On another day, at another site, several vendors hounded Dawn and other ladies in our group, even following us down a narrow passageway. One vendor hounded Dawn about buying a little tea set in a box. With Scott's help, they agreed upon a price and we completed the transaction and turned away. A split second later, however, the same vendor held up what looked like the same bill, with a small tear in the middle of one edge, and said something like, "Look, you gave me a torn bill." Gullible American that he is (make that "was"), Scott obligingly pulled out another bill of the same denomination and made the switch.
Several minutes later, after we had escaped the vendors, we were chatting with other members of our group, and learned that vendors had asked at least two other people in the group to exchange torn bills. We wondered out loud why they would do that; could they have given us counterfeit? Scott pulled the slightly-torn bill out of his pocket, along with another bill of the same denomination: They looked the same. He held the bills up to the light: Both had a watermark. But then he looked more closely: Sure enough, the slightly-torn bill had a fake watermark; it was a very faint image, rather than a true watermark. A few days later, in Guangzhou, we saw a newspaper article with the opening sentence, "The central bank yesterday vowed to launch a nationwide campaign against a rising tide of forged currency."
Many of these vendors had seemed so pitiful and desperate to sell their wares that we had felt sorry for them. How could these "sweet" young women have swindled us? One of the ladies in our group expressed indignation over how much money she had lost (we think it was the equivalent of about $38US). Another lady in our group said sincerely, "Just think, maybe she will use that money to feed her young children." Dawn has been thinking that perhaps some of those girls were former orphans, now trying to fend for themselves.
Also today (we said it was a very full day), we visited two locations that featured demonstrations of artisanship, followed by opportunities to buy materials made by the craftsmen, as well as other items typical of China. The first was a jade factory, where pieces of this semi-precious stone are carved into large figures, figurines, jewelry, and many other things. To carve a piece of jade, the artisan holds the piece against a small spinning disk. A small stream of water keeps the disk and the jade from becoming too hot. We learned that jade exists in several colors in addition to the typical green, including white and red.
Prices were negotiable at the store adjacent to the jade factory, although it certainly wasn't as bumpy (or as dangerous!) as dealing with a handbag-seller on the sidewalk! Before coming to China, we had wanted to buy something to represent Mary's main given name in Chinese, "Ling," which means "tinkling of jade pieces." (The character for "jade" in Chinese is a pictograph of three pieces of jade strung together.) So we bought a hanging trinket consisting of several small, multi-colored pieces of jade strung together, as well as a few other small items. Some of the jade figures in this store were huge, such as the figure of a cougar (or other wild cat), about six feet high. We joked with others in our group about buying these gigantic (and extremely expensive) pieces.
The second opportunity to watch artisans, then buy their work, was a cloisonne factory. Chinese cloisonne is a fascinating process that creates beautiful vases and other items. A cloisonne piece is made of copper, with small copper wires welded or glued on in a pattern (usually flowers) and enamel of different colors painted on between the wires. Then the piece is heated and polished several times. Prices in this store were declared not negotiable, and the purchase experience was much less stressful. We bought a few small pieces.
After a somewhat hurried dinner with the group, we left for the Beijing airport to fly to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, the province where Mary was born and where we would receive our precious daughter. We were eager beyond words, a little nervous, and totally amazed that the time had finally come.
Eleven pictures from today's activities are posted on two pages, here and here.
May 17, 2005
This day, referred to as "Gotcha Day" among adoptive parents, was one of the most intensely emotional experiences of our lives, in the midst of the overall extraordinary experience of our trip to China. Mable (our main guide) had warned us to bring Kleenex to the "Civil Affairs Bureau" -- the adoption office -- when we got the babies. She didn't need to; we already knew we would be crying when we first saw Mary, who will be our daughter for eternity.
Imagine thirteen sets of parents (plus a few grandparents and siblings) sitting on a tour bus, going to get their babies. "Exciting" wouldn't capture the sense of reverence, and "emotional" wouldn't convey the intensely of the feeling. To think that we were going to see the child about whom we had prayed and dreamed for months, and to whom we would be sealed for eternity, was simply overwhelming.
The adoption office in Guangzhou is in a business-oriented area of the city, occupying one hallway in an office building, with perhaps ten offices or other rooms. The thirteen families gathered in a medium-size conference room. After we were gathered, the orphanage personnel brought the babies into the hallway several yards from the door of the conference room. Then one of the orphanage workers brought each baby down the hallway and into the room, in a pre-arranged order, at intervals of about two minutes.
