Day Three: Day three was a travel day from Beijing to Hefei in the Anhui province of China. Other than our flight being delayed about a half an hour, the trip went very smooth with no complications. A driver picked us all up at the airport and we stopped a local market for anyone who needed to purchase any last minute baby supplies. From the market we drove straight to the Holiday Inn in Hefei. The hotel is fantastic and much nicer than the hotel we stayed at in Beijing. The Raddison in Beijing was not bad, but there is definitely a difference in the rooms.
When we got to our room, we were greeted by the sight of a stroller and crib that had already been set up for us. Our hearts were racing. Our little girl was going to be sleeping here tomorrow. Although we were drop dead exhausted from touring Beijing and still adjusting to the time change, sleep was very difficult for all of the families in our group due to the anticipation of meeting our children.
Day Four: Monday, September 17, 2007 (Gotcha Day)! Today we got our baby!!! We left the hotel at about 8:40 am and drove about 25 minutes to the local adoption center office. It took three elevator loads for all of our group members to make it to the seventh floor meeting room where several babies were already waiting when we entered. We immediately scanned the room to see if we could recognize Madison. Several other families did recognize their children. each family had to wait until their name was called and then the could officially meet and hold the newest member of their family. It was literally a complete blur and a whirl wind. In the midst of waiting, Mommy noticed one Nanny walking out in the hall with a little girl and said "There she is!!!" Mommy knew right away. We took several pictures and video of her while we continued to wait for that official moment.
Then our name was called, and we FINALLY got to hold our little girl. While it was a momentous and joyous occasion for us, it was really a terrifying and scary experience for Madison. She cried and reached out for her Nanny, who has given her the only comfort and security she has know for the first fourteen months of her life. Slowly, we were able to introduce some small toys and food to try and distract her from the trauma of the situation and very slowly and tentatively, she allowed us to feed her and start gaining her trust in us.
By the time we felt as if we were making any progress at all, it was time to be whisked away and back to our hotel. We were at the adoption center for maybe two hours - it felt like 5 minutes and was a complete blur. Thank God we had cameras and video being shot for us. One of the other couples waiting to meet their daughter was nice enough to take some pictures and use our video camera to capture our first moments with Madison. We are so grateful! Also, our agency hired a videographer to document out "Gotcha Day" from the time we left the hotel until the time we returned. We will be getting a DVD of that later in the trip.
Once we got back to the hotel, we once again had to start gaining Madison's trust and reassure her that we could be her source of comfort and security. It took us several hours walking her around the hotel in the stroller, as we allowed her to cry and mourn for the loss of her Nanny. Slowly, she started to gain our reassurance. With food (some little puffed rice balls we bought in China and Cheerios), she slowly began to feel some level of security. She actually felt safest in the stroller and stayed there even after we returned to our room after several hours of strolling her around. Once back in the room, we started introducing her to some more of the very simple toys (stacking cups and some small board books). Slowly but surely, she began to want out of the stroller. Once out she would investigate the toys, making sure she still had one hand on the stroller. After awhile she ventured away from the stroller and before long she was walking all around our room and checking everything out.
Our Madison is a very curious little one. She is very inquisitive and loves trying to figure out how everything works. She is walking and walking all over the place. When she is tired she will crawl if she really wants to get somewhere, but she really does prefer to walk. She loves books and loves turning the pages. We did give her a bath and she actually loved playing in the water and playing with some of the plastic toys we had placed in there for her. She was a little unsure when we washed her hair and had a little bit of a difficult time when we rinsed the shampoo out. She is a little bit congested, so she had a little bit of a hard time breathing if the water happened to run down the front of her face. Madison is definitely Daddy's little girl. She has really bonded with Daddy and is actually still a little unsure of Mommy. Mommy is feeding her and changing her when Madison will allow it and staying close to Daddy as much as possible, so that Madison will continue gaining trust and security with Mommy too. Other than a few little issues that were expected, we have had a fantastic and relatively easy experience transitioning Madison. Actually every family in our group is doing really well. One family did get a sick child yesterday and it has been hard for them to have to deal with that on top of worrying about bonding and all of the normal adoption issues. We have been praying for them, and we know everything will eventually work out wonderfully for them.
Day Five: Day five is our official adoption day. Today we will return to the local adoption center office and officially adopt Madison. Yesterday, we signed an agreement which just granted us temporary custody of her. It is a sort of trial period. Today around 2:30 pm we go back to sign the official adoption paperwork. Once that is done, she will be ours forever. We can't wait to sign those papers!
We will be in Hefei through Friday and leave early Saturday morning to go to Guangzhou. This will be Madison's first plane ride! It's a short one (less than two hours) so we are happy about that. We are tired of planes already! We can't wait to bring Madison home and introduce her to everybody. Be prepared, because she will steal your heart away!!!!
God Bless
Angie and Mike (in Hefei)
