It's Official Cont.

It's Official

March 3rd 2009 the official day Sarah became a member of our family. Once again we met in the hotel lobby at 9 am and boarded a bus to go to the Civil Affairs Office. We were taken to the same room where we first met Sarah. Each family began the formal process of adoption. We were taken to a room and had our picture taken with Sarah, we were then taken to another room where we were interviewed and asked if we were happy with Chu Chao Juan aka Sarah, if we promised to love her and never abandon her or abuse her, why we wanted to adopt from China and then the interview was completed. We signed some paperwork and Sarah became officially ours. Our little group of four families cheered and clapped to finally have reached our goal, we headed back to the hotel where we would met up again in 2 hours to shop at the local Walmart to buy supplies for our babies and then later in the evening we would celebrate by having a group dinner at a local Chinese Resturant.

Catching Up

I just wanted to share a little more information about our trip. When we got to the cival affairs office I told Chelsea to have the video camera rolling as I had a feeling the children would be in the room. Sure enough, there they were as we walked in. I recognized Sarah immediately as she was dressed in the Chinese suit we sent her in her care package. The feelings I had were incredible, after so much waiting here we were standing in front of our daughter. She was taking everyone in but really was avoiding any direct eye contact. As soon as we walked into the room the process began. First the little 3 1/2 year old was taken to meet her new mom. We had been told by our guide to not pick up the children until after we had talked to them for a few moments as it would be too overwhelming to just go over and pick them up. Next it was our turn, Sarah's nanny was standing behind her and was trying to get her to look at us. I tried talking to Sarah and then she burst into tears. I picked her up and tried to comfort her. She cried harder and arched her back and started to kick. We broke out the cheerioes and she stopped crying for about 30 seconds. Then she started again, very loudly. Todd tried to take her but that didn't help her to stop crying and our guide came over and said she had talked to the nanny and she said our child was a strong willed child and very sensitive. When she said strong willed Todd and I both looked at each other and said, this for sure must be our daughter as we have 4 other strong willed children as well. We signed papers that allowed us to to take the children for a 24 hour harmonious period. It was time for the nannies to leave, Sarah's nanny came over to her and put a cookie in her hand, she was sobbing as she left the room We then got back on the bus and headed to the hotel. We got to our room and Sarah was so hot and sweaty. We proceeded to take her Chinese suit off and realized she had 6 layers underneath. We put another outfit on her and settled down with her. She quickly fell asleep. She slept for a couple of hours and then when she woke up she was very quiet and reserved. She would steal glances at me and if we made eye contact she would turn away. But a little later, Todd and Chelsea left with our guide Michelle to go to the bank and Sarah and I had a good time playing and she sat on my lap and let me feed her some lunch. She ate really well. We played all afternoon and by early evening she was smiling and walking around and we played with a beach ball and she ate more cheerios from me. She even let Chelsea play ball with her. At about 7:00 pm the doorbell rang and Chelsea went to answer the door, I heard her talking to a Chinese man and he ask if he could come in and she said yes, Todd jumped up to see why she was letting someone in our room and then I heard Todd say to come in and I looked up and a cute bell boy came in carrying a birthday cake and he was grinning from ear to ear as he looked at me and said Hoppy Birsday to you. Todd made a place for him to set down the cake and he asked him who sent it and he said oh manager notice it was your birsday and wanted to wish a very hoppy birsday to you. He continued to grin as he bowed and left the room. It just made me smile and made me so happy, yet another tender mercy, 6 years ago I was in China on my birthday and I have such fond memories of eating at a restaurant and having the server bring me some cake and saying Hoppy Birsday to you. I have thought about that moment so often over the past six years and now here I was again. It was indeed a very Hoppy Birsday to me.

Gotcha Day!!! (and Terri's birthday at the same time!)

What an amazing day with highs and lows and everything in between! Although the day started at 9:30am as far as adoption activities, Terri and I had been up since about 3:00... The Gotcha Day started with a bus ride to another part of town. We stopped in front of a building that looked much like any other and were escorted inside with four other families from America who were all adopting children from this Province.

We then waited by the elevators for an official to take us up to the seventh floor.

We were then taken down a long hallway, a quick turn to the right, and there she was. Sarah was dressed in a traditional Chinese coat that we had sent to the orphanage some time ago. You could tell that she was not so sure about what was going on or who all these people were. (I'll work on trimming down a video Chelsea shot of the actual introduction of Terri and Sarah. It's part wonder, part wonderful, and then part scared of too many new things with lot's of crying)

Once we got Sarah back to the hotel, we took the little snow pant suit off and found that she was wrapped in six more layers of clothes beyond her coat. It was a miracle that she could even move with all that stuff on! She settled down quickly, took a snack and a nap, and is now adjusting nicely.