We were second. We stood up near the door of the room, and one of the ladies from the orphanage brought Mary in. She looked so precious and so sweet!! The lady gave her to Dawn. Someone (perhaps Mable or Alison) gestured to Dawn and told Mary, "Ma-ma." We talked to her and cuddled her and caressed her. Our tears flowed freely and copiously (there was no time for Kleenex!). For many minutes, we were totally unaware of anything else going on around us.
Mary seemed a little dazed emotionally, but she was not crying. (Out of the thirteen babies, perhaps three of them cried a lot during this first meeting.) Mary has been very willing to look into our eyes from the first moments, and she has been very "cuddly" -- very comfortable and willing to cuddle (Mom and Dad don't mind the cuddling either!!). She likes to hold onto a piece of our clothing while we're holding her. Mary really likes attention, and she loves to be held (these are very good signs in relation to emotional development, for an orphanage baby). Usually, she pouts and gives a little open-mouthed "aaaah" before starting to cry.
Mary is a very active, inquisitive, attentive baby. She has a strong tendency to reach for things; she likes to reach for our mouth or an ear when we're holding her, and she managed to pull off Scott's eyeglasses several times within just the first couple of days! One of our first interactions with Mary on "Gotcha Day" was kissing her hand when she reached for our mouths. (This "reachiness" may sound commonplace to most parents of ten-month-old babies, but it's especially noticeable with Mary, and somewhat significant for an orphanage baby. At a group dinner on the evening of "Gotcha Day," we really had trouble with Mary reaching for our plates, etc., while she sat on our laps, whereas most of the other parents didn't have that problem.) Mary loves to play with toys, especially things that make noise (uh-oh!). She always turns to investigate when she hears noises, and she often watches people curiously as they move around a room. She played "patty-cake" a little when we were still at the Civil Affairs Bureau.
We have been totally captivated by Mary's sweet, inquisitive expression. And Daddy says her lips look like a little rosebud. We think she's the prettiest baby in the group of thirteen -- and our lack of bias is 100% guaranteed!
During the twenty-four hours between our "Gotcha Moment" and the writing of this entry, Mary has gradually become somewhat less dazed emotionally. She barely started to smile before we left the Civil Affairs Bureau on "Gotcha Day." The next morning, she was smiling more, and we discovered a couple of games that made her laugh for the first time: swinging her horizontally in our arms, face-up, while making a playful noise; or giving her soft "nibbles" under the chin. How delightful to hear her precious, though still somewhat restrained, little laugh!! Adoptive parents and other people experienced in infant adoption tell us that the babies gradually warm up to the parents during the first week or so.
After the initial period of cuddling and (mostly parental) crying, each set of parents had an opportunity to talk to the personnel from the orphanage. The main purpose was to ask questions about the baby's history and care. We learned some valuable details about how Mary came to be in the orphanage. We also met the office worker from the orphanage who took her from the police station to the orphanage. This lady was very affectionate toward Mary: She held her for a long time and talked to her lovingly and caressed her, and didn't want to let her go. We were delighted to see that someone had apparently formed an emotional attachment with Mary, which is very helpful in an orphan's developing emotional attachments to her adoptive parents and other family members.
Shortly before we left the adoption office for the day, each set of parents received a bag of materials for the babies, including a few packages of the formula and rice cereal that the babies have been eating (our guides secured these materials from the Civil Affairs Bureau, with money they had collected from the parents earlier). A Chinese character was printed on the outside of the bags. Scott asked one of our guides the meaning of the character, and she said, "Blessing." This was so appropriate as to bring another little surge of emotion: Today was one of the most blessed and emotional days of our lives, fully as powerful as the day when each of our other precious children was born.
Here are some pictures of our precious Mary, taken on "Gotcha Day."
May 18, 2005
This morning we returned to the Civil Affairs Bureau to complete some paperwork and other administrative requirements for the adoption. We were briefly interviewed by two or three Chinese government workers, who asked a few questions about our biographical information (age, occupation, etc.) and confirmed our pledge to treat Mary well as our child. Another surge of emotion came when one of the workers asked, obviously as part of a script, "Are you satisfied with this baby?" "Satisfied"?! What an understatement!! Dawn later told Scott that she wanted to say, "Are you kidding? We got the best baby in China!"
