As stories go, the tale of how a desperately ill, nameless baby from China turned into Bella Xin KaLare Strickland of West Monroe, Louisiana, is an extraordinary one. Three short years ago, a friend and I found the newborn, swaddled in several layers of clothing and abandoned in a Shanghai alleyway. Since then, her story has morphed from communist tragedy to Christian fairy tale: one minute an orphan screaming in a cold, dark street; three years later a stroppy toddler, living a charmed life in sunny Louisiana.
本文将讲述一个离奇的故事，随着故事发展，你会看到一个来自中国、疾病缠身的无名弃婴，是怎样变成美国路易斯安那州西门罗的贝拉•新•克莱尔•斯特里克兰(Bella Xin KaLare Strickland)的。四年前，我和一个朋友在上海一条弄堂里发现一个裹着层层衣服的弃婴。从那天起，她的故事便由社会主义制度下的悲剧，转变成基督教童话：近四年前，她还是个在寒冷漆黑的窄巷里啼哭的孤儿；如今，她已是在阳光明媚的路易斯安那州享受美丽人生的娇蛮幼童。Baby Bella made her debut in this magazine in 2011, under a different name, “Baby Donuts”, given for the Dunkin’ Donuts outlet where her birth parents chose to leave her in December 2010. She was about six weeks old. More than 110,000 children born in China have been adopted by families overseas in the past two decades. But Bella has the dubious distinction of being the only Chinese baby yet abandoned at the feet of an FT journalist.
小宝宝贝拉首次出现在这本期刊上是在2011年，不过那会儿她的名字是“甜甜圈宝宝”(Baby Donuts)，因为她的父母于2010年12月将她留在上海一家Dunkin’ Donuts门店外面。那时她才6周大。20年来，被海外家庭领养的出生在中国的儿童超过11万。但贝拉有点儿特别——她是迄今唯一被遗弃在英国《金融时报》记者脚下的中国婴儿。A friend and I found her one night, only steps from one of Shanghai’s top hotels. She was lying on top of two plastic bags that bulged with new baby clothes, tins of infant formula, packs of newborn nappies and scrubbed-clean baby bottles: the only love note a mother could dare to leave, for a child she would never know.
一天夜里，我和朋友在距一家顶级酒店仅几步之遥的地方发现了贝拉。当时她身子底下垫着两个塑料袋，里面装着新生儿的衣服、几罐配方奶粉、几包尿布和洗刷干净的奶瓶——这些是一位母亲对自己将永远别离的孩子，唯一能留下的爱意。
The fact that her parents chose to leave her at a place frequented by foreigners may mean they wanted her to end up living overseas. Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe they wanted a healthy baby, if they were only going to have one child. (China has since slightly relaxed its one-child policy but babies are still being abandoned.) Bella has a number of disabilities, including a congenital heart defect, blindness in both eyes from cataracts and a partially webbed foot. Perhaps her parents simply couldn’t cope.
她的父母选择将她留在外国人常出没之处，这或许意味着他们希望她最终能去海外生活。或许他们并无此意，而只是想要个健康的宝宝——假如只能生一个的话（中国如今已轻度放宽独生子女政策，但仍有遗弃婴儿的现象）。贝拉有很多疾病，包括先天性心脏病、双目白内障失明和部分蹼足。也许她的父母只是应付不了医药费。
In lots of ways, theirs was an entirely rational decision: in China, many families have only minimal health insurance, and the cost of all the surgery Baby Donuts needed (along with the bribes paid to doctors) could have bankrupted even a family of substantial means. Abandoning her meant that she would become a ward of the state, which would at least pay to keep her alive. China says it has about 700,000 “orphans” (meaning children whose parents can’t care for them). About 100,000 live in state institutions but most of the rest collect a government subsidy.
从很多方面看，他们的决定完全合理：在中国，很多家庭的医疗保险非常低，而面对甜甜圈宝宝所需的全部手术费用（包括给医生的红包），即便殷实的家庭也可能破产。抛弃她意味着她的监护人变成了国家，国家至少能承担她活下去的费用。中国官方表示约有70万名“孤儿”（无父母照顾的孩子）。其中约有10万名孤儿被国家机构收养，剩下大部分孩子获得政府补贴。What seems less rational is why LaKasha and Jeremy Strickland, living on a shoestring in a town 12,000km away, felt able, not to mention willing, to do for Baby Donuts what her birth family could not. Even their US adoption agency, through which they first heard about Bella, warned them off, saying the baby had “too many red flags”. When they started the adoption process in July 2012, the couple had just $100 in savings. Jeremy had been medically retired from the US Air Force for chronic headaches and LaKasha had just left her job to become more involved with her church. Adopting a child with serious medical needs wasn’t the obvious next move.
