January 30, 2012. Today's the day! We got up early to eat breakfast at the hotel. It's an East meets West buffet breakfast and we saw 4-6 families with newly adopted little Chinese babies! The waitress sat us in the "adoptive parents" section but looked quizically at us since we looked Chinese (at least Asian) and already had 2 kids. Oh well - it's good to keep them guessing! They'll realize things tomorrow when we have Emma with us at breakfast.
The food was interesting. Thankfully they had pancake and bacon (kind of) and Luke downed 3 of each. Alex was the adventurous one and ate bits of everything. Madelyn and I sticked with dumplings and eggs. We went back to our room to wait for our guide, Maggie, to take us to the Adoption Office across the street to meet Emma. Apparently there were 6 families who arrived yesterday to be united with their children so the office was quite busy. So instead of waiting for them to bring Emma to us, we decided we would go and get her from the office since she had apparently been there since the early hours of the morning. Walking across the street should be no big deal - unless you are in China. Cars, mopeds, bikes and pedestrians follow only one rule - whoever honks the loudest, runs the fastest or gives the meanest looks gets the right of way. With Maggie leading the way, we scurried, dodged and ran for safety. When we made it to the Adoption Office, Maggie sat us down in a waiting room and moments lated, a nanny from Emma's orphanage carried her out to us. Emma was dressed in 5 layers of clothing and could barely move but at least she was warm! The kids were so excited and completely forgot about the talks we had about giving Emma space and time and not crowding her/touching her the moment they saw here because the next thing you know, they are reaching for her hand, touching her cheeks (which were so raw and chapped and excoriated) and trying to kiss her head! Emma didn't flinch, she just watched, not sure of what to do, but not scared. The nanny handed Emma to me and expected her to cry and wail, but she didn't. She let me hold her and put her arm around mine and just looked at us. In her other hand was the family photo book we had sent her for her 2nd birthday. We didn't think she ever got it but here she was holding it - and refusing to let it go! We sat down and flipped through the book and let Madelyn and Luke shower her with affection. The orphanage directors said that Emma was not in a foster home. She was in what was called a "love family" home. Apparently under the roof of the orphanage, there are several apartments where a nanny will be responsible for 4-6 kids. Emma was one of those kids. This meant she got extra attention which is great. The nanny also brought some of Emma's belongings... a blonde and blue eyed doll they had gotten for her (guess they thought we were going to be Caucasian!) and a newspaper clipping of when she was found by the police. Apparently, once abandoned children are found, their pictures run in the newspaper for up to 2 months in hopes of trying to find the parents. If the baby is unclaimed (which is the vast majority of the time because it's against the law to abandon a child), he/she is sent to the orphanage. We graciously received the items and tucked them away to show Emma when she was older. We then started to go back to the hotel. When I picked her up again, I noticed that my hand was on her bare little bottom! She had the traditional Chinese split pants on (which allowed her to squat and pee without adult assistance) and although she was super warm everywhere else, her bottom was fully exposed! We wrapped up her little tush in the blanket we had and risked our lives crossing the street again. When we got to the hotel room, Madelyn and Luke went quickly to work finding every toy possible and presenting them to the Princess. Emma's favorite was a little doll we brought and stickers! She loves stickers! When we noticed that Emma's cheeks were getting even more red, we realized that she was overheating in her layers of clothing and took them off - all 5 of them! She's actually a skinny mini under all those clothes! The biggest thing about her was her cheeks! Madelyn picked out an outfit and I put a pink bow in her hair. The funny thing is that I thought Emma wouldn't like wearing a bow but she must have liked her reflection in the mirror because every time that little bow started to slip from her hair, she would try to put it back until I would re-do if for her. Once her bow was back in place, she went back playing. A little diva already! Next we met up with Maggie again and went to sign papers needed to finalize the adoption in her province. We had no idea what we were signing but kept signing anyway. As is Chinese tradition, each signature was followed with a red stamped thumbprint of each of us. Emma had "signed" her name with a red ink hand-print to make it official. Then we returned home for dinner (one $30 papa johns pizza for the 4 of us and noodles for Em - that girl can eat a lot!) and settled in for the night as a family of 5. Madelyn and Emma took a bath - I think it was Emma's first real bath because she patted the water like an infant - and we got everyone ready for bed. We all passed out by 7pm. Now it's 5am and we're all awake and ready to go - everyone except Emma who is sleeping so sweetly. I love these moments of quiet. Time to realize how precious life is, how precious my family is and how amazing our God is. This is gonna be a great day!
