An only child, a perfectly ordinary little girl in rural Wisconsin, I wanted sisters more than anything. When I turned seven, my parents made a decision that delighted me beyond measure: they chose to adopt.

　　小時候我是家里的獨生女，是威斯康新州農村的一個非常普通的女孩。那時我特別想要的就是妹妹。我7歲那年，父母做出了一個讓我喜出望外的決定：他們要領養了。

It was Christmastime when my two new sisters, aged 6 and 3, arrived from Colombia. They came with a great flourish of celebration, as friends and relatives visited us bearing gifts to welcome them. That evening our guests went home and we were left to ourselves. My sisters and I went to the bedroom we were to share; as we crawledsintosour beds, our parents came to each of us, tucking us in and saying goodnight.“Te amo,”they whispered to my new sisters in Spanish,“I love you.”

         那是圣誕節期間，我的兩個新妹妹，一個6歲，一個3歲，從哥倫比亞來到了我家。她們的到來帶來了喜慶，親朋好友帶著禮物來我家歡迎她們。那天晚上客人們走后，剩下了我們自己，我和妹妹們走進我們共用的臥室；當我們爬上床時，父母進來了，為我們一一掖好被角并且道了晚安，“Te amo”，他們用西班牙語向我的新妹妹耳語道，“我愛你”。

From the beginning these newcomers were like my own flesh and blood; we played and bickered and learned just as if we had always been sisters. From the beginning we all were my parents' daughters equally, as they supervised and scolded and encouraged us.

      從一開始，新來的妹妹就像是我的親妹妹；我們一起玩，一起斗嘴，一起學習，仿佛我們一直就是姐妹；父母對我們指教、訓斥或鼓勵時，我們都是父母的女兒，誰都不受偏袒。

　Life seemed great. Beneath the surface, however, my parents were struggling with their own marital problems. As we girls were approaching our teen years, my parents uttered the fateful words,“We're getting a divorce.”

   My sisters had been hurt before. They had been dealt a great wound when their birth mother abandoned them, and none of us understood the depth of their inner turmoil. It was a pain that now resurfaced, as the emotions from that abandonment years earlier overwhelmed them.

        生活看上去非常好。然而，在表象之下，父母卻在為他們之間的婚姻問題而苦苦掙扎，當我們姐妹十幾歲時，父母說出了那句致命的話：“我們要離婚了。”

      妹妹們以前就受到過傷害，當她們遭生母遺棄時蒙受過巨大的傷痛，無人能夠理解她們內心的煩亂有多深，而這一痛苦如今又重新浮現出來，早年被遺棄時的情感使她們不知所措。

    We all struggled during this time. My father remarried and strove to provide some sort of stability for us through this new family: another mother, brother and sister. But the bonds between my parents and sisters continued to disintegrate. By the time I left for college, my family was in profound disarray.

        在這一段時間里我們都在苦苦掙扎。我的父親再婚了，并努力通過新的家庭——另一個媽媽、弟弟和妹妹——為我們提供穩定的生活。但父母與我們姐妹間的關系仍在分崩離析。在我離開家上大學時，家里正處于一片混亂當中。

　 During my college years, my outlook on life evolved in significant ways. This personal transformation led my parents and sisters to reevaluate their own lives and make changes that ultimately brought us together as a family. My mother and father have again become great sources of encouragement for us three sisters. They have succeeded in providing our lives with a foundation of stable love. One of my sisters has recently married,and family gatherings are now occasions of happiness and renewal.

　　上大學期間，我的人生觀向著積極方向發生了重大改變，這一切身轉變導致我的父母和妹妹重新評價他們的生活并且也做出改變，這些改變最終把我們帶到一起，真正成為一家人，父母再次成為鼓勵我們三姐妹的巨大源泉，他們成功地為我們提供了以穩定的愛為基礎的生活。我的一個妹妹最近已經結婚，如今家庭團聚是獲得幸福與煥發精神的所在。

　Chinese friends sometimes ask me why I am in China, working at a low salary when I could be prospering in America. It is the experiences I went through while growing up that have made me who I am today. I am on the staff of CBN, a humanitarian organization in Beijing that seeks to help people in distress. Among our many projects, we often work with orphans.

