China Trip - December 13, 2004
"Gotcha Day!"
This was the most amazing day...
We got very little sleep last night, partly because of the 13 hour time difference from home, and partly out of anticipation of what was to come today. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel. Then we took a bus to the Beijing airport, where we caught a plane to Chongqing (roughly pronounced "chong-ching"). Many of the adoptive parents were nervous, including us.
We arrived at the airport in Chongqing. Here is one of the four parents in our group named "John", helping Yulin keep her little flock together through the airport.
Isabella gets a ride on the baggage cart.
The new airport in Chongqing just opened the day before our arrival. Very modern and beautiful.
After checking into the Holiday Inn Yangtze Chongqing hotel, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant. Then back at the hotel, at 2:30pm we attending a paperwork meeting, where our adoption tour guide led us through a process of reviewing and signing various forms.
They had a currency exchange person there so we could exchange the US dollars we brought for the government fees and orphanage donation into Chinese Yuan. Note the thick pile of Chinese currency on the table. We all felt like bank robbers.
The forms included a new picture of Elisa. Seeing a new picture was a big thrill, even though we were about to see Elisa herself in just a couple of hours.
Happy and nervous at the same time...
Then we took a bus ride to the "Sino-Foreign Adoption and Marriage" office on the other end of town. There was only two small elevators to take us up to the fourth floor offices. By the time we got upstairs, the room was already in chaos, with all the babies dressed up in Santa Claus suits, the government officials checking our passports to confirm our identities, the nannies presenting babies. It was not a one-by-one process, but all at once. We did not even have a chance to take our coats off.
Here is our first still picture of Elisa, still wearing the Santa cap. She was curious, but also uncomfortable. She was definitely missing her nannies.
Elisa was crying softly, arching her head back. But then she'd look us over and play. She calmed down and seemed to pose for the cameras.
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Then she would see one of her two nannies across the room and start to cry again. Here is Elisa posing with one of the nannies. We discovered that Elisa could stand on her own.
Elisa loved it when we lifted her up in the air, letting out a giggle.
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Back in the arms of her other nanny. The nannies seemed thrilled and sad at the same time.
We presented some gifts to the nannies. The orphanage staff also provided some notes, in Chinese, about the care and habits of Elisa. We were supposed to have a chance to talk through the notes with a translator, but in all the chaos of the moment, we forgot to do that.
Click here for the text of the notes, in Chinese.
We asked one of the orphanage staff members to write a personal note on the back of the orphanage note.
A friend later offered the following translation of the note:
 | First three words (symbols) give the City Chang Qing |
| Next three words give County Xiu Shan (Shan means mountain) |
| Then the orphanage name is provided which she said was roughly Tujia Social Charity Institution |
| The final two symbols are she believes the nanny's name Xu Kai (Kai being the first name) |
One last picture with the two nannies who were closest to Elisa. It was obvious to us that they were very caring people, and they cared deeply for their little "chen-chen".
Then we took our formal family picture for the adoption documents, which they then presented to us. We also presented the money for the fees and orphanage donation, and signed the documents and all three of us added our fingerprints to the documents in red ink, formally completing the adoption process.
Then, we said good-bye and took our bus back to the hotel. On the bus, all the babies were starting to get fussy. We gave them bottles. When we got back to the hotel, we put Elisa on the bed and took off the Santa suit. She was sweating under all the clothing, and was thrilled to be free of them. We had a delightful time for a few hours playing with Elisa. We presented her with all types of cool toys from Canada, but she also really like to play with a blue shiny wrapper and the water bottles.
Elisa was beside herself, giggling as we shook the bed to make her bounce.
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Bottle time and bed time.
See you tomorrow!