A Newsletter Written Just Prior to Amanda's Hospitalization

Norma Xian McLaughlin – Update from the Big Apple

It is hard to wrap my head around the fact that we have had Norma Xi’an (AKA “Xi’Xi) in the United States for 3 whole years already.  We touched down at JFK airport on January 26^th 2009 and what an amazing ride we have been on since then.

Actually, the ride all started on Monday, September 3^rd, 2007 when I walked into Starfish and I met both Amanda and Xi’Xi (then named “Erica”) – two souls that would forever change the trajectory of Pat and my life! Pat and I never planned on having children and for all intensive purposes we were “DINK’s from New York City” – but love is a leveler and it doesn’t care about the plans you have been making.  Both Pat and I fell hopelessly in love with a little baby girl who would become the center of our universe. 

Fast forward and here we are in January, 2012.  Xi’Xi has New York City in the palm of her hand.  I marvel at how easily she melts the most hardened New Yorker’s heart.  It could be on a subway, a street corner, or in a restaurant – people come up and want to know who she is, where she is from—they want to connect with her.   She is open and exudes a joyfulness that is contagious.  In October, we were out to dinner with her at a well-known soul food restaurant in Harlem.  There was a 50^th family birthday party going on in a private room.  The woman throwing the party was smitten with Xi’Xi and asked us to join the party – so there was Xi’Xi- this wobbly cutie China doll in the center of the dance floor shaking her bootie with all the brothers to the 70’s disco song, “Groove Thing.”

Starfish, Amanda, and Xi’Xi have had an epoch-making impact on our lives -- more than any other entity, soul, event, situation,  or “thingie”  Pat or I have experienced in our collective 100 years on the Earth.  The point I want to make in this letter is that there are so many amazing miracles and possibilities that have any opportunity to enrich our lives, if we are open to it.  Rare angels embodied in  “Amanda de Langes” walk this earth waiting for us to see their truth.  We are blessed that at the age of 47 both Pat and I met Amanda and the power of her work took shape in an extraordinary way for us.  Xi’Xi is our guiding light and teaches us every day.  We are humbled and forever grateful for Amanda and the selfless work she does for humanity.

Rock on Amanda ! You are awesome.

Love and gratitude,

Cindy,  Pat, and Xi’Xi