was small, even for a newborn, and she had a large gap in the roof of her mouth and her top lip had three parts instead of one. The farmer could not have known by looking at her that she would be the heroine of a great adventure. But like Moses in his basket, or Taran the High King of Prydain on the edge of a battlefield or Lyra on the steps of Oxford, this seemingly hopeless beginning was just the beginning.

Her first adventure would take place at the age of three, when she would travel the length of China and cross a great ocean to live in an exotic foreign land. But first, like Oliver Twist, she was taken to an orphanage, where she was given a name. Unlike Oliver, her fortunes began to improve immediately, and she was given the name Xuan, Precious Jade.

It was not long before Precious Jade was sent to live with a family. To be precise, it was four months. The mother of this family treated her very well, and fed her the fruit that she loved. The girl grew quickly, and became strong and healthy. She learned to crawl and then to walk and finally she learned to talk. She learned to play outside and play with toys and she became attached to her foster mother, who was a very interesting woman. She was very kind to Xuan, but she could not keep her forever. We might wonder why this is so, but we do not know the answer, and this is not her story.

When she was twenty months old, Xuan was sent to a hospital, and a doctor performed surgery on her lip. After that, it was much easier for everyone to see that she had a very pretty face. At this time, Xuan's story had begun to be quite pleasant. But it was also at this time that her story began to be interesting, although she herself did not know it.

All of the information about Xuan's life was put together in an envelope and sent to a kingdom across the sea, where a childless couple lived and yearned for a little girl to call their own. They saw the picture of Xuan, and read the story of her life so far, and knew that she was the child they had been waiting for. They sent a petition to the Chinese officials in charge, and begged to be allowed the honor of caring for Xuan. At last, their petition was granted. They hurriedly packed their bags and left their home to cross the sea to reach their Precious Jade. To be precise, it was July 25, 2007. And that is when things became really interesting, because that is when the adventure truly began.