Also as part of the process at the adoption office, the two of us had our picture taken with Mary, to be affixed to the final Chinese "adoption decree." This turned out to be a very good picture, which we look forward to scanning and posting after returning home. Of course, Dawn and Mary are by far the best-looking people in the picture.
Today, we weighed Mary on a scale in the Civil Affairs Bureau: She is 7.5 kilograms, or 16.5 pounds.
After the adoption office, we went to the "security office" (apparently part of an immigration/emigration agency), where a law enforcement officer briefly interviewed us and took a picture of Mary. Also during this visit, we received the "adoption decree," which is mounted in a very nice binder (red, of course). By the way, most of our contacts with Chinese government authorities occur in English, although one of our guides is standing by during some of the interviews, when the interviewer's English is a little shaky.
With this morning's events, our adoption of Mary is now "final" as far as the Chinese government is concerned. Now begins the process of getting permission from the U.S. government to bring her home with us!!
This afternoon we had a much-welcomed respite from the sightseeing and administrative work, to be with Mary a little (and to make some progress on this Web page!). It's getting hard to understand how Mary can hold up her hands, with two adults wound more and more tightly around her two little pinkies.
Mary had her first bath this afternoon since we got her. We've been told that Chinese orphanages usually give sponge baths rather than regular baths, so we were a little uncertain how Mary would react to being in the water. We were happy, then, to see that she liked it, splashing and reaching (of course) for the water trickling from the faucet.
This evening we had another of many meals with the rest of our travel group. We have enjoyed being with our group, eating meals together and riding around in the tour buses. These are very, very good people -- most of them practicing Christians (our adoption agency is a Christian organization), with two or three young pastors or part-time pastors among them. We normally share one or two meals each day with the group.
Mary is smiling and laughing with us more each day, and becoming more accustomed to us. Beginning on "Gotcha Day," Dawn has been telling Mary "bless your cute little nose!" in a sweet, excited tone, whenever Mary sneezes. (Dawn picked up this habit from one of our sisters-in-law.) Mary has now come to expect that reaction: after a sneeze, she looks up at Dawn for the usual exclamation.
In order to help with Mary's transition, we have been including some form of her Chinese given names when we speak to her: either "Mary Ling," or "Mary Guo Ling," or sometimes just "Guo Ling." (We will have dropped the Chinese names by the time we get home.) On Gotcha Day, Scott started referring to her as "Mary Ling, the precious little thing." She is!
Here are some pictures from this day's activities, including more pictures of our precious Mary.
May 19, 2005
Mary continues to open up to us gradually, although she still seems a little melancholy at times. She is babbling more, smiling and laughing more. In the morning, after all three of us had arisen, we sat on the floor for a while and communed with Mary, and she smiled readily. The simple games that parents play with babies, such as lifting the baby up and down, a foot or two above the parent's face -- which would have brought no reaction on "Gotcha Day" -- now make her smile. Sometimes, it is what we are calling a "Mona Lisa" smile -- small, somewhat reluctant, with lips pressed together.
Today, we went with our group to have the babies' pictures taken for their visas, then to have their medical examinations (also a requirement for entering the U.S.). For the pictures, we walked to a small photo shop near the hotel. The babies took turns sitting on a stool, with a supporting parental hand getting caught in each picture. A sudden rainstorm started before the pictures were done, and most of the group huddled together in the tiny shop for twenty minutes or so. These sudden downpours are fairly frequent in Guangzhou, reminding us that we are in the tropics.
After giving up on waiting for the rain the stop, all thirteen families trooped wetly to the clinic for the medical examinations, carrying large white umbrellas borrowed from the hotel. The examinations were very quick, consisting of weighing and measuring each baby, checking vision and gross hearing ability (using a set of noisy toys), and checking heart sounds, heart rate, bones (by palpation), etc. You can imagine the scene in the waiting area at the clinic, with thirteen babies, their parents and other family members, and all of their strollers and backpacks. It's no wonder that people stare whenever the group goes out together. We were a little nervous about having Mary examined by non-American medical personnel, but the clinic was clean and used sterile instruments. The results of Mary's examination were unremarkable.