Towards the end of the day, our adoption guide came in to help with some more paperwork to do. This part required Sarah to give her "stamp" of approval by putting her foot into it.

Tomorrow should be an adventure as well. It's shopping day at the Chinese Walmart and marketplace. More to come...

Todd

The Eve of Gottcha Day

It is 5:20 pm on March 1, the eve of "Gottcha Day" as it is referred to in the adoption world, the day when we will meet Sarah for the first time. Tonight Sarah's nanny will get her ready for bed for the last time. Our guide said she is most likely in Hefei tonight since we meet the children tomorrow at 10:00 am. She will never go back to the orphanage again. Tomorrow the world changes for Sarah, for our family. The journey has been long and very difficult at times, but we held on to faith and hope. We prayed daily for Sarah, we prayed for angels to watch over her, to comfort her to keep her safe until the time we could come and bring her home. And now tomorrow is the day. We will continue to hold on to faith and hope, we will continue to pray for Sarah daily as we do for all our children, we know the journey does not end tomorrow when we meet, it will be a process that will continue on.
Tonight I feel like the little boy in the Disney commercial where he is laying next to his sister and he says,"What do you think its gonna be like" and the parents call from their bedroom and tell the children to go to sleep and the little boy says, "We're too excited to sleep" My stomach has butterflies and I too wonder what its gonna be like. Sleep? I feel so tired and yet I have a feeling I'll be checking the clock often through the night. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, please continue with those prayers. We are so grateful to be so blessed with such great family and friends.

Hefei

We arrived in Hefei at 10:00 am, the airport is very small and there is a great amount of pollution here. First impressions of the area is that it is a very poor area of China. The orphanage where Sarah is at is about two hours from here. We will settle in our rooms and meet our guide in a few hours where she then will take us and show us where we can get water and where shopping is. The hotel where we are staying is the Holiday Inn and it is very nice, we are really enjoying the people we are traveling with and can't wait til we all have our children. In the group that have children in this province, there are 4 families including us. One other family is getting a girl who is in the same orphanage as Sarah, she is two months older then Sarah is. Another family is adopting a little girl who is 3 1/2 years old from a different orphanage and another family is getting a 2 year old boy from yet another orphanage. It will be so fun to meet back up in Guangzhou with all the families and see everyone's children.

Touring Beijing

We started our day meeting with 21 other families from our agency in the hotel lobby. We boarded 3 buses at 8:30 am and headed for Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. Our guide's name is Michelle, she has been a guide for Great Wall Adoption Agency for 2 years. On the way to the Forbidden City, Michelle was telling us of her first experience as a tour guide. In describing the Forbidden City, she had confused the word concubine with cucumber so when telling the group about the emperor she explained that he had only one wife but many cucumbers which he loved very much. After continuing her story about the emperors cucumbers someone from the group told Michelle she thought she meant concubines and not cucumbers and so now everytime Michelle tells the story of the emperor she always thinks about cucumbers. After spending several hours and doing lots of walking, we again boarded the buses and headed to lunch and the Great Wall. For those who have not been to Tianamen Square and Forbidden City, it is a 5 mile walk from the square to the back gate of the city. Amazing that such a large complex was dedicated to one person.

We toured a Cloisonne Factory and had lunch in the back room of the factory. We were seated at tables and the servers kept bringing plate after plate of Chinese food, there was at first plates of cold ham and roast and tomatoes and then hot and sour soup(which did not taste like Asian Star :) ) and then there was a fish with the head and tail still attached, sweet and sour pork, a spicy chicken dish, a kind of spicy beef dish, two different plates of vegetables, something that looked like french fries and a few other dishes. We decided that Sam and Megan would indeed have a hard time finding something they would eat.

We again boarded the buses and headed for the Great Wall, the weather had been beautiful and clear, we arrived and began our assent up the wall, Chelsea was grateful she had the corizone shots in her knees and she was able to climb with the rest of us. Some of the group made it a few steps, some a little higher and some went a very long way up the wall. Our guide said most familes make it to the second tower and that is where Chelsea and I climbed. Todd decided to go one more tower up. It was the coming down that was harder then going up. Todd made it to the third tower and said his legs felt like jello on the way down. The Great Wall section that we went to is the Badaling section. Our guide said there were two ways to go, the difficult way and the more difficult way. We chose the more difficult way as the reward was greater. (better places for pictures)

By the end of the day we were very tired, lots of walking and very little sleep. We decided to turn in early as we had to be up by 3:00 am the next morning to get ready to leave for our flight to Hefei.