Gotcha day! After breakfast at the buffet, we checked out of the hotel and got on the bus with our luggage to go to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is located in Beijing, and royalty came there to escape the summer heat in the Forbidden City. It includes beautiful gardens, temples, bridges, covered walkways, pavilions, a beautiful theatre, and Kunming Lake. The Dowager Empress Cixi had a marble boat built that rests on its shore that was truly impressive! We were supposed to take a dragon boat across the lake but were not able to do so because the lake was being drained for cleaning. We walked through the Summer Palace until noon or so and then left for the airport for our flight to Nanchang. Unfortunately, Sylvia and I were not seated together this time. I ended up sitting next to a young man who wanted to practice his English with me, so instead of taking a nap as I’d planned, I chatted with him for the entire two-hour flight. At the airport, we were met by our Chinese guides, Shirley and Shihong, and boarded the bus to go to our hotel. On the way, Shirley told us of an unexpected change in plans—instead of receiving our babies tomorrow morning at the Civil Affairs office as scheduled, we would receive the babies soon after arriving at our hotel. The babies were at the hotel, waiting for our arrival. I became teary—Denice began to cry. I can’t express how incredibly excited and anxious and scared and incredibly happy I felt at that moment—I was really going to be a mommy! When we arrived at our hotel (the Lakeshore), we were instructed to go up to our rooms, retrieve our gifts for the nannies and orphanage director, and meet downstairs in the hall in front of the conference room on the 3rd floor. We waited outside our rooms for the bellboys to bring our luggage up (all of our rooms were on the same floor, and all of our luggage came up on several carts at the same time). I was so excited to see a crib in the corner of the room! Once in our room, I hurriedly dug around the suitcase for the gift bags and presents and quickly put them together. My hands were shaking. I also grabbed a turtle toy and the camcorder and gave Sylvia a quick lesson on how it worked. Then off we went downstairs! I met Kirsten and Johnny for the first time, just before entering the conference room. They had traveled previously to China and so decided to go directly to Nanchang instead of touring Beijing with the rest of the group.
It was all so surreal. We entered the room and stood near the door and unceremoniously dumped our gifts into a big pile to the left of the door. Inside the room were our five babies and one toddler; the nannies; the orphanage director; the orphanage doctor; and our guides, Shirley and Shihong. I could not tell which baby was my Elizabeth—I didn’t have time to look at each baby. Very quickly, their names were read aloud: first, “Jing Shen Ting” (Amelie). Next, I heard “Jing Shen Yan,” and someone pointed to Elizabeth at the other side of the room. Her nanny stood and walked to me and then placed her in my arms. At that moment, we became a family! She was heavy and warm and simply beautiful! She wore a pale pink Carter’s terry sleeper and had an ID card with her passport picture on it clipped to her sleeper. Elizabeth began to cry just a little, and enormous tears rolled down her cheeks. The nanny used tissues to wipe her tears away. I began to cry, too. I just couldn’t stop looking at her! What a beautiful, beautiful baby—huge round eyes—rosebud lips—such soft skin. And she had four teeth! After a little while, Shirley came over and translated for me so I could ask the nanny a few questions. The only thing I do remember being told is that Elizabeth had a nickname: phonetically, it is pronounced “kwa-kwa,” and it means “flower.” Thankfully, Sylvia captured it all on videotape. We stayed in the conference room for a little while longer, and then Elizabeth, Sylvia and I went back up upstairs to our room. When I tried to put Elizabeth down, she cried, but she was quiet as long as I held her. She did seem quite congested, and she had a little rash around her left eye (later on, I found out it was excema). I had brought Playtex nurser bottles with drop-in liners and some Similac formula, so I mixed up a bottle for her. I also cut the nipple so that the hole would be larger because I’d read that Chinese babies liked to drink their bottles very, very quickly. She was not interested in the bottle at all, though, except to put her hand inside the bottle and play with the plastic liner full of formula. Shihong stopped by to give me a glass baby bottle with rubber nipple and a package of Chinese formula, which he said Elizabeth was used to using at the orphanage. (Denice later gave me a second glass bottle, which her daughter, Gemma, had refused, so I alternated between the two bottles while in China). I undressed Elizabeth to change her diaper. Under her terrycloth sleeper, Elizabeth wore a long-sleeved shirt, matching split pants, black socks, and diaper. We went down to the buffet in the lobby for dinner with the rest of the group and then went back up to our room for the night. What an absolutely amazing day—I am truly blessed!
Gotcha day! After breakfast at the buffet, we checked out of the hotel and got on the bus with our luggage to go to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is located in Beijing, and royalty came there to escape the summer heat in the Forbidden City. It includes beautiful gardens, temples, bridges, covered walkways, pavilions, a beautiful theatre, and Kunming Lake. The Dowager Empress Cixi had a marble boat built that rests on its shore that was truly impressive! We were supposed to take a dragon boat across the lake but were not able to do so because the lake was being drained for cleaning. We walked through the Summer Palace until noon or so and then left for the airport for our flight to Nanchang. Unfortunately, Sylvia and I were not seated together this time. I ended up sitting next to a young man who wanted to practice his English with me, so instead of taking a nap as I’d planned, I chatted with him for the entire two-hour flight. At the airport, we were met by our Chinese guides, Shirley and Shihong, and boarded the bus to go to our hotel. On the way, Shirley told us of an unexpected change in plans—instead of receiving our babies tomorrow morning at the Civil Affairs office as scheduled, we would receive the babies soon after arriving at our hotel. The babies were at the hotel, waiting for our arrival. I became teary—Denice began to cry. I can’t express how incredibly excited and anxious and scared and incredibly happy I felt at that moment—I was really going to be a mommy! When we arrived at our hotel (the Lakeshore), we were instructed to go up to our rooms, retrieve our gifts for the nannies and orphanage director, and meet downstairs in the hall in front of the conference room on the 3rd floor. We waited outside our rooms for the bellboys to bring our luggage up (all of our rooms were on the same floor, and all of our luggage came up on several carts at the same time). I was so excited to see a crib in the corner of the room! Once in our room, I hurriedly dug around the suitcase for the gift bags and presents and quickly put them together. My hands were shaking. I also grabbed a turtle toy and the camcorder and gave Sylvia a quick lesson on how it worked. Then off we went downstairs! I met Kirsten and Johnny for the first time, just before entering the conference room. They had traveled previously to China and so decided to go directly to Nanchang instead of touring Beijing with the rest of the group.
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