Mary continues to impress us with her curiosity and quick manual dexterity. She grabbed the tape measure while one of the doctors was measuring her head circumference. He expressed a little surprise, and let her play with the tape while he continued with the examination. Mary has a playing spot in our hotel room, where we keep her toys, and she loves to scoot over to the adjacent nightstand and get into the non-toys stored on the bottom shelf. She's not crawling yet, but she's very close: Leaning way over from a sitting position to reach things, and scooting along when she's on her tummy. Eating at a restaurant while holding Mary on our lap is quite an adventure. "Watch closely, please; the hand [Mary's hand] is quicker than the eye." Scott says that Mary is going to be a star in fast-pitch girls' softball -- grabbing those line drives with lightening speed. Mary has also figured out how to engage a gullible parent in the "I drop it, you pick it up" game.
A few pictures from today's activities (all of them featuring you-know-who) are here.
May 20, 2005
Mary is smiling and laughing more and more, and is acting much less melancholy. She still gives us her "Mona Lisa" smile every once in a while, but usually it's a more relaxed, open smile. She has started babbling quite a bit. Our travel group went to the Guangzhou zoo today, but we chose to stay at "home" -- straightening the room, visiting local shops a little, working on the Web site, and playing with Mary. Another sudden rainstorm today: We went to a little restaurant (very popular with the locals) next to the hotel for a carryout lunch, and were shocked to see that it was pouring as we prepared to leave. A very pleasant Chinese man who spoke excellent English said he was also headed toward the hotel and insisted that we cover Mary's head with his jacket.
Our home for ten days in Guangzhou is the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island, an island in the Pearl River. This hotel is remarkable for several reasons. This is, first, where almost all adoptive parents (at least U.S. parents) stay when they come to Guangzhou to complete the adoption. All over the hotel and in the surrounding streets and businesses, one sees Caucasian parents with a Chinese baby and perhaps an older Chinese child (it's fairly common for people to come to China twice for adoption). Swapping adoption stories in the hotel's elevators is an almost daily exercise. One wonders whether the U.S. government contemplated the enormous impact on the local economy when it chose the consulate in Guangzhou to process immigration papers for adopted Chinese children.
In addition to the adoption connection, the White Swan is a five-star hotel that deserves it. The elevator lobby on every floor has an attendant who pushes the "down" button for you when she sees you coming and otherwise provides assistance when needed. The hotel's main restaurant has a breakfast buffet fit for a Chinese emperor (paid for by our adoption agency as part of our overall fee), in a dining room with a glorious view of the Pearl River and its constant flow of small commercial ships helping to move China's booming economy. As in many retail locations in China, the country's abundance of workers is evident in the hotel dining room: as soon as your first cereal bowl is empty, one of numerous immaculately-dressed and eminently-courteous attendants whips by to clear it away. This restaurant is so careful about its appearance that the attendants cover the ubiquitous parental backpacks with tasteful mauve cloth covers that blend with the rest of the decor. Every morning's breakfast buffet looks like an "adoption party": about 75% of the customers are members of families who are in Guangzhou to adopt.
Each day, we eat either lunch or dinner at a restaurant with the rest of our travel group, arranged by our guides. The fare is usually Chinese; Scott is probably the only person in the group who isn't tired of eating Chinese food. We have found the Chinese food here to be fairly similar to that in Chinese restaurants at home, except that there's more variety in the sauces, and the sauces are generally spicier. Invariably, we sit at large round tables (about four families per table). The middle of the table is occupied by a large Lazy Susan. The dishes are brought in one by one, usually five or ten minutes apart, and placed on the Lazy Susan. If you see something you want, you verify that no one else is serving him- or herself at the moment, then turn the Lazy Susan until your target dish is in front of you. Sometimes the dishes have serving spoons, and sometimes they do not (in which case you make clumsy use of a pair of chopsticks). We have to ask for forks about half the time. Since our guides are Christians (employees of our adoption agency), they always invite someone to ask a blessing on the food before we eat. So far, they've only invited one of the pastors or assistant pastors in the group. We have chuckled with other groups members about how our group meals are a little more "interesting" now that every family has a baby to handle during the meal.
A few pictures taken today are here.
