Gotcha Day
Today was the day for which we had been preparing for 14 months- the day Mae would become ours at last. And it was a long day indeed. After trying to consolodate as many suitcases as we could, we hit the road for the second time in 24 hours. We left Guangzhou for Wuhan, which is north westGuangzhou, in the province of Hubei. Wuhan will be our home base for the next week, while we deal with the China portion of the adoption.
We arrived at the airport, which is a far cry from the very new, very modern international airport of Guangzhou, at around 11am. We were met by our Wuhan laison, Thomas, who is very chatty and boy does he love his microphone. We landed in pouring rain, with the promise of similar weather for the rest of the week. In the bus to our hotel, we were told that we would be picking up our daughters at 2:30. The usually perky group suddenly turned very silent. For about three mintues anyway...
After checking in to the fabulous Best Western Premiere Hotel, the four of us settled in to a quite lunch, discussing the fact that this would be our last meal as "the four of us." Kind of sad, but also terribly exciting... The fourteen families and their various children, friends, parents, in-laws, etc. all met in the lobby and back on to the bus we went for a very short trip to what is called the Ministry of Civil Adoption Affairs. This is a very fancy name for a very plain, almost run down store front. Picture the lobby of a gone-to-seed hotel lobby and you will get the picture. We all found seats on one of the six or so couches and waited. There was another room behind smoked glass which was obciously the holding room for the babies and their care givers, who accompanied the girls to Gotcha Day. We could hear them crying and making noise behind the glass, and could see blurry glimpes of them in their yellow jackets.
First, each parent was given a small photo album, as a gift from the orphanage. Each album contains around 10 photos of each child along with some very odd landscape photos of the town where the orphanage is located. There are also some very quaint missives wishing the babies good health and happiness throughout as well. It was very hard for us to even look at the photos knowing the real things were just behind the glass.
After a brief speech from a government official saying something very official (no one was paying attention at this point), they began the introduction of the babies. Gotcha Day had begun. One by one, families were called up to the door to the holding room, and one of the care givers would walk out carrying a child in her arms. As soon as the first girl was carried out of the room, everyone stood and everyone started to cry. It became very loud very quickly in that place. Just seeing the joy in these parents faces was enough to melt all of our hearts. Of course each child was as beautiful as the next, and each child was as unique as the next. Finally they called our name and we approached the doorway. We recognized Mae immediately. She certainly resembled the two posed pictures we had been carrying around for the past two months, only this time she was right there in front of us. She was one of the only girls not to cry when brought out of the room. But Mae did begin to cry when Adena and I took her in to our arms. We of course were balling. Big surprise.
What can we say? She's beautiful. We were struck by how incredibly calm she is. Once the initial shock of being handed over to us passed, she settled in to our laps quite comfortably. And she seemed so large! Only after we removed her jacket did we understand why. Mae had been dressed in four layers of clothing. We had heard that the Chinese believe in dressing their children VERY warmly. But this was certainly a case of over-due. No wonder all these girls had cheeks the color of apples- the were all burning up from being wrapped up as they were.
The families were given about an hour or so to get used to the little ones, and over the din of the crying and the laughing, we all had a few moments to ask some questions of the care givers. We confirmed that Mae had been living with a foster mother, and were told that Mae also had a foster brother who is sixteen. We also were told that the orphanage decided to keep the photo album that we had made for Mae, as a keepsake. We were a bit surprised as the purpose of the photo album was for Mae to take the album back home with her. Apparently this is not uncommon, for the care givers to keep these momentos for themselves as a way to keep a connection to the girls long after they have left China for good.
Next we had to sign a one page document which granted us 24 hour guardianship of the girls. This document allowed us to take the girls with us back to the hotel, and allowed us to keep them as ours until the actual notarization and signature of the adoption documents the following day. Then back on the bus...
Thomas was yacking in to the mike as we headed back to the hotel. He kept talking about nuterizing the girls. After a few seconds of concern, we all of course realized he was saying "notarizing..." Mae rode comfortably on our laps back to the hotel. The only time- and we mean only time- she would cry is when we handed her off from one person to the other. She would cling tightly as she cried, but once she was in the arms or in the lap of the next person, she quieted down immediately.
Mae loves to play, and she can occupy herself with the simplest of items- a cup, a book, a pen knife (just joking.) While she yelled at the top of her little lungs as we undressed her, she loved being cool and comfy in her little tee shirt and diaper.
For now, she's a very serious little thing. She watches and interacts, but she is hesitant to laugh or smile too often. She has certain motor skills that are quite age appropriate, such as picking up cheerios without any problem. But she doesn't have the slightest clue as to how to crawl or roll over. But she is none the less quite a lover girl. She won't sit next to you, she will only sit on you. She loves to be held, and insists on it at all times. She smells wonderful, as all babies do. Jarred describes her scent as a cross between baby shampoo and playdough. He's right too.
Dinner tonight was a crazy celebration of sorts. We all sat at large round tables in one of the hotel dining rooms. There were three high chairs at each table, and Mae settled in to hers quite happily. Then Mae's celebration began- the food was brought out. And man can this girl eat. And eat. And eat. As the dishes were placed on the table, we couldn't feed it to her fast enough- soup, veggies, steamed egg, tofu, rich- ALL of it tasted good to Mae. And NONE of it tasted good to the boys. And so it goes.
Finally, the length of the day coupled with the emotional impact of the day finally hit everyone, and suddenly within ten minutes, the place cleared up. To our roomes we all headed, and to our first night as the "fivesome" we had now become...
