Gotcha Day

We left the modern and tourist-filled Hong Kong on Sunday, January 10th. Our destination was Nanchang in the Jiangxi Province. It was obvious that we were going deeper into mainland China. The airline (China Eastern) served us a lunch of spicy noodles, dried fish, pickled bean sprouts, and a pickled green plum. Yum.

I think that the dried fish was the same stuff that I sprinkle over my aquarium at home.

When we arrived in Nanchang, we left the plane by exiting onto an open-air platform into the cold wind and rain and descending a set of slippery metal steps. We had been spoiled by the enclosed and comfortable walkways provided by the airports in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Louis.

We dashed across the pavement and entered a plain building where we lined up to go through three security checkpoints. The airport staff conducted the checkpoints, but the Chinese military was present and carefully observed everything. The atmosphere was not unfriendly, but it wasn’t welcoming. We had landed in their country, so they dealt with us.

I should point out that the flight we were on was a commercial flight, so it was filled with many travelers. Our small group of 10 families composed the only Americans on the flight. The rest of the passengers appeared to be Chinese returning from Hong Kong. We were all treated the same at the checkpoints.

Our adoption agency reps, Evelyn and Karen, met us at the park and whisked us onto a bus to the hotel. The Jin Feng Hotel is a five-star hotel, and had graciously sent two bellboys to handle our luggage for us. While we waited in the bus, the bellboys stowed our luggage without complaint in the wind and cold rain.

The trip to the hotel was about a 30-minute trip on a rough “highway”. China is starting to enjoy a new prosperity, but poverty and disrepair is evident everywhere. We passed shacks, fields that resembled wastelands, crumbling buildings, and people, people, people. China’s population is 1.3 billion.

I think they were all on that highway.

A word about the traffic…

In America, we believe that if a road is painted with lines then we must stay within those lines, and that pedestrians must stay on the sidewalk. In China, they believe that a road designed for four lanes of traffic can really hold 6 lanes. The lines are ignored. After all, they have very loud horns to tell the other drivers where they are going to be driving next. Mixed into the motorized vehicles are carts pulled by donkeys and bicycles.

I have learned that every bicycle is designed for two or three riders even if there is only one seat. Somehow, you just hop onto the bike with the guy pedaling and off you go.

That sounds crowded enough, but don’t forget that the pedestrians are heavily mixed into the traffic. They aren’t just trying to cross the road. They are walking the street with a destination in mind. The cars, donkey carts, and bicycles rush around them. They appear unconcerned that they will be run over, and honestly, I have yet to see an accident.

We arrived at the hotel, checked into our rooms, and immediately went to a meeting with Evelyn and Karen. They explained what we would be doing for the next few days and then sent us back to our rooms at 4:30 to get ready for our daughters. The orphanages were scheduled to arrive at 5 pm.

At 4:40, Evelyn called our room and said that our orphanage was early. Carly was waiting for us in the meeting room. We were the first to get our daughter.

We grabbed our cameras and rushed downstairs. We recognized Carly as soon as we entered the room. Her hair was thicker than in our last photograph, but it was her.
We had imagined that there would be some sort of ceremony (The Handing Over of the Baby, maybe), but the orphanage director simply walked over to us and handed her to Sandy. It happened so quickly that we missed using the camcorder. A member of another family grabbed our still camera for us and took several photos.

We talked to Carly, touched her hands and face, and tried to guess how many layers of clothing she was wearing. Her cheeks were bright red from the heat of all of her clothes, and she seemed unable to move. She just looked at us with curiosity.

In a few minutes, all of the families had their babies. We had all waited four to five years for our daughters, and now, in a matter of 15 minutes, we had them. Wow.

We were back in our rooms by 5:10. We held Carly for a few more minutes, and then decided to put her in clean clothes. We removed four layers of dirty and torn clothing. We put her into some of the new and clean clothes we had brought and she seemed to enjoy the freedom and coolness of wearing only one set of clothes.

Then, since we had been told that the babies hadn’t eaten, we began to try to figure out how to make the rice and formula mixture that the Chinese feed their children. The orphanage supplied two weeks of formula and rice cereal for us. We must be doing it right. Carly is drinking every bottle without complaint.

The rest of the evening was spent completing more paperwork, giving Carly a bath, and making Skype video calls to family. Carly is very happy and active. She is curious about everything. We are learning about her as much as she is learning about us.

Gotcha, Carly! Gotcha.