May 21, 2005
Today, our guides took the group to a "wholesale market" in Guangzhou. This turned out to be a huge children's mall -- hundreds of small stores on three levels, about 90% of them carrying mostly children's clothing. It could serve as Exhibit C ("C" for children) in a description of the exploding Chinese textile industry. Most of the clothes were of a style that one would see in the U.S. (that is, not traditional Chinese clothing, although that was available, too). The prices were much lower than what you would find in the U.S., and were further negotiable. (Imagine taking a cute outfit to the cashier in Babies R Us and saying "I'll give you five dollars for this.") This mall was a bargain-hunting mother's paradise. We had two hours there, and the dads were interested for about ten minutes. Dawn was quite reluctant to leave after the two hours.
While Dawn shopped at the "wholesale market," Scott wandered around the market with Mary in the baby carrier. This lead to some interesting short encounters with Chinese proprietresses and customers. One lady said, "Lucky baby." Another, elderly lady smiled at Mary from a few yards away and gave a "thumbs up" signal. Later, when two young parents stopped for their little boy to see Mary, Scott learned that if you pronounce one or two phrases of a foreign language correctly (in this case, "hello"), the natives might start rattling on in the language, then look puzzled when you say, "I don't understand."
For lunch today, we went with the group to a Chinese restaurant specializing in "dim sum." Neither of us has ever had dim sum before, so we don't know what it means in the U.S.; but this meal consisted mostly of meats, etc., wrapped in translucent skins made of rice flour. Also, seafoods were much more a part of this meal than our other meals in China. Scott liked the wonton soup (too seafoody for Dawn), but both of us have decided that we'd rather have a platter of Chinese food than something wrapped in a rice-flour skin.
This meal also highlighted a couple of interesting differences between American and Chinese dining practices. The Chinese (in restaurants, at least) apparently do not drink much with their meals (we're talking here about non-alcoholic beverages), because many restaurants charge extra for refills. During this meal, one of the couples in the group wanted refills on their sodas, and when the waitress came to pour, they asked her about buying the whole bottle. She seemed very puzzled that anyone would want to drink so much, and it took several moments to make her understand their desire. But in the end, she took their money (the equivalent of US$ 1.20) and left the bottle.
Also, toward the end of the meal, when much of the group was already feeling that this native Chinese dim sum was just a little too different from anything they were accustomed to, the server brought something even more different: a plate of chicken meat, with the animal's intact head prominently featured in the center of the plate, the beak pointing skyward. This lead to a fair amount of merriment and even some hijinks involving the chicken's head and a few digital cameras, leading Scott to comment that the last course in a dim sum meal is laughter.
This evening, our travel group gathered in the hotel lobby for a tradition among American adoptive families who stay at the White Swan: the "red sofa" picture. The parents put all of their babies on a certain red sofa in the upper lobby, and take pictures of them. (The tradition is to do this at the end of the group's stay in Guangzhou, but we did it early because one of the families was leaving early, due to the father's military commitment.) As you can imagine, some of the babies aren't too thrilled to be plopped on a sofa in an unfamiliar place with a couple of dozen adults gathered around, so the pictures sometimes look like depictions of "ancient Chinese sofa torture."
Mary continues to open up to us and relax with us. Her "Mona Lisa" smiles have become very rare.
Some pictures from today's activities (including one of our "red sofa" shots) are here and here.
May 22, 2005
We started this day by attending the Guangzhou Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The journey was a bit of an adventure, though not nearly as much so as our trip back from the Beijing Branch last week. We had a map of the neighborhood, showing the name of the apartment complex where the Branch uses rented space for its meetings. We also had the apartment number ("B" plus a number), but didn't know how to find that apartment within the complex.
To start with, the cab didn't leave us at the right place: the apartment complex turned out to be two or three blocks from where the driver left us. We asked for directions three times to find the complex, by holding up our map and pointing to the complex. Then we had no idea how to find building "B"; the buildings did not seem to be labeled. While we stood wondering what to do, a familiar (and very welcome) sight saved us: a Caucasian man in a white shirt walking by, this time with his wife. They were headed our way.
About fifty people attended the service. As in Beijing, this meeting was only for expatriates. Rather than a regular Sacrament meeting, they had planned a "general conference" meeting for this Sunday. (Twice a year, the Church holds its general conference in Salt Lake City, at which the Prophet and other leaders of the Church speak. Members in most areas of the world can see and hear the conference live by satellite, but not those in China. So the members in Guangzhou watch portions of the conference together after they receive the videotapes.) We were disappointed not to be able to partake of the Sacrament today, but enjoyed the meeting.
