今年6月我来到北京的一个孤儿院，与一个3岁和一个6岁的女孩面对面，她们的棕色眼睛谨慎地看着我，我觉得自己又一次看到了15年前我的两个妹妹的眼睛。我意识到领养对我们家庭的每一个成员的意义是多么重大。15年前，我的妹妹也坐在孤儿院里，没有人能称做父母，没有地方能称做家。如今，她俩生活在我们家中的毫无保留的爱当中。
Brother"s wish
哥哥的心愿
A friend of mine named Paul received an automobile from his brother as a Christmas present. On Christmas Eve when Paul came out of his office, a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it.
"Is this your car, Mister?" he said.
Paul nodded. "My brother gave it to me for Christmas." The boy was astounded. "You mean your brother gave it to
you and it didn"t cost you nothing? Boy, I wish . . ." He hesitated.
Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the lad said jarred Paul all the way down to his heels.
"I wish," the boy went on, "That I could be a brother like that."
Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively he added, "Would you like to take a ride in my car?"
"Oh yes, I"d love that."
After a short ride, the boy turned with his eyes aglow, said, "Mister, would you mind driving in front of my house?"
Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big automobile. But Paul was wrong again. "Will you stop where those two steps are?" the boy asked.
He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car.
"There she is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs.
His brother gave it to him for Christmas and it didn"t cost him a cent. And some day I"m gonna give you one just like it . . . then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the Christmas windows that I"ve been trying to tell you about."
Paul got out and lifted the lad to the front seat of his car. The shining-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable holiday ride. That Christmas Eve, Paul learned what Jesus meant when he said: "It is more blessed to give . . ."
圣诞节时，保罗的哥哥送他一辆新车。圣诞节当天，保罗离开办公室时，一个男孩绕着那辆闪闪发亮的新车，十分赞叹地问：
"先生，这是你的车？"
保罗点点头："这是我哥哥送给我的圣诞节礼物。"男孩满脸惊讶，支支吾吾地说："你是说这是你哥送的礼物，没花你一分钱？天哪，我真希望也能……"
保罗当然知道男孩他真想希望什么。他希望能有一个象那样的哥哥。但是小男孩接下来说的话却完全出乎了保罗的意料。
"我希望自己能成为送车给弟弟的哥哥。"男孩继续说。
保罗惊愕地看着那男孩，冲口而出地说："你要不要坐我的车去兜风？"
"哦，当然好了，我太想坐了！"
车开了一小段路后，那孩子转过头来，眼睛闪闪发亮，对我说："先生，你能不能把车子开到我家门前？"
保罗微笑，他知道孩子想干什么。那男孩必定是要向邻居炫耀，让大家知道他坐了一部大轿车回家。但是这次保罗又猜错了。"你能不能把车子停在那两个台阶前？"男孩要求道。
男孩跑上了阶梯，过了一会儿保罗听到他回来了，但动作似乎有些缓慢。原来把他跛脚的弟弟带出来了，将他安置在第一个台阶上，紧紧地抱着他，指着那辆新车。
只听那男孩告诉弟弟："你看，这就是我刚才在楼上对你说的那辆新车。这是保罗他哥哥送给他的哦！将来我也会送给你一辆像这样的车，到那时候你就能自己去看那些在圣诞节时，挂窗口上的漂亮饰品了，就象我告诉过你的那样。"
保罗走下车子，把跛脚男孩抱到车子的前座。兴奋得满眼放光的哥哥也爬上车子，坐在弟弟的身旁。就这样他们三人开始一次令人难忘的假日兜风。
那个圣诞夜，保罗才真正体会主耶稣所说的"施比受更有福"的道理。
Linda porcelain dolls
琳达的瓷娃娃
??Linda was more of a best friend than a cousin. We shared nearly everything—except her passion for collecting porcelain1 dolls. Linda collected more than a hundred and thirty of them. I never understood her hobby, but I admired her dedication—how she displayed them so beautifully and kept them all so clean. Still, I was surprised how much those dolls meant to me after Linda lost her battle with cancer. Her mother donated the dolls to the local historical society. I agreed it was best that Linda’s collection stayed together but it pained me to see the dolls go. In fact, I wished I could have kept just one to remember her by.