Olivia
The food was interesting. Thankfully they had pancake and bacon (kind of) and Luke downed 3 of each. Alex was the adventurous one and ate bits of everything. Madelyn and I sticked with dumplings and eggs. We went back to our room to wait for our guide, Maggie, to take us to the Adoption Office across the street to meet Emma. Apparently there were 6 families who arrived yesterday to be united with their children so the office was quite busy. So instead of waiting for them to bring Emma to us, we decided we would go and get her from the office since she had apparently been there since the early hours of the morning. Walking across the street should be no big deal - unless you are in China. Cars, mopeds, bikes and pedestrians follow only one rule - whoever honks the loudest, runs the fastest or gives the meanest looks gets the right of way. With Maggie leading the way, we scurried, dodged and ran for safety. When we made it to the Adoption Office, Maggie sat us down in a waiting room and moments lated, a nanny from Emma's orphanage carried her out to us. Emma was dressed in 5 layers of clothing and could barely move but at least she was warm! The kids were so excited and completely forgot about the talks we had about giving Emma space and time and not crowding her/touching her the moment they saw here because the next thing you know, they are reaching for her hand, touching her cheeks (which were so raw and chapped and excoriated) and trying to kiss her head! Emma didn't flinch, she just watched, not sure of what to do, but not scared. The nanny handed Emma to me and expected her to cry and wail, but she didn't. She let me hold her and put her arm around mine and just looked at us. In her other hand was the family photo book we had sent her for her 2nd birthday. We didn't think she ever got it but here she was holding it - and refusing to let it go! We sat down and flipped through the book and let Madelyn and Luke shower her with affection. The orphanage directors said that Emma was not in a foster home. She was in what was called a "love family" home. Apparently under the roof of the orphanage, there are several apartments where a nanny will be responsible for 4-6 kids. Emma was one of those kids. This meant she got extra attention which is great. The nanny also brought some of Emma's belongings... a blonde and blue eyed doll they had gotten for her (guess they thought we were going to be Caucasian!) and a newspaper clipping of when she was found by the police. Apparently, once abandoned children are found, their pictures run in the newspaper for up to 2 months in hopes of trying to find the parents. If the baby is unclaimed (which is the vast majority of the time because it's against the law to abandon a child), he/she is sent to the orphanage. We graciously received the items and tucked them away to show Emma when she was older. We then started to go back to the hotel. When I picked her up again, I noticed that my hand was on her bare little bottom! She had the traditional Chinese split pants on (which allowed her to squat and pee without adult assistance) and although she was super warm everywhere else, her bottom was fully exposed! We wrapped up her little tush in the blanket we had and risked our lives crossing the street again. When we got to the hotel room, Madelyn and Luke went quickly to work finding every toy possible and presenting them to the Princess. Emma's favorite was a little doll we brought and stickers! She loves stickers! When we noticed that Emma's cheeks were getting even more red, we realized that she was overheating in her layers of clothing and took them off - all 5 of them! She's actually a skinny mini under all those clothes! The biggest thing about her was her cheeks! Madelyn picked out an outfit and I put a pink bow in her hair. The funny thing is that I thought Emma wouldn't like wearing a bow but she must have liked her reflection in the mirror because every time that little bow started to slip from her hair, she would try to put it back until I would re-do if for her. Once her bow was back in place, she went back playing. A little diva already! Next we met up with Maggie again and went to sign papers needed to finalize the adoption in her province. We had no idea what we were signing but kept signing anyway. As is Chinese tradition, each signature was followed with a red stamped thumbprint of each of us. Emma had "signed" her name with a red ink hand-print to make it official. Then we returned home for dinner (one $30 papa johns pizza for the 4 of us and noodles for Em - that girl can eat a lot!) and settled in for the night as a family of 5. Madelyn and Emma took a bath - I think it was Emma's first real bath because she patted the water like an infant - and we got everyone ready for bed. We all passed out by 7pm. Now it's 5am and we're all awake and ready to go - everyone except Emma who is sleeping so sweetly. I love these moments of quiet. Time to realize how precious life is, how precious my family is and how amazing our God is. This is gonna be a great day!
Olivia
Praise the lord! I've been obsessively checking this site all day. So glad you're finally all together.
ReplyDeleteSarah
p.s. at least the doll will help her not be afraid of her white aunt. :)