We experienced another aspect of Mary's personality during this meeting. Some of the written information from her orphanage told us that she likes music, and we have started seeing evidence of the truth of that statement. At one point during today's meeting, all of the members stood and sang together. Mary was trying (in a very low volume) to sing along, too, basically humming some of the music! She was also intrigued by the experience of hearing her Mom and Dad sing together (along with everyone else around her); she looked at us with great interest during the hymn.
We had a very interesting encounter and conversation after today's Church meeting: It turns out that the current head of the "adoption unit" at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou is a member of our Church. Small world again! We told him we would be at the consulate for our adoption later in the week. We chatted for a while about the work of his unit. We said that his office processes approximately 7,000 adoptions every year (thus, that's how many Chinese children are adopted by Americans each year).
Today, Mary seems to have reached a benchmark in her comfort level with us, in that she has been laughing more today than she was late last week. Her laugh sounds so sweet!! She hardly ever laughed during the first few days after we got her. Also, we saw more evidence of Mary's love of music this evening. Dawn took her to the hotel's playroom for children. She loved a certain toy that made music: she tried to dance to it (in that rhythmic, happy up-and-down movement that sitting infants make when they like music), and she wanted to play it over and over.
Some pictures from today (only one of them not featuring our popular starlet) are here.
May 23, 2005
Today, our travel group visited the "Chen Ancestral Hall" in Guangzhou. According to the site's brochure, the hall was built in the late 1800s (a heartbeat ago in Chinese history) by several Chen families in Guangdong Province, and "served as the hall for ancestor worship as well as temporary residency for the Chen descendants when they came to the provincial capital for official discussion, imperial examination or litigation." This site has some remarkable architecture, as you'll see in the pictures.
For lunch, the group went to a McDonald's restaurant in Guangzhou. Mable told us that McDonald's and KFC are extremely popular in China, and the crowds at this restaurant proved it. Almost everything on the menu was the same as what you would see in the U.S. Scott tried one item that you wouldn't see in the States, however: chicken pieces wrapped in a flour tortilla with a peppery Chinese sauce (he liked it). Also, Dawn said that the breading on her chicken sandwich was much spicier than what you would get at home. But one of our group members who got a Big Mac said it tasted exactly the same (amazing quality control).
We had two experiences at the McDonald's that suggested Chinese young people are a little camera-shy. Just inside the restaurant door was a life-size depiction of Ronald McDonald sitting on a bench. Two girls, about ten and seven years old, were sitting on the bench with "him," and Scott thought it would make a cute picture. He pointed at his camera, then at the girls, but they smiled and giggled and tried to hide behind the bench. Later, when a large group of high school students were in the dining room, three female students stood near some of the American families for a long time, smiling and commenting to each other and chuckling about our babies' antics. We (Dawn and Scott) asked to take their picture; two of them smiled and hid behind Dawn, but the other stayed and let Scott take her picture beside Dawn and Mary.
Mary seems to be fully comfortable with us. (We had read before our trip that this takes about a week, and tomorrow is our "one-week-versary.") We hardly ever see her reserved "Mona Lisa" smile any more. Usually, it is a warmer, more relaxed smile. And when she does give us a smaller, closed-mouth smile, her eyes are fully part of the smile, in a way that says, "Yes, I know you love me. Aren't I the cutest thing?" Mary has also been doing cute little physical things that indicate she is completely relaxed with us, like patting both of our shoulders at the same time when we are holding her and she's in a playful mood.
Tonight, Dawn played some music for Mary in the hotel room, and she "danced" to it and laughed and patted the floor.
Some pictures from today are here and here.
May 24, 2005
This morning, the group went to a big shopping mall in Guangzhou. This mall had a circular design with two large, multi-level atria attached on opposite sides of the circle, as glitzy as any upscale mall in the U.S.. The merchandise was more varied than in the children's mall, including adult clothing, a few restaurants, and a leather-goods store. Scott was pleased to be able to ask for the location of the restroom in Mandarin (not everybody speaks English here!).
Mary has been fiddling with her ears almost since we got her, and we decided, a couple of days ago, to start her on the antibiotic that our physician gave us before we left home. Today, we noticed that Mary's forehead seemed to be a little hot as we headed back to the hotel around noon. We took her temperature this evening, and she had a fever.