Losing Linda was still fresh in my mind when one day my mother asked me to drive her, my grandmother and my aunt to the county fair. On the way home Granny needed to use the restroom, so I pulled off the highway at the nearest rest stop and she dashed into a fast-food restaurant. Next door was a gift shop. I only had twenty dollars in my pocket, but I figured I would browse2 around while I waited. Inside were cards, snow globes...and one whole wall full of shelves and shelves of porcelain dolls. Just like Linda’s. For some reason, I felt drawn to one doll in the middle of the second shelf—with deep brown eyes, wearing a shiny pink-and white dress embroidered with pink roses. “Isn’t that the prettiest doll you ever saw?” I said to my mother.“I want it.”
Silly, I thought. These dolls cost more than a hundred, I bet. Then I glanced at the doll’s price tag3: 14.99！
A sale associate assured me the price wasn’t a mistake. What luck! I plucked the doll of the shelf and brought it to the register.
I handed the doll to the cashier and fished around for my twenty-dollar bill. But I immediately started to question myself. What am I doing? I thought. I don’t collect dolls. Why this one? I almost cancelled the sale. Then, casually, I flipped the doll’s price tag over. There, printed on the other side, was the doll’s name: Linda.
琳达与其说是我的表妹倒不如说是我最好的朋友。我们几乎不分彼此，我的就是她的——唯一不同的是她热衷于收集瓷娃娃。琳达拥有的瓷娃娃有130多个。说实话，我对她的这种爱好始终不理解，但我很敬佩她这种奉献精神——她总是让这些娃娃优雅而整洁地“站”在那里。然而，直到琳达被癌症的魔爪击倒时我才惊奇地发现，那些瓷娃娃对我来说是如此地意味深远。她的母亲把琳达生前收集的所有娃娃捐赠给了当地的历史协会。我明白琳达的娃娃可以安全地待在一起是最好不过的了，但是看到它们要离开我，不免心中涌起了阵阵酸楚。其实，我很想收藏它们中的一个，以表示我对琳达的纪念。
琳达离去的情景仍在我脑海里清晰地回放着。一天，妈妈要我载着她、外婆和姨妈一起去镇上的集市。在回来的路上，外婆突然很想去洗手间，于是我便在离公路最近的一个休息的小站上停了下来，外婆冲进了一家快餐店。快餐店的隔壁是一家礼品屋。虽然我兜里只有20美元，但是我觉得与其等着，倒不如进去随便看看。那里陈列着各种各样的小礼品，有卡片、雪球??还有，在一整面墙的壁橱里，每一层隔板上都摆满了瓷娃娃。就像是琳达的那些一样。不知出于什么原因，我感觉有一股力量把我拉向了第二层隔板中间的一个瓷娃娃——她有着一双深邃的棕色大眼睛，身上穿着一件绣着粉红色玫瑰花边的亮闪闪的粉白色连衣裙。“这难道不是您所见过的最美的瓷娃娃吗？”我对妈妈说，“我想要她。”
我太蠢了，我对自己说。这些瓷娃娃至少要100美元，我敢打赌。于是，我瞥了一眼贴在瓷娃娃上的价格标签：14.99美元！
售货员再次帮我确定这个价钱不是我的错觉。太幸运了！我把这个心爱的娃娃从隔板上拿下来并带着她一起来到收款台。
我把这个娃娃放在收银机前，开始在口袋里摸索那20美元。但是突然，一个问题滑过我的脑海。我到底在干什么？我想。我并不喜欢收集瓷娃娃，但为什么我会买这么一个瓷娃娃回家呢？我准备把她放回货架上。就在这时，我无意将瓷娃娃身后的价格标签翻转过来。就在那里，在标签的另一面印着几个字，那是这个瓷娃娃的名字：琳达。
Angel sister
天使妹妹
My sister was watching me sym pa thet i cal ly as I burst into tears for what an noyed me. Hold ing my hand firmly in hers, she sat by my side with out uttering a word.
Willingly or not, I had been her sister for 13 years since I was 7 years old. Due to her arrival, I then child ish ly thought that I was thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frus tra tion and self-pity. Once a lovely girl, I felt con demned by this fate to becoming a desolate1 burden---- all the adults around complimented the newly-born, charming crea ture while ne glect ing my presence.