The million dollar question

A writing contest was held by our town's Women's League for all the fifth graders from every school.

The question they asked was "What would you do with a million dollars if you couldn't keep it for yourself?"

This is what Jack wrote:

If I had a million dollars but I couldn't keep it, I would give it to the orphanage in China where my sister is from.

You see in 2005, my family had all made the decision to adopt a baby girl from China. So in August of 2006, my family including me went to go get her. When we finally got to the orphanage, there were at least twenty babies, but most of them had unsatisfying pasts.

When we found one of the foster moms, we had asked her "Is there anything we need to know about her?"

I remember she had said some pretty thoughtful things about her. But what I truly remember her saying was... "Your daughter was left at a gas station."

Those words broke all of our hearts and it shouldn't break anyone else's. That's why I would give my million dollars to the orphanage. Half of the million they could use to track and pay the families to repay them for giving up one of their kids.

Also with the other half of the money they can use it to buy products because another thing that I remember was that most of the kids didn't have any toys. They were either sitting down or held by one of their foster moms. So in conclusion, If I had a million dollars there could be a change in China. Making all children and parents happy.


Jack won first place for his class and a check for $150 to go along with it. I never saw what he wrote until the ceremony when he was invited to lunch and to read his essay. Needless to say I was a blubbering tearful fool when he was done.

I was also struck by what he remembered of the day we got Makena when he was newly eight and how it left such an emotional impression on him and not just because he was being asked to open his heart into welcoming a new sister. Jack is and remains a very emotional and empathetic child who really feels things deeply. This essay contest was a great opportunity for him to channel some of his thoughts and for us to talk about it further.

I asked him what he would do with the money and after careful deliberation he decided to donate it to help Makena's orphanage. Either by way of a tuition to help a child with his or her studies or to buy milk for the babies.

EM and the family and I are so proud of him.

We love you, Jack.

Isabelle
PS: For clarification, we never made it to the orphanage. We received Makena in a government office and the foster moms were in fact the SWI nannies. When I asked him about paying the parents, what he really meant was that he would give them the money so that they wouldn't have to give up their children for not being able to afford to keep them.