As our time to return home draws near, both of us feel that we will miss China. We have gained a great love of the Chinese people, and it will be hard to leave the land of our precious Mary's nativity.
A few (three, exactly) pictures from today's activities are here.
May 25, 2005
This morning, our guides delivered the families' paperwork to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, seeking permission to bring the babies into the United States. Alison called us shortly after 10:00 to say that the papers had been accepted!
Mary is definitely not feeling well. We decided to forego the Pearl River cruise that the rest of group will be taking tonight.
For dinner today, the group went to a Pizza Hut restaurant. This was a very different experience from our lunch at McDonald's two days ago. Whereas McDonald's was almost exactly like any McD's in the States, the Pizza Hut was very different. A member of our group who works for Pizza Hut's parent company told us that going out for pizza is considered "upscale" in China. We could tell: the dining room was brightly-lit and much quieter than the typical Pizza Hut back home; the decor was very nice, including marble surfaces; and uniformed waitresses scurried around filling drink glasses. The pizza was also different: much less tomato sauce, and the vegetarian pizza on the menu included corn as a topping. But the restaurant had a salad bar that looked just like a Pizza Hut salad bar in the U.S.
During our ten days at the same hotel in Guangzhou, we have developed a great admiration for certain of the surrounding shopkeepers. The best chops near the White Swan Hotel are carved by Michael Lin. (A chop is a signature stamp, made of stone and used with red ink, carved to order with a person's name and usually some Chinese characters.) Michael is around thirty years old (in 2005), and has a young wife and a baby boy born in early 2005. Michael is one of the kindest, humblest, and most sincere people we met in China. His face glows with love and joy. We (Dawn and Scott) stood in front Michael's shop tonight, chatting with him and his wife for a while after completing our purchases. We would love to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them! (To get to "Michael's Place," turn right as you leave the hotel, walk past Lucy's Bar and Café (a popular eatery for visiting Americans), then turn right between the park and the tennis courts. Michael's Place is a small structure on the left side of the roadway, just a few yards from the river.)
Another favorite shopkeeper is Grace, at "The China Doll." She is sweet and helpful, but not a "pressure" salesperson. She helped Dawn communicate with a photoshop person in choosing digital photos to be printed. (To get to The China Doll, turn right as you leave the hotel, then take the first left. The store is on the right, in the first block.) Finally, a very nice shopkeeper named Jordan was eager to improve his English. Dawn mentioned that his store was "tucked away," and he asked her about the meaning and spelling of the term. Jordan had a sign offering a "Free Stroller," but he expressed disappointment that some people never returned the strollers. Dawn explained the implication of "free," and he had her write a sign in English saying that strollers were offered for free during the user's stay in Guangzhou. (Jordan's shop is diagonally across the street from The China Doll, across a little courtyard.) When you visit Jordan's, you might see the sign that Dawn wrote!
Some pictures taken today (including more pics of the brown-eyed starlet) are here.
May 26, 2005
The big event today was our group's visit to the U.S. consulate. Security was pretty tight, including a prohibition against bringing any containers, cameras, or electronics into the building. A little pile of abandoned bags and water bottles lay in front of a tree near the front door.
All of the families in our group, along with about three sets of parents who apparently were not in a travel group, gathered in a smallish, somewhat Spartan room. Each family was called, one by one, to sit in front of a window near one corner of the room, where a consulate employee sat behind a large pane of security glass (like in a bank). Ryan Roberts, the head of the adoption unit whom we had met on Sunday, stood behind the consulate employee, relaxed but attentive. The employee looked at our passports, and at Mary's passport. Mary was asleep in the baby carrier on Scott, and she asked Scott to turn so that she could see Mary's face.
After all of the families had presented their passports and their babies' faces, Mr. Roberts came into the waiting room and stood with the families crowded around in a semicircle. He gave a little spiel about the work of his office, repeating the figure that he had told us on Sunday (7,000 Chinese adoptions into the U.S. per year), and adding that this number accounts for just under one-third of foreign adoptions into the U.S. He then asked all of the parents to raise their right hands and swear that the information we had provided on the consulate forms was correct. He told us that with our babies' immigrant visas, the children would automatically become U.S. citizens when their passports were stamped at the port of entry. Mr. Roberts seemed to enjoy participating in the adoptions.
