Monday, September 2, 2013

Thoughts On Our Journey - Family Day

On Sunday, December 12, 2010 we got up in our hotel in Hong Kong and packed for our flight to Nanchang.  All the days, weeks, months and years were all behind us and now we were on the cusp of the greatest adventure of our lifetimes.  The drive to the airport was relatively quick and boarding the plane efficient.  We did have to go thorough customs which was far less strenuous than I thought it would be.  Our travel group were the only non-Asians on the flight.  The flight was short, a little over an hour.  Our travel group were the only non-Asians on the flight.  in a very short time the flight attendants managed to provide an entire in flight meal service.  It was really quite impressive how efficient they were.

When we got off the plane we had to go through security and that was when it became real that we were in China.  We saw several uniformed and armed soldiers at the check point.  After we cleared security we were greeted by our in China facilitators who provided us all with umbrellas as it was raining and quickly got us onto the bus that would take us to the hotel.  We were fortunate to have two wonderful women who assisted us in Nanchang, Evelyn and Sissi.  I cannot imagine our journey without them.  They used the bus ride to give us information pertaining to our first day in Nanchang including the most important piece of news, that our children were all in route to the hotel and we should be seeing them by five pm (it was noon).  The drive was wild, we rode for much of the route on a highway where, cars, buses, trucks, scooters, bikes and people on foot were all traveling together.  Our hotel was the Jen Fang, a four star hotel.  The lobby was decorated lavishly - for Christmas - the centerpiece of the decorations was a huge Christmas tree.  We all checked into our rooms with instructions to meet in a room on the second floor in a half hour for briefing before the babies arrived.  We were pleased with our accommodations, they seemed spacious, but got tighter when they brought up the second crib.  


This was a small wet bar area to the right of our door, it had a sink, hot pot and refrigerator.  It also had a glass window that you could look through into the room.


Our comfy bed, where the girls spent most of the first two days of our lives together.  After the first night they also slept in this bed with us too.


The bathroom - note the cute little bathtub.  Seeing it made my heart all fluttery.


The building across the street, you can't see it in this photo, but they had washing hanging in the windows and a few of the apartments had dead chickens on the ledge as well.


Evelyn and Sissi.  They were wonderful!

When we sat down they gave us all sheets with information including our schedules for the up coming days and information about our children.  They also gave us powdered milk and rice cereal - the same brand that the children were currently eating.  We also were given documents we would need to sign. We were sitting in the room listening to Evelyn and Sissi telling us what to expect when the door at the back of the room opened.  I looked over my shoulder and saw a woman holding a little girl dressed in red - I knew immediately that it was one of our girls.  The second I saw her I could not concentrate on anything that they said.  I did take notes.  Pretty quickly they told us the children were arriving and we needed to go up to our rooms and get our papers together.  As we left the room to go to the elevators I saw the woman ducking into a corner next to a second woman with another little girl who was walking and was dressed in red - my daughters.

We ran to our room, grabbed our papers and hurried back down. We were supposed to be the forth family to receive our children, but when we walked Into the room there they were and there was no way anyone was going to keep them from us any longer.  We walked across that room and they were in our arms.  When I went on my first date with my husband and we first held hands they just fit and now I was holding my daughter and she just fit.  I remember hearing all the other babies coming in - they were all crying, but our girls were quiet - they were looking around taking it all in, clutching a bag of crackers in one hand and a stuffed dog in the other.  They both were wearing red and gold pant suits, with fur trim and had on little hats.  Their hair was short and black and their eyes large and bottomless brown.  They both had pink cheeks, most likely from the heat and crying.  The entire time we were in the big room with the other families they never made a sound, but their eyes took everything in.  They were the most beautiful things I had ever seen.




We finally got to take them up to our room.  For the first hour we left them completely dressed, they sat on the bed and barely moved, but were clearly taking everything in.  We were both so in love.  We would up staying in the room that night just the four of us.  After a while we pealed back the layers of clothes, first the little suits, then a knitted sweater and knitted split pants, then faded blue pajamas with little mice and socks.  We didn't bath them that night, they were pretty clean and oh so tiny.  They slept in their cribs that night, but spent quite some time banging on the crib bars.  It was the only night they slept in the cribs and the only night we had with them where they were silent.  

Next Thoughts on Our Journey - Happy Adoption Day



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