We will write more tomorrow - the converter situation has wreaked havoc on the laptop, but we will post our first full day's adventure soon.
We arrived at the airport, which is a far cry from the very new, very modern international airport of Guangzhou, at around 11am. We were met by our Wuhan laison, Thomas, who is very chatty and boy does he love his microphone. We landed in pouring rain, with the promise of similar weather for the rest of the week. In the bus to our hotel, we were told that we would be picking up our daughters at 2:30. The usually perky group suddenly turned very silent. For about three mintues anyway...
After checking in to the fabulous Best Western Premiere Hotel, the four of us settled in to a quite lunch, discussing the fact that this would be our last meal as "the four of us." Kind of sad, but also terribly exciting... The fourteen families and their various children, friends, parents, in-laws, etc. all met in the lobby and back on to the bus we went for a very short trip to what is called the Ministry of Civil Adoption Affairs. This is a very fancy name for a very plain, almost run down store front. Picture the lobby of a gone-to-seed hotel lobby and you will get the picture. We all found seats on one of the six or so couches and waited. There was another room behind smoked glass which was obciously the holding room for the babies and their care givers, who accompanied the girls to Gotcha Day. We could hear them crying and making noise behind the glass, and could see blurry glimpes of them in their yellow jackets.
First, each parent was given a small photo album, as a gift from the orphanage. Each album contains around 10 photos of each child along with some very odd landscape photos of the town where the orphanage is located. There are also some very quaint missives wishing the babies good health and happiness throughout as well. It was very hard for us to even look at the photos knowing the real things were just behind the glass.
After a brief speech from a government official saying something very official (no one was paying attention at this point), they began the introduction of the babies. Gotcha Day had begun. One by one, families were called up to the door to the holding room, and one of the care givers would walk out carrying a child in her arms. As soon as the first girl was carried out of the room, everyone stood and everyone started to cry. It became very loud very quickly in that place. Just seeing the joy in these parents faces was enough to melt all of our hearts. Of course each child was as beautiful as the next, and each child was as unique as the next. Finally they called our name and we approached the doorway. We recognized Mae immediately. She certainly resembled the two posed pictures we had been carrying around for the past two months, only this time she was right there in front of us. She was one of the only girls not to cry when brought out of the room. But Mae did begin to cry when Adena and I took her in to our arms. We of course were balling. Big surprise.
What can we say? She's beautiful. We were struck by how incredibly calm she is. Once the initial shock of being handed over to us passed, she settled in to our laps quite comfortably. And she seemed so large! Only after we removed her jacket did we understand why. Mae had been dressed in four layers of clothing. We had heard that the Chinese believe in dressing their children VERY warmly. But this was certainly a case of over-due. No wonder all these girls had cheeks the color of apples- the were all burning up from being wrapped up as they were.
The families were given about an hour or so to get used to the little ones, and over the din of the crying and the laughing, we all had a few moments to ask some questions of the care givers. We confirmed that Mae had been living with a foster mother, and were told that Mae also had a foster brother who is sixteen. We also were told that the orphanage decided to keep the photo album that we had made for Mae, as a keepsake. We were a bit surprised as the purpose of the photo album was for Mae to take the album back home with her. Apparently this is not uncommon, for the care givers to keep these momentos for themselves as a way to keep a connection to the girls long after they have left China for good.
Next we had to sign a one page document which granted us 24 hour guardianship of the girls. This document allowed us to take the girls with us back to the hotel, and allowed us to keep them as ours until the actual notarization and signature of the adoption documents the following day. Then back on the bus...
Thomas was yacking in to the mike as we headed back to the hotel. He kept talking about nuterizing the girls. After a few seconds of concern, we all of course realized he was saying "notarizing..." Mae rode comfortably on our laps back to the hotel. The only time- and we mean only time- she would cry is when we handed her off from one person to the other. She would cling tightly as she cried, but once she was in the arms or in the lap of the next person, she quieted down immediately.
Mae loves to play, and she can occupy herself with the simplest of items- a cup, a book, a pen knife (just joking.) While she yelled at the top of her little lungs as we undressed her, she loved being cool and comfy in her little tee shirt and diaper.
For now, she's a very serious little thing. She watches and interacts, but she is hesitant to laugh or smile too often. She has certain motor skills that are quite age appropriate, such as picking up cheerios without any problem. But she doesn't have the slightest clue as to how to crawl or roll over. But she is none the less quite a lover girl. She won't sit next to you, she will only sit on you. She loves to be held, and insists on it at all times. She smells wonderful, as all babies do. Jarred describes her scent as a cross between baby shampoo and playdough. He's right too.
Dinner tonight was a crazy celebration of sorts. We all sat at large round tables in one of the hotel dining rooms. There were three high chairs at each table, and Mae settled in to hers quite happily. Then Mae's celebration began- the food was brought out. And man can this girl eat. And eat. And eat. As the dishes were placed on the table, we couldn't feed it to her fast enough- soup, veggies, steamed egg, tofu, rich- ALL of it tasted good to Mae. And NONE of it tasted good to the boys. And so it goes.
Finally, the length of the day coupled with the emotional impact of the day finally hit everyone, and suddenly within ten minutes, the place cleared up. To our roomes we all headed, and to our first night as the "fivesome" we had now become...
We will write more tomorrow - the converter situation has wreaked havoc on the laptop, but we will post our first full day's adventure soon.
posted by Adena Smith & Richard Green @ 12:18 PM
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