拉卡莎•斯特里克兰(LaKasha Strickland)和杰里米•斯特里克兰(Jeremy Strickland)是一对在1.2万公里之外的美国小镇上过着清贫生活的夫妇。相较之下，为什么这对美国夫妇会觉得自己“能够”（更不用说“愿意”了）为甜甜圈宝宝做到连她亲生父母都办不到的事，就显得不那么“理性”了。连他们的美国领养机构（他们通过该机构头一次听说贝拉）都警告他们这个宝宝有“太多危险信号”。当这对夫妇于2012年7月开始办理领养手续时，他们的积蓄仅有100美元。杰里米因慢性头疼已从美国空军(US Air Force)病退，拉卡莎则刚刚辞职，把更多时间投身于教会工作。领养一个重病缠身的小孩显然不是他们下一步该做的。But the Stricklands are clear about why they did it: among other things, because God wanted them to. “God put adoption in our hearts,” LaKasha says. “God stirred our hearts and we started searching.” And they didn’t just make a decision, they mounted a crusade. It can cost upwards of $30,000 to adopt a special needs child from China, including paperwork, translations and travel costs. Raising such a child, even in the promised land of Obamacare, will doubtless cost considerably more (in spite of Jeremy’s excellent medical insurance as an ex-serviceman).
但斯特里克兰夫妇清楚自己为什么要这样做：除了种种其他原因，还因为上帝希望他们这样做。“主将领养的念头放到我们心里。”拉卡莎说，“主激起我们的渴望，于是我们开始寻觅这样的机会。”他们不只是做出决定，他们发起了一场运动。从中国领养一个有特殊需求的孩子，费用最多可达3万美元，包括文书工作、翻译和旅行费用。而抚养这样一个孩子，哪怕在“奥巴马医改”(Obamacare)的应许之地，费用无疑也相当可观，尽管杰里米作为退伍军人享有非常好的医疗保险。Undeterred, the Stricklands launched a “Bring Baby Bella to America” campaign in October 2012, enlisting family, friends, members of their church and even the Bible to fundraise. They set up a tent in the parking lot of the local Walmart to sell T-shirts emblazoned with these words from James 1:27: “Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father is to care for orphans in their troubles.” They sold 260 plates of “chicken cheesy spaghetti” at a church lunch, raising $2,500. They even stood at traffic lights with a bucket and a poster of Bella, collecting dollar bills.
斯特里克兰夫妇并未被困难吓退，2012年10月他们发起了“带贝拉宝宝到美国”的活动，不但请来家人、朋友、教友帮忙募捐，甚至连《圣经》都用上了。他们在当地沃尔玛(Walmart)的停车场支起帐篷售卖T恤，衣服上印着《雅各书》第一章第27节：“在神我们的父面前，那清洁没有玷污的虔诚，就是看顾在患难中的孤儿寡妇。”他们在教堂午餐会上卖出了260盘“鸡肉奶酪意大利面”，筹集到2500美元。他们甚至拎着桶子，举着贝拉的海报站在红绿灯下筹集善款。LaKasha says she was shocked when Jeremy came up with the idea of panhandling to raise money for Bella. But their experience at the traffic lights yielded both cash and encouragement, as she shares on her blog “Adoption from God’s Pocket”. “It was so hard at first, feeling silly and prideful,” she writes. “But after a little wait a few cars started pulling in and asking about her and putting dollars in our bucket. We got to share about her and about God’s love and plan for her life,” she says, adding: “This was ministry!! He has given us a way to talk to strangers about Him and what He has done and will continue to do. There’s nothing easier to talk about than a child in need.”
拉卡莎说，当杰里米提出为贝拉向路人讨钱筹款的想法时，她感到很震惊。但这段红绿灯下的募捐经历让他们收获了资金帮助和人们的鼓励，拉卡莎在自己的博文《从上帝的口袋领养宝宝》(Adoption from God’s Pocket)中写道：“开头很难，我既自豪，又觉得这样很蠢。但过了片刻后，渐渐有车子停下来，开始询问她的事情，然后往我们的桶里投钱。我们分享着贝拉的故事，还有上帝之爱，以及对贝拉的生活规划。”她总结道：“这便是传教！上帝为我们提供了与陌生人谈论他、他所做过且仍将继续做的事的方式。还有什么话题比谈论一个有需要的孩子更容易聊呢。”And then there was the miracle of the $3,110 bank deposit: the Stricklands have never figured out exactly where it came from, but they do know that $3,110 was exactly what they needed to pay for the “home study” by social workers, which is a prerequisite of any adoption from China. And there was the former sister-in-law who borrowed $4,000 to help them, and the bank employee who cleared the way, unexpectedly, for the Stricklands to refinance their home.
