Wednesday-Thursday,
June 27-28, 2007

Well, 4:30 am came all too quickly and it soon became apparent that I couldn’t, in fact, live at The White Swan forever! We needed to finish packing, get everyone dressed, have the bags out by 6 am, eat breakfast, check out of the hotel, and be on a bus to the airport by 6:50. Aaaggghhh!!! Somehow, thank goodness, we made it…and our loooooong journey back home began.

Kaylee was crying hard at the airport as we left Jason, our guide in Guangzhou. She had become very attached to him in four short days. As we went through security and quarantine, and Jason was still behind the gate, Kaylee was sobbing…and she sobbed all the way to the plane—and beyond. To make matters worse, they confiscated the balloons that she and Madison were playing with in the airport, along with Nai Nai’s hand sanitizer. When Madison sat down on the plane, it hit her too. “Me no want weave China, MaMa! Me want STAY in China!” And I knew exactly how she felt.

I blinked back the tears in the airport when I thought about our journey in China being over. And as our plane took off and we left China, tears again filled my eyes. I held Jenna and thought of her birthmother, and of all the joy she will be missing out on during her lifetime. I prayed that she will be comforted whenever she thinks of her daughter, and somehow know that her daughter is deeply loved. I thought of Ga Ga, my grandmother, who loved Kaylee and Madison SO much, and who desperately wanted to meet her third great-grandchild. I hoped that somehow she was peeking down at us from heaven. It sure felt like she was right there with us during this entire trip. I thought of the soil that Daphne had given us, so Jenna would always have a piece of her homeland with her, and of the song Daphne sang to us, about the swallow who returned every year because it was her home. As the tears rolled down my cheek, I knew that we, too, would be returning to China someday—the home of our three beautiful girls, and the home of so many beautiful children.

As I looked out the window, I couldn’t get the words to this song out of my head…

“There’s an unseen tie that binds them,
A red thread that will not break.
They are woven in a tapestry
It took five thousand years to make.
Their eyes are wide with wonder,
Tiny hands reach out to touch
The faces of the families
Who have wanted them so much,
Now the daughters of China,
They fly across the seas.
Off to unseen places
and possibilities.
They are gifts to those who cherish them
By those who just could not.
Acts of hope and faith and love
That we never will forget.
They were given up for reasons
That most will never know.
Now they are daughters to the families
Who have come to take them home.
And someday they’ll too be mothers
And have children and a home.
Thread by thread they’ll tie the knots
To weave new tapestries of their own.
And the daughters of China,
They fly across the seas.
Off to unseen places
and possibilities.
They are gifts to those who cherish them
By those who just could not.
Acts of hope and faith and love
That we never will forget.”
~ Tim Chauvin

(Would you like to listen to this song? Go here then click on the triangle by song #13, Daughters of China).

As we flew from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, memories of China flooded my mind. I thought of Madison getting on the plane 16 days earlier saying, “Where we sleep, MaMa? No beds!” I remembered Kaylee’s frustration when we first arrived: “Ohhhh…she talks in Chinese too! All these people talk in Chinese! Nobody talks in English!” and of Madison’s frustration on the elevators: “Too much people!” I pictured Cameron and Cadence and all of the other babies who impacted us so deeply at Shepherd’s Field. I relived June 18th in my mind, over and over again ~ that wonderful day that Jenna finally joined our family. I thought about Leah, Yuka, Daphne, and Jason, and how they will always be a part of us. I thought of my three jade bracelets and everything they represent. I remembered the smile that was on Kaylee’s face as she hugged the nannies and proudly walked through her orphanage. I remembered the little boy outside the orphanage who kept trying to climb on the bus with us when we were leaving. I smiled as I thought about eating French toast with chopsticks, brushing our teeth with bottled water, seeing dogs at the zoo, and those unforgettable squatty potties. I was stunned by the bamboo scaffolding, the wheat on the road at Tianjin, the dilapidated sidewalks in Changsha, and the cribs at Yueyang with the light blue paint chewed off. I realized how much I had craved Diet Coke and how we were now within hours of getting some! I smiled as I remembered Kaylee turning down steamed eggs (her all-time favorite food) because “Nai Nai’s steamed eggs are better than Chinese steamed eggs.” I reminisced about choosing pictures for Jenna’s website each day, and about how heartwarming it was to read the messages our families and friends had left in the Guestbook. I thought of all the pictures of Ga Ga that popped up randomly on the screensaver of the laptop ~ feeding Kaylee when she was a baby, and putting together the puzzle that said, “Are you ready to be a Great Ga Ga again?” I felt the overwhelming love that surrounded us all throughout our entire trip. I thought about the Tooth Fairy coming all the way to China, and the smile on Kaylee’s face when she realized her experiment had worked! I was so grateful for Madeleine and Lillian and Samantha, and the special memories Kaylee and Madison made while playing with them in China. I thought of Christin’s never-ending smile, her positive attitude, and her endless efforts to help. I thought of how special it was to have Nai Nai and Grandad along with us again, as we traveled to the other side of the world to bring home our last daughter. I thought about all the tears on this trip—happy tears and sad tears—and the incredible joy we’ve felt these last 16 days. I thought of all of this…and far, far more.

Before we knew it, we looked out our plane window and saw “Honk Honk” down below. We flew over the mountains, Victoria Harbor, and the familiar high-rises. It seemed like SO much longer than ten days since we had been here. We left Hong Kong a family of four, and came back a family of five—with “bits and pieces” of so many others who had touched our lives in the past ten days, and were now a part of us.