We Are Family

Today is Adoption Day.  I know you want photos, and I do, too, but we'll all have to settle for text.  We were picked up by our guide at 9 a.m. and driven back to the same government building where we met Maryn yesterday.  A lot of paperwork in Chinese to sign, a few questions to answer, a family photo, waiting, and we were done.  Limited fanfare.  It might be easier to capture some of the joy of the event on film if the child is a baby, but when she's a new 8 year old who looks frightened by the fact she's back in the same building where her world suddenly changed the day before with a few of the people who changed it, it's not.  That and the fact that the parents don't have any idea what's going to happen next either makes for a business-like event. Next year there will be cake!

 

After yesterday's meeting, our guide brought us back up to the room, and helped us settle in a bit.  After a bath she dressed in the gray skort and sequined T-shirt given to her by the neighbors two doors down.  Not only is the outfit cute, but the skort has a drawstring waist and that's critical right now.  It's all about cinching.  She needs to add a bit of meat to her bones, and I know those of you who know us are wondering how she's going to do that at our house!  We'll do whatever it takes.  After our guide left, she sat on the bed, and I watched her wipe her eyes a few times.  I asked her, "Ni nan guo ma?" (Are you sad?)  She didn't answer with words, and it didn't matter because tears and sobbing followed.  We felt sadness for her, yet we were glad to have tears.  She let us rub her back and tell her, ku ba (it's okay to cry).  We don't do a lot of communicating in Chinese, but I know it was comforting to her that it was okay to be sad and okay to cry, so thank you to our Chinese friends/teachers who taught us this.  It made all the difference in the world.  She fell asleep and took a long nap.  The rest of the day, she was wide-eyed.  We all went to bed at 9 p.m. keeping her usual schedule, and we were ready for it.

 

Today she enjoyed the flashlight we gave her, and we were given many smiles, especially when baba played a modified version of flashlight tag with her.  We were picked up at 9 a.m. for the official paper signing.  Undoubtedly she was comforted to hear Chinese again from our guide, and she stuck close to her when after the signing we went to buy a few toys before going back to the hotel.  She didn't want mama's hand just like we knew it would be.  Two steps forward, one and a half back.  We'll get there.  We had lunch in the hotel - always buffet style - and it's helping that she can point to what she wants.  Not going to see a smorgasboard of those choices at home, for sure, but we'll see what we can do.  We do know this about her, she is a noodle eater not a rice eater like we expected so there's an adjustment.  Our favorite of chicken, black beans and rice is about to make a significant change.

 

I started this during naptime and now we are late for bedtime so I'll finish.  More tomorrow I hope.

 

 

H..E..R..E..'S MARYN!

Here she is!   You've all been waiting to see her.  Our little darling is darling.  Enjoy!

Journey to the Other Side of Motherhood

Her bag is packed.  We're ready to go.  Our coordinator will be picking us up in two hours.  We're ready.  Let's go!

 

See you on the other side.

So This is Hefei

Our travel group left the hotel in Beijing at 5 this morning.  Had a sack breakfast on the bus and sang Happy Birthday to Maryn as we headed to the airport.  We all went through the group check in seamlessly, even the family of 8 with their 9 suitcases.  Some in the group were headed to the same provinces, same cities; others were headed to the same provinces different cities and two families, including us, were headed out on their own to different provinces.  Our flight from Beijing was 120 minutes, so I heard the pilot say.  Our guide, Jane, picked us up and took us to the hotel.  She spent an hour with us gathering paperwork, explaining the process for tomorrow and telling us about the orphanage.  She is so relaxed and confident, and we appreciate her experience so much.  To be correct, perhaps she spent more than one hour with us because she started off by calling someone, named Peter, to pick up our laundry.  He had to wait a few minutes while Jane was on the phone because we tried to tell him "no starch," but couldn't find it in the dictionary.  Jane was on the phone with the hotel kitchen to tell them what to make for us and also wrote it down so we could arrive at the hotel restaurant and just hand them the paper that says grilled chicken,white rice and steamed broccoli.  Don't even think about making that for an arrival home celebration dinner! 