接着他们又奇迹地收到了3110美元银行汇款，斯特里克兰夫妇至今没猜出这笔钱的来源，但他们知道社工进行“家庭调查”的费用正是3110美元，该调查是从中国领养小孩的先决条件。他们曾经的一位姻亲向人借了4000美元来帮助他们。斯特里克兰夫妇去银行办理房屋再贷款时，一位银行职员居然主动为他们排除了障碍。While they raised money, Bella was still living at the Shanghai orphanage under the name Jiang Xinqian. The Stricklands decided that her American name was to be Bella KaLare (pronounced “Claire”). “I talked to God a lot that day about if I was making the right choice,” LaKasha writes on her blog. “He showed me that her name was beauty and clarity and I knew he was happy with it: beauty, with her imperfections, and clarity, within her mind without delays.” Later on the Stricklands added “Xin” to honour her Chinese roots.
虽然他们筹到了资金，但贝拉仍在上海一家孤儿院以蒋新倩的名字生活着。斯特里克兰夫妇给她起了个英文名——贝拉•克莱尔。“那天我对上帝说了很多，关于我选择的名字是否正确。”拉卡莎在博客里写道，“他让我知道，她的名字代表着美丽和清晰，我知道他很满意这个名字：虽然她不完美，但她是美丽的，而清晰则代表她头脑敏捷。”后来斯特里克兰夫妇在贝拉的名字里加了一个“新”字，以纪念她的中国血统。Bella became a member of the family long before she got to Louisiana. On her second birthday (which she spent in the orphanage), the Stricklands posed for a family portrait, each clutching a donut, to symbolise their bond with the baby. Their Christmas photo that year shows LaKasha, Jeremy, their son Peyton and a framed portrait of Bella. LaKasha even dyed her hair black before they flew to Shanghai, so that Bella would not be too shocked at her appearance (in China nearly everyone’s hair is jet black, including septuagenarians).
早在贝拉到路易斯安那州以前，她就已经是这个家庭的一员了。她在孤儿院过2岁生日的当天，斯特里克兰家照了张全家福，每人手里都抓着个甜甜圈，象征他们与甜甜圈宝宝的亲情关系。那一年他们家的圣诞合影上有拉卡莎、杰里米、他们的儿子佩顿(Peyton)和一张贝拉的相片。拉卡莎甚至在他们飞往上海前把头发染成黑色，这样贝拉就不会对她的样子太过惊奇，在中国几乎每个人的头发都是乌黑的，甚至包括七旬老人。Of course, any parent who adopts from China has to demonstrate great commitment. The process is lengthy, costly and – when the vast majority of Chinese children available for adoption are disabled – requires a level of selflessness not many of us can muster. Mainlanders mostly refuse to adopt disabled children, and even overseas it is hard to find enough parents for the children who need them. Many non-Chinese who adopt special needs babies have strong religious beliefs and see these children as being especially worthy of Christian charity.
当然，所有从中国领养小孩的家长都必须展现极大的献身精神。整个过程不但漫长、开销大，而且由于可领养的中国儿童大多身有残疾，他们所要付出的无私更是常人难以企及。中国内地人大多不愿领养残疾儿童，即便在海外也很难为这些需要领养的孩子找到足够的家长。相当多领养特殊需求孩子的外国人都有强烈的宗教信仰，他们认为这些孩子尤为值得基督教慈善事业的关怀。In spite of limited financial means, stretched further by repeated adoptions, they remortgage homes, sell chicken cheesy spaghetti, T-shirts – anything to make the adoption happen.
尽管斯特里克兰家财力有限，且随着领养程序的进行愈加捉襟见肘，但为完成这次领养他们拼尽了全力，他们将房产再抵押、卖鸡肉芝士意大利面、卖T恤……I adopted my own two (healthy) Chinese daughters as infants in 2000 and 2002 using the money I had saved during a lifetime of working. But whether we beg, borrow or finance our adoptions from our trust fund, most adoptive parents go through the same agonising moment when an orphanage nanny hands us our child – and they shriek in outrage. Bella, then two-and-a-half years old, went one better: she tried to escape. The abject misery in her face at the handover to the Stricklands in May 2013 is captured in a video LaKasha posted on YouTube entitled “Gotcha Day/Bella Xin KaLare.” The fairy-tale ending got off to a very rough start.