At some point while at the consulate, our guides handed out the consulate's receipts for the $380 charge for each baby's visa (they have Chinese passports with U.S. visas). A few of us chuckled about the notation at the bottom of the receipts: "No refunds." Hey guys, we don't need no refund!!
Mable let the group decide what kind of cuisine to have for dinner tonight. Although most of the group (except Scott) is tired of Chinese food, the consensus was to have Chinese. You've got to eat Chinese food on your last night in China! So we sat at three round tables with three Lazy Susans, and had a variety of dishes, some familiar, some new, even after our many Chinese meals on this trip.
This evening, we picked up some of our chops from Michael, and gave him a photo of him, Dawn, and Mary standing in front of his shop.
We also spent a lot of time today packing to leave for home. We are sad to be leaving, but we are excited to see our other children, and to bring Mary home with us!
Today's pictures are here.
May 27, 2005
This day seemed longer than the day we came to China. We left the hotel at about 6:30 a.m. (not fun getting a baby ready that early). Mable and Alison took the group to the airport in the tour bus, then said goodbye before we passed through security. We will miss these wonderful ladies. Several times before going to the airport, we marveled over the fact that we were finally bringing our precious baby home!
We flew first to Hong Kong (about forty minutes from Guangzhou), then to Chicago (this was the killer flight), then to our final destination. About eight families in our travel group were with us on the Hong Kong flight, which was on China Southern Airlines. We had a thoroughly-modern Boeing 757 with competent flight attendants wearing red uniforms. They handed out mixed nuts and water for the short flight. The Hong Kong flight was crowded but had a few empty seats, and we saw some humorous instances of other passengers trying to avoid sitting near the babies.
Our fourteen-hour flight to Chicago was on a crowded Boeing 747. This was a very different experience from the trip to China: When awake, Mary is seldom content just to sit and do nothing (how did they know to give a "Type A" baby to "Type A" parents??). So the parent holding Mary, during her wakeful times, was frequently handing her toys, picking them up after she dropped them, and picking up the things that she pulled out of the seat pocket in front of her. We also had some significant trouble getting Mary to sleep, and the passengers around us must have gotten very tired of hearing her cry. We spent a lot of time walking up and down the aisles, trying to get Mary to sleep, to keep her asleep, or to keep her happy.
Upon arrival in Chicago, we walked to customs (a very long walk) and immigration. Mary's passport was stamped in immigration around 3:00 p.m. today, making her a United States citizen at that time! Since Chicago was our official "port of entry" back into the United States, we had to retrieve our checked luggage and take it through customs. As we rode the airport train toward the gate for our connecting flight, Scott commented that he hoped our luggage would make the longish trip to the next gate. After the fourteen-hour flight to Chicago, the flight from Chicago to the East Coast was a piece of cake.
At our home airport, we waited for our luggage. And waited. One piece of luggage came, then we waited some more. Scott finally went to the United baggage office, and was told that our other three pieces of luggage were not on our flight. As he was submitting a claim form to the baggage office, a second piece arrived on another flight from Chicago. But that was all; the other two pieces were brought to our home over the next couple of days. The lady at the baggage office said it's not uncommon for luggage to be delayed after going through customs.
After taking the parking shuttle to our waiting car, we arrived home at about 10:00 p.m., and what a joyful reunion! A couple of our older children had literally been pacing at the front window. It was so good to see everyone again, and we were so thankful that the children had been safe while we were gone. Soon after arriving, we knelt down together to thank the Lord for His protection.
The star of our arrival, of course, was Mary. The children came out to the garage before Mary was out of the car, and they ooh'd and aah'd over her for several minutes while Dawn held her at the back seat. "She's so precious!" "She's so pretty!" "I can't believe she's my sister!" Mary seemed slightly dazed by all the sudden attention, but she quickly started smiling and reaching for their faces.
The final pictures from our trip are here.
*****
How do you write a conclusion for the journey of a lifetime, a journey to the other side of the world to get a child who will be ours for eternity? Our lives will be forever changed by this experience, and not just by having another child. The experience has made us richer in so many ways. About five weeks after we returned home, extended family members came from various parts of the country, and we took Mary to the temple of the Lord, where she was sealed to us for eternity by the Priesthood of God.
Click here to return to the "About Me" page
Click here to return to my main page -- "Scott Simpson's Virginia Genealogy"
Delete "NOSPAM" from the address before sending me e-mail.
This page was last updated on April 13, 2014.
