Abandoned and rejected—but not forgotten

by Joedy Melashenko

Mae was born with three strikes against her. She was born with a deformed leg; Chinese families are allowed only one child, with males preferred because of their income potential in the parents’ retirement years; and she was a girl. In China, many female babies are aborted, abandoned, or given up for adoption in favor of male children.

The solution? Get rid of Mae. That is exactly what transpired a few weeks after she was born. Her parents would attempt the unthinkable. They would dig a grave and bury her alive.

They dug a shallow grave and were preparing to bury Mae, when a compassionate couple that lived nearby heard the cries of this young infant. “We’ll take her!” they demanded. And, sure enough, Mae’s life was spared. However, her life was difficult. In this society, where healthy males are worshiped, Mae found herself dealing constantly with the fact that she was considered a lower form of life.

As she grew, she attended school, and was treated with disdain. Her adoptive family began to treat her as a burden to them, not as well as their other child. Her self-worth was always low. Mae felt that she owed her adoptive parents more than she could give. When she was 12 years old, she quit school and went to work on the streets selling flowers to help the family financially. She set up a business near a city park where couples and lovers would stroll. Her flower stand became successful. But she wanted to go back to school. Her adoptive parents abandoned her, and told her that they could no longer afford to care for her, nor could they fund her education. Mae was now homeless and lived on the streets. She still had her flower stand that provided her enough money for food and clothing.

She decided to try to find her birth parents. Surprisingly, she was able to locate their address, just a few miles from her flower stand. Mae took a bus and rickshaw to their home. She was so nervous, but excited! What would they say to this young lady they had abandoned 13 years earlier? All Mae wanted was a place to live so she could go back to school, and someone to love and care for her.

When she knocked on the door, a man and woman came to the door. She introduced herself as Mae and wanted to know if Mr. and Mrs. Lee, her birth parents, were home. There she stood, face to face with them. Her heart skipped a beat. With a big smile on her face, she introduced herself to them, in hopes that they would embrace her with open, compassionate hearts. She was not prepared for their greeting.

“What are you doing here, you worthless girl!” they exclaimed. “You are a disgrace! You are nothing! You don’t belong to us! Get away from here and never come back! We abandoned you and wished that you were dead! Get out of here!”

Grief filled Mae’s heart as she left, with tears blinding her sight. She wanted to end her life right there. Never had she felt so much pain! Three times in her life she’d been abandoned or rejected.

Somehow, she made it back to her flower stand. She had a few flowers to sell, and after that she did not know what she would do.

A reporter from the local newspaper came by her flower stand to purchase some flowers. Seeing Mae’s tearstained eyes, he asked her what was wrong. Mae had no one else to talk to, so she shared her sad story with him. The reporter was shocked by her story. That week, he wrote her story in one of the main sections of the paper. A wealthy businessman from Hong Kong read the story and was moved to help her. He found a place for her to live and within a few weeks, her story was heard throughout the city. People were saying, “Something like this should never happen here in China.”

A Christian physician from the Philippines heard about Mae and offered to send her to a Christian school in Cebu. Mae was ecstatic. “Is this really happening to me? I have wanted to attend a private school, but earning enough for tuition is impossible.” And so Mae found her way to the central region of the Philippines and began attending East Visayan SDA Academy in Cebu. (The tuition funds have since dried up, so her friends are now seeking ways to keep Mae in Christian education.)

During her first year there, Mae, a Buddhist, began to feel the promptings of the Holy Spirit and desired to learn more about Jesus. As providence would have it, The Quiet Hour’s and The Voice of Prophecy’s joint evangelistic effort came to town in February 2006. Every night Mae walked in with her crutch and sat right on the front row. The smile that filled her face every night was infectious. When it came time for a decision for baptism, Mae was the first to respond.

Words cannot express the joy that I had in my heart when on that last weekend, I baptized Mae, along with several hundred other new Christians.

When Mae emerged from the water, her first words were, “Now am I a daughter of God?” Tears filled my eyes and a huge lump came to my throat as I said, “Yes, Mae, you are a daughter of God and I am a son of God, so that makes us brother and sister.”

It doesn’t get any better.