我在2000年和2002年分别领养了两个健康的中国女婴，花掉了我这辈子的工作积蓄。但不管我们是通过乞讨、借债，还是从信托基金支款来付领养费用，大多数养父母都会经历同样的痛苦时刻——当孤儿院工作人员将孩子的手递给我们时，他们愤怒地尖叫。斯特里克兰夫妇见到贝拉时她已经两岁半了，她干的更绝，她挣扎着要逃跑。2013年5月贝拉被移交给斯特里克兰夫妇，拉卡莎拍下了她当时凄惨绝望的表情，并把视频传到YouTube上，标题为“领养日/贝拉•新•克莱尔”。这个童话般的结局开始得并不顺利。But by the time I joined the family 48 hours later, Bella had already begun to blossom. I remembered a beautiful newborn in a blanket: what I saw two years later was a determined, winsome and mischievous toddler, tripping off on her little spindly legs – which looked like they hadn’t much experience of the world of walking – to explore her surroundings.
但在48小时后，等到我加入这个家庭时，贝拉已经活泼起来。我想起那个裹着层层衣服的美丽的新生儿，我在两年前见到的宝宝如今已长成一个坚定、迷人和调皮的孩子，两条小细腿磕磕绊绊地探索着新环境，就像她没什么走路经验似的。LaKasha, Jeremy and Peyton were all besotted with her already, pointing out the cataracts in her eyes and the webbing of her toes like other parents might brag about dimples, and inviting me to feel the prow-like protrusion of her ribcage left after her heart defect had its initial repair. And what about the prominent bruise in the middle of one cheek? “The orphanage said they weren’t sure how that happened,” says LaKasha. Orphanage staff had told the Stricklands that Bella was “very strong-willed” – perhaps heartening for an adoptive parent to hear, since strong will may be just what got her through that night in the alleyway, and the many illnesses of her infanthood.
拉卡莎、杰里米和佩顿都已迷上了她，他们指着她眼中的白内障、脚趾的蹼膜的样子，就像别的家长在炫耀孩子的酒窝，他们还让我摸她胸腔上初期心脏修复手术所留下的船首状突起。孩子一边脸颊中央有个明显的伤痕。拉卡莎说：“孤儿院说他们不清楚这是怎么弄得。”孤儿院员工告诉斯特里克兰夫妇，贝拉“意志非常刚强”，或许这在养父母听来会为之一振，因为也许她就是凭借刚强的意志才挺过了弄堂里的那一夜，以及她幼年时的许多疾病。Later we took Bella to the Dunkin’ Donuts where our story began, in the company of my friend John Fearon, the British businessman who first heard her abandoned cries. Not surprisingly, she couldn’t have cared less (especially since the donut shop had closed). But we adults all spent a moment feeling the tragic miracle that is every Chinese adoption – and the pain of birth parents who cannot keep their child – before we set off to McDonald’s to feed Bella her first all-American French fries.
后来我们将贝拉带到那家Dunkin’ Donuts——这个故事开始的地方，我的朋友约翰•费伦(John Fearon)也陪同在侧，当初便是这位英国商人最先听到了贝拉啼哭的声音。不出所料，她完全没反应（何况这家甜甜圈店已经关张了）。倒是我们这些成年人花了片刻时间去感受每个中国领养案所蕴含的悲剧式奇迹，以及亲生父母不能抚养骨肉的悲痛，然后我们一行人前往麦当劳(McDonald's)，喂贝拉吃了第一次美式炸薯条。Bella is now “settling in beautifully” to her new life. “She is constantly competing with her brother. If he talks she talks louder. She is so smart: she loves to count and sing and say her prayers all by herself,” LaKasha says, adding that the night terrors of Bella’s first months at home are beginning to abate: “She has a lot of anger in that little body.”
现在贝拉已经“适应了她美好的”新生活。“她经常跟她哥哥比赛。如果他说话，她就说得更大声。她非常聪明，她喜欢数数、唱歌，和独立作祈祷。”拉卡莎还说，贝拉刚来头几个月常做恶梦，如今已逐渐减少了：“她小小的身体里有太多愤怒。”LaKasha hopes Bella’s birth parents may one day read these words, and know they can find their baby living happily in Louisiana. But unless and until they do, no one need worry about Baby Donuts. She’s just where she needs to be. Hallelujah.
拉卡莎希望贝拉的亲生父母有一天能读到这篇文章，知道他们的宝宝在路易斯安那州快乐地生活着。但即便他们没看到这篇文字，也无需为甜甜圈宝宝担忧。她一切安好。哈利路亚。