A reunion

This week-end, we got together with the other families that traveled together to adopt our girls from China. We've gotten together a number of times since we returned seven years ago. It's an interesting mix of people. We really have nothing in common except for that trip and having adopted girls from China but we keep getting together. The picture on the right is from the original trip and was taken the day before we headed back to the United States (April 22, 2003). Our Emma is the second one from the right on the couch. We had already adopted her in China but would also need to adopt her here when we got back. But as far as we were concerned, these girls were our daughters now.

My wife and son were originally going to go with me but then the SARS outbreak hit. It was recommended that as few people as possible make the trip so I elected to go alone. It was exciting and scary and lonely all at the same time. I missed my wife and son (we ran up really big phone bills while I was there) but I was excited to meet our new daughter and also to learn about this vast country that I knew little about. We visited the Great Wall of China (picture of me there at the left) and the Forbidden City. Then we traveled to Nanchang to meet and adopt our girls. It had been a long day for us (sightseeing then a plane ride to Nanchang) and the girls (they had an all-day bus trip to Nanchang). We finally got to meet them after dinner that night. Most of the babies were crying by that point but when they brought me to Emma, she screamed! She was deathly afraid of this hulking man with a bushy beard and silly hair (that's what she calls it now). I had to hand her off to a nurse to try to calm her down. She didn't want to have anything to do with me. I was devastated. How was this going to work out?

After some instructions from the nannies from the orphanage and some signing of papers and the taking of pictures, it was time to take the babies back to our rooms and get to bed. She screamed the whole way to our room. She screamed even louder when I took off her clothes and changed her diaper. Then I tried to feed her with a bottle and she managed to find the energy to scream even louder. This was never going to work. But finally, she wore herself out and fell asleep in my arms. I put her in the crib and crawled into bed. I couldn't sleep from worrying. I knew she'd wake up in a few hours and I'd have to deal with the screaming again. And I was right. She woke and I picked her up (screaming), changed her diaper (louder screaming) and gave her another bottle of formula (new highs in screaming) and she again wore herself out and fell asleep. I was desperate. and worried that the hotel security would be knocking at the door to find out what I was doing to this poor little girl.

Then at about 2 or 3 am I heard her stirring and prepared for the next round of screaming. I went over to the crib to watch her wake up. She turned over, looked up at me...and smiled! I broke down crying from exhaustion and joy. She let me pick her up and give her a bottle. She let me hold her and I sang to her, talked to her and walked all around the room. She still wasn't happy about my changing her diaper but I could live with that.

In the next few days, we did everything together. I carried her all around the city in a carrier so that she always faced me. The last picture (on the right) shows us at the Tengwang Pavillion in Nanchang. In those days before we left for home, we had a wonderful time together We ate and talked and sang and danced. We saw the sights and played with the other girls and families. It was a time I'll never forget but I was afraid for a time that I'd always be remembered as the only person to ever travel to China to adopt a child and come home empty handed. I didn't. I came home with the most beautiful girl in China.