 

Jane told us that Hefei does not have a lot of tourists and foreigners like there are in Beijing so people will look at us, and please don't be offended.  Remember yesterday I mentioned the stir that was created by our large group and the adorable kids traveling with us?  Well, they've got nothing on what Tom and I are getting here.  We walked down the street this afternoon, and she was right.  Stares, pointing, cell phone photos, and an occasional smile.  We didn't go far before we turned back and not just because the road construction blocked our way.  I'm not offended, but I don't love it, and I'd much rather be in the room.

 

It's time to go to bed and get a great night of sleep, please, Mr. Sandman.  We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.  Jane will pick us up at 9 a.m.  Don't be late.  While you're all winding down tonight we'll be winding up tomorrow morning.  Four months to complete a dossier, 40 months of waiting and a lifetime of dreaming are about to come together with a little girl in a government building in China.  

 

Please send prayers to heaven and the other side of the world that Maryn's heart and mind are prepared for the overwhelming transitions she will have to make, and that she will come to know how special she is to us.  We're another step closer to meeting Maryn.  God is good, all the time.

 

 

Sheng Ri Kuai Le, Maryn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARYN!  Today is our little darling's birthday.  Tomorrow we meet.  Originally, when I realized we would not meet her until the day after her birthday, I was bummed, but I realized this way we'll have two occasions to celebrate - her birthday and Family Day.  That's even better.

 

I'm in the lobby waiting for everyone to gather at 5 a.m. so we can go to the airport and on to our provinces.  We were told to be up at 4, but we didn't last past 2:30.  No rest for the excited!  

 

Enjoy a few more shots from yesterday. 

What a Great Day!

Sorry, this didn't posted the other day because it had too many attachments.  These are the events of July 31.

 

We are thrilled and exhausted.  A combination of jet lag and touring today from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Started at the Temple of Heaven, then to lunch where they were informed ahead of time to "bu fang weijing" (don't cook with MSG), then on a tour of the remaining hutong district in Beijing.  Rode in a rickshaw, of course, and that guy had to work hard to haul us around.  I said to Tom, "Isn't it amazing, to these people, this is regular life and to us it's "We're riding in a rickshaw in China!"  Climbed 69 of the steepest steps (that is, until tomorrow when we do The Great Wall) to the top of the drum tower.  More importantly, we all survived the climb down the steepest steps.  After that we went into an ancient alley area nearby where we bought a seal for Maryn that has her American name and the characters of her Chinese name which she can use to stamp on paper.  The guy cut the letters and characters into the stone while we watched.  Too bad the first time around her put the n in Maryn sideways.  Filed off the bottom of the seal and started over getting it right the second time.  Our guides were there to tell him how to do it correctly.  We finished the day at an acrobat show.  I'm eager to get to the gym and limber up so I can try some of those stunts myself.  Piece of cake.

 

Tomorrow we are going to The Great Wall, Forbidden City, and TianAnMen Square.  Today we toured with one other couple.  Tomorrow there will be 36 of us, including 6 children.  Can you believe I'm writing of these places we are seeing?  This is the trip of a lifetime.  We are embracing it and loving every moment.  It's unforgettable . . .  and we're another step closer to meeting Maryn.

 

A Great Wall Indeed

We started at TianAnMen Square this morning with half the city of Beijing and had to wait for quite a while to go inside the Forbidden City.  In the meantime we were a freak show of sorts to some of the natives.  I expected it would be so for the adorable little and not so little blonde boys waiting with us, but what are they doing asking to take pictures with Tom?  Some of the kids in our group didn't mind having their pictures taken at first, but then they made their way to the middle of the group so people would stop touching them.  It's not easy being a celebrity.  Sometimes it even makes you bury your face in your mom's legs and cry.  When the wait ended, we entered the Forbidden City with half of China and shuffled our way to the other side.  Took pictures of the sea of humanity, but it just doesn't capture what real life is giving you. From the Forbidden City we went for Peking duck then a long bus ride to The Great Wall.  It was exciting to get there and more so to climb.  Just wish you could cut your way through the air pollution to see it.  I walked up quite a way and managed to get back down, too, with my legs and my lungs fully functioning.  Check off two of the Seven Wonders of the World, that is if the Grand Canyon is one of them, too.

 

Tomorrow we leave at 5 a.m. to fly to Hefei, and all the families are ready to move on to their respective provinces.  We're hoping for a little down time before Family Day on Monday.  Another step closer to meeting Maryn.