        中國朋友有時問我為什么愿意拿著比在美國要低的工資在中國工作。那是源于我個人成長過程中走過的經歷，這些經歷造就了今天的我。我現在在CBN(世博恩)——幫助有困難的人的慈善組織內工作。在我們所開展的工作中常常與孤兒打交道。

  My colleagues and I have sent a number of orphans to the US and Canada for free operations. One is a little girl named Xiao Chu who was born with a weak heart. She was abandoned as a baby. By age two she was already experiencing shortness of breath and loss of appetite. Her future looked grim. Last January we flew her to Canada for surgery, along with two other orphans with heart problems. The operations were successful, and all three children have since returned.

　我和我的同事把很多孤兒送到了美國和加拿大免費做手術，其中有一個女孩叫肖楚(音譯)，有先天性心臟病，嬰兒時就被遺棄了，兩歲時就呼吸困難，沒有了食欲，她的前景看來很危險。今年1月，我們把她和另外兩個有心臟病的孤兒送到了加拿大做手術，手術非常成功，3個孩子都已經回來了。

  We are also working in some of Beijing's orphanages and schools for the mentally handicapped. Every week we visit various schools, playing games with the children and teaching them English. Not long ago we organized a conference with orphan expert Sherrie Eldridge to define the special challenges that orphans face. The conference was of benefit to orphanage directors and adoptive parents alike.

      我們還在北京的一些孤兒院和培智學校開展工作。每周我們都去不同的學校，和孩子們一起做游戲，教他們英語。不久前我們還組織了一次研討會，請研究孤兒心理的專家雪莉艾爾德里奇講解孤兒面臨的特殊問題。這一研討會對孤兒院院長和收養孩子的父母都十分有益。

    Our charitable organization also provides funds for cleft-lip and palate operations for the poor. One young woman in Gansu, for instance, had spent her life watching the world go by from the refuge of her room, afraid to go outside because of her cleft lip. Now she can leave her house and be a participant in life rather than a spectator.

我們的慈善機構還為家境貧困的兔唇、腭裂兒童出資做手術。比如，甘肅的一個姑娘因為兔唇始終躲在房子里面看外面的世界，不敢走出去。如今她可以走出家門，成為生活的參與者，不再是旁觀者了。

      In western Gansu we have been building cisterns in villages that are short of water. In a region with so little rainfall, some people have to walk great distances to fetch water for their daily needs. Contributions from individuals and companies have enabled us to build over 500 cisterns, each big enough to supply a family of seven for an entire year.

   So this is how I have chosen to lead my life.

      在甘肅西部，我們還為缺水的鄉村建了貯水池。在少雨地區，人們必須走很遠的路去取生活用水。來自個人與單位的捐款使我們建起了500多個貯水池，每個貯水池的水足夠一個七口之家用上一年。

 

　　你看，我就是這樣選擇了自己的生活。

   At one orphanage I visited this past July, I came face to face with two little girls aged 3 and 6. They looked up at me with their cautious brown eyes, and I felt I was once again lookingsintosthe eyes of my sisters fifteen years ago.I realized how much adoption had meant to each of us in my family. Fifteen years ago, my sisters too were sitting in an orphanage, with no one to call their parents and no place to call their home. Now they have both in the unconditional love of my family.

     今年6月我來到北京的一個孤兒院，與一個3歲和一個6歲的女孩面對面，她們的棕色眼睛謹慎地看著我，我覺得自己又一次看到了15年前我的兩個妹妹的眼睛。我意識到領養對我們家庭的每一個成員的意義是多么重大。15年前，我的妹妹也坐在孤兒院里，沒有人能稱做父母，沒有地方能稱做家。如今，她倆生活在我們家中的毫無保留的愛當中。