the birthmother talk

Tonight, Mae made quite a connection between her earliest days and the adoption books we read. We were reading At Home in this World and the lines about the birthparents leaving the baby in a crowded market and her subsequent trip to the police station, followed by the orphanage, spurred quite a discussion. Usually, it begins with "Where did I get leaved, Mama?" and I reply, "At the orphanage, honey." and we move on. Tonight, she said "Did I go to a police station, Mama?" "No," I said. "Your birthparents left you right at the gate of the orphanage. Wasn't that thoughtful?" She regarded me seriously for a minute and then got off my lap and went to get 'her book.' She opened to the page that has pictures of the orphanage and pointed to the half open gate in one of the pictures. "Right here?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "You were found right away because they left you in such a good place." She then flipped a few pages ahead in her book to the picture of us with the orphanage director and the assistant. "She found me," Mae said, pointing to the assistant. "Yes, she probably did," I said. "And she would have brought you in and given you a bottle right away." She continued to look intently at that picture for a minute. Then she put the book away and came back to my lap to finish the book. Hmmm. I wonder. I would love to know what all is going on in her head.