In China
All Days  |  Previous Day  |  Next Day

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 It has been a very long day….in a car. So here we go, do not expect much from me tonight….. Learned a few things overnight….do not want to jinx us but Little Miss Thing slept through the night with only her coughing to be heard. Yeah! In fact she slept through me drying my hair in the room too. Finally had to do “the walk past the crib and bump it” move to try to get her to wake up. So she got up and talked to a few fans on FaceTime – most importantly her big brother. At this point we decided it was time for her to take the plunge – literally. We kind of suspected she had never had a “bath” so to speak, so putting her in the huge bathtub would probably had been a little traumatic – for all of us. We put her little body in the sink. She was not so sure about it. She kept her legs completely straight and refused to bend them at all. It was quick and relatively painless. We headed down to breakfast where I decided it was time for her to carb load. She loved the rolls that had a grape jelly middle – they were the same ones I was scarfing down yesterday but yesterday it was a cream cheese filling. She also enjoyed a little congee and noodles. Breakfast of champions! Cindy arrived at 8:30 AM for….wait for it…MORE paperwork! Surprise! I would say by the time we arrive home next week we will have doubled or tripled the amount of signatures for this two weeks than we had to buy a house. After signing we had to then do our thumbprint over our signatures in red. Then it was off to the same building we were at yesterday to pick EmmeClaire up. This was basically the end of the “bonding” period (yeah, right). We signed more paperwork and officially became her parents. In other words…she is stuck with us!! (It is the equivalent to us going to court in Kazakhstan.) The same families that were there yesterday were there again – it was neat to see how some of the kids have already started to attach. One little girl – about 8 years old – that I watched yesterday shake her head no over and over to her new mother, today would not leave her mother’s side. There was a little ceremony and then off we went. Next was the notary….for more…paperwork! Signed a few papers….. Then off to…MacDonald’s! And guess what?! No paperwork. We took our food on the road…which was a good thing. We got on the highway and started heading to Sanmenxia only to sit in traffic. Crazy bumper to bumper traffic. We asked Abby (our guide for the day because Cindy was sick) about the traffic and she said that from 10 pm until about 7 am the traffic is not bad. Good to know. By this point EmmeClaire decided she wanted food. She ate the bun of a cheeseburger and some French fries. Yeah. I have never bought my son MacDonald’s anything in over 3 years but day 2 with EmmeClaire and she is already being fed French fries. Guess people are right, things are always more lax for the second child. It was pretty crowded on the roads most of the way there. When we finally arrived at a toll booth we met a car with one of the orphanage officials and a social worker from Orlando, Florida. We headed to the passport office to get the kids’ passports started. What we did NOT know was the passport officials were also interviewing us. The social worker prepped us a little but the official doing the questioning was really friendly. After this we headed to the orphanage. We were a little surprised. We assumed we were just going to get taken to the front gate. When we arrived we were taken inside – again figuring we were also only going to see a common room area but instead we were quickly ushered, after having met the 3 directors, to the EmmeClaire’s room. We barely got through the door when we were bombarded by nannies coming to see EmmeClaire. It was pretty funny. Great another kid with celebrity status in the family. We were shown her actual crib that still had her card with her name attached to it. They gave us the card, which will be a nice keepsake for her. She had a “window” bed! There were volunteers from the UK and Canada volunteering in her room so we talked briefly to them. The nannies were very worried about her being hungry so they wanted to feed her some noodles. We got to meet HER nanny. I felt kind of silly standing there watching a stranger that just happens to know my kid better than I do, take care of her. How exactly do you tell the woman that has raised your baby thus far, thank you? And I am not so sure she wanted to let her go. She did not want to look at me and I am sure her heart was breaking. Needless to say that was a little rough….and thanks to my husband it is on video. Great…… After we left it was getting quite late but there was one more stop we needed to make – probably even more important to me than even the orphanage stop. Again we followed the orphanage car to where EmmeClaire had been found. I did better holding it together at this point but was a little emotional standing in the spot where someone that knew EmmeClaire long before we did, possibly her birthmother, had taken her when they made the heart wrenching decision to give her away. This is the closest I will ever get to her birthmother. We have pictures for EmmeClaire and when she is older she can decide if she wants to discuss this particular part of her history but since it is HER history I will not go into any detail other than to say, whoever brought her to this spot and left her there, wanted her to be found and wanted her to be found quickly. I do not make up any details for either of my kids about parts of their history that I do not know, but based on having been to the spot I would say that individual cared for her very much and did not want her left alone for too long. We cannot be certain about the details surrounding the decision that EmmeClaire’s mother, parents, or family used to base their decision, but I hope as with Adam’s birth family, there is somehow peace in their heart with the decision they made. And just as that individual that brought her to this spot did, we turned and walked away, knowing that we will most likely never be here again. The difference is we went back to the van carrying EmmeClaire with us not just in our heart.

My mommy loves my smile Maybe she has a thing or two to teach big brother! The official red print signature City of Sanmenxia You better not wake her up, Peter! City of Sanmenxia Get that thing off my baby boy!!

Then it was on the road again back to Zhengzhou. This is where EmmeClaire decided….”OK parents….I hooked you….got you here….you have signed the paperwork and even put your thumbprint on it….now let me show you how well my lungs work!!” Oh my heavens. This had been quite a day for all of us and possibly even more emotional than yesterday but poor little thing I think is also teething. She was in the car over 6 hours, had been in and out of numerous places she had never been, been to the one place she had only ever known until yesterday, and now was back in the car. She screamed… cried…. screamed… and when she gets going her little face gets so red. I felt so bad for her. Plus she has this runny nose and cough that just won’t stop. I have never been so happy to get out of a car. She is now sleeping peacefully in her bed! Yeah!! Hopefully we make it through the whole night….. Tomorrow is….a day of rest. YEAH!!! Thursday the kids’ passports should be ready and Friday evening we flight to our next stop on the Tour of China! We will be reunited with our agency coordinator and the other families. I am so excited to see the other kids! Also to see if anyone has any smaller clothes…maybe I can barter the 18 month clothes I have for some 9 month clothes :) Thanks to so many of you that have sent us/me emails and signed the guest book on the website. It is nice to know I am not talking to myself though truth be told it is more a record for EmmeClaire to have when she is older. Adam: I am so glad you got to “meet” EmmeClaire on FaceTime! We can’t wait to come home! We miss you so much! We talk about you all the time….and that is ok because the other parents are all talking about their kids that are at home as well! I am glad you and Beans are having fun! AND you got to go to the zoo on Monday with Aunt Jill after Bible School! I am sure glad you guys FINALLY got to see the stingrays!! Can’t wait to hear what other fun places you guys go this week!! Peter Pan did decide he wanted to go with us today so make sure you check the photos for him! XOXOX Mom

Website by myadoptionwebsite.com