Shortly after 9AM on October 29th, we jump in a taxi and head across town to register our adoption. I had asked Shigu the night before what paperwork I would need. He told me only the INS approval letter. Thankfully, I didn’t listen and brought my entire ream of paperwork.
The registry is hidden away in a courtyard, marked by a brass plaque at the doorway “Guangzhou Provincial Adoption Registry for Foreigners.” We climbed the stairway up to a medium size office with two desks and a wall of file cabinets. There were two women working in the office. When we arrived there were three families ahead of us. We found out that they not only wanted the I-171H, but also copies of our passports, and passport photos of Pat and I. Well, I had the passport copies, but no photos. I had snapshots of us together back at the hotel, so we decided that Pat would stay and start the paperwork. Shigu and I would go back for the photos.
Not taking any chances, I took two separate photos of us together, and I also took our Trade Fair ID badges which had a passport type photo laminated on them. By the time we got back, Pat was almost finished. He had to fill out four copies of the same form--the Agreement of Adoption. It was basically information on our date of birth, date of marriage, address, profession, etc. We got to see the paperwork sent by the orphanage, it included a really funny photo of Bailee (it looked like she had just woke up from a nap!) and also her tiny little footprint on the papers. Seeing that little footprint brought tears to both of our eyes.
The official then asked us why we wanted to adopt a Chinese baby, and would we promise to always take care of her. We did not have to write out our answers, she did it all in Chinese. Then we put our thumbprints on the paper. The photos I brought back weren’t quite right, but by this time, Pat had charmed the worker and she was laughing so much, she made do with what we had. We got our certificate, took some photos with the officials (see below) and headed back to the hotel to check out and leave for Yangchun and Bailee.
Before we left the hotel, I called the US Consulate, trying to change our visa interview. Our agency had scheduled it for Thursday, November 6th, but we were planning to get back to Guangzhou on Friday, October 31st. Unfortunately, since the Trade Fair was just ending, there was a huge backlog of appointments and there was absolutely nothing available. Sarah Metzger did offer to place us on a waiting list in case someone cancelled. She told me to call again when we returned to Guangzhou.
The taxi taking us to Yangchun arrived shortly after noon. Yes, it was one of those little red cabs driving all over Guangzhou. Yes, we were in it for six hours, traveling some very good roads and some very bad roads. We had checked into renting a hotel car, but the cost was over $1500. Shigu's nephew worked for the taxi service in Guangzhou, so he arranged for the taxi. We settled on $200 round trip, plus meals and a room for the driver.
We loaded the luggage and were off!!
The first four hours weren’t too bad, we were on mainly four lane tollways. Shigu stopped once by the roadside to buy a bag of oranges. They were wonderful--so sweet and juicy. A little past halfway to Yangchun, we stopped at a gas station with a snack stand nearby. We got gas, used the “facilities” (and I use the term loosely, if you consider a trench in the dirt to be facilities) and had noodle soup for lunch. Pat befriended a road crew that had stopped for a break. They were mesmerized by our camcorder. Shortly after this stop, we pulled off onto a small two lane road and then the trip got really scenic, traveling through many small villages. As we neared Yangchun, there were mountains on each side of the road, very similar in appearance to those near Guilin. It was very beautiful.
Right before we got to Yangchun, we hit an unbelievable stretch of road! Half of it had new concrete poured, but no one could drive on that half. The other half had huge craters, boulders, and drop-offs. It was all dirt, with cars, trucks, bikes, lawnmower engine powered carts all driving head-on toward each other, trying to pass. It was an absolute nightmare! The worst road we have ever driven on in eleven years of traveling throughout China. But we knew, if it took this to get to Bailee, we’d drive on the road as long as we had to. It ended up being about twenty minutes. The taxi driver said they had been building the road for over four years, but it didn’t appear to be the fast track for completion.
We soon arrived at the Golden Roc Hotel shortly after 6:00PM. For the size of town, it was actually a fairly nice hotel. We have certainly stayed in far worse. The only bad thing was we were on the tenth floor and the elevator only went to the ninth. Also, we had no key to the room. Since we were the only people staying on the tenth floor, there was no attendant on our floor. It was often a hunt to find someone to let us in our room. The room was clean, especially the bathroom. We had gotten a suite, so we had a large living room area, but the bedroom itself was tiny. Once we got the crib in the room, I had to step on the bed to get around it. A regular size room rate was about $45 and we paid $80 for the suite.
We decided to have a quick bowl of soup for dinner since Mrs. Yu, the orphanage director, was due at 7:00PM to discuss arrangements for the next day. We asked Shigu when we would get the baby. He said it was up to Mrs. Yu, we could ask what she thought. He felt it would be best to get a good night’s rest and get the baby in the morning. I thought that had merit, but also thought if we got her that night, she would soon go to sleep and wake up to us in the morning--maybe it would be easier on her.
In the end, what I thought didn’t matter. Shortly after 7:00PM there was a knock on our door and an entourage swept in: Shigu; Mrs. Yu; Mrs. Guo, the chairman of Yangchun Civil Administration Bureau of Guangdong; Mrs. Xian, section chief of the Bureau. We were in the process of exchanging business cards with everyone when there was another knock, the door opened and there stood an auntie with Bailee in her arms. We had no idea she was even in the hotel. She was so beautiful!!! She looked so tiny--she had a huge 2 pc. fleece outfit on and was barefoot and wrapped in a quilt. They handed her to me and Pat ran to get the cameras. (We were totally unprepared.)
Bailee looked up at me and studied my face. She took everything in stride. No crying, tears, screaming or trying to get away from me. She just looked around at everything with her big eyes wide open, taking it all in. I was very surprised at my reaction--I had thought that I would be crying non-stop when my baby was finally in my arms after so many years of longing. But the whole experience was very dream-like. I got teary-eyed at first, but then I was just so entranced, looking at her little hands and feet, her perfect little nose and mouth. Everything about her was so dainty and petite. Mrs. Yu kept giving Bailee a “thumbs up.” I had to agree.
The group stayed in our room for over an hour. We took lots of photos of everyone holding Bailee, Pat kept the video running for the entire time. I’m really glad we have it to look back and watch again. The auntie wandered into our bedroom and shyly gestured toward the suitcase--she wanted to look at the clothes we had brought for Bailee. She especially loved a bright fushia dress. And she laughed when she saw all the diapers I had brought.
Mrs. Yu answered the few questions I could think to ask. (Be more prepared than I was--write down your questions well before you expect to get your child.) The children were kept on a schedule, up at 7AM with a bottle, fed again at 11AM, 3PM and 7PM and then to bed. They were fed milk formula with rice cereal added to the bottle. Bailee had not yet been started on solid food. The babies all wore regular disposable diapers. We could tell they were well cared for--Bailee was immaculately clean. Her nails were trimmed, her ears and belly button were clean, and her hair was freshly washed and cut (a very bad haircut!). She had a slight rash on her face, kind of like very small pimples.
They were so proud to show us how she could already walk holding on to your hand. They kept asking us if we were happy with the baby. Of course we were! Bailee started getting fussy at the end, so the auntie walked her around the room and she fell asleep in her arms. We took her and laid her on the bed since the crib had not arrived yet. She looked just like a little angel laying there.
Mrs. Guo and Mrs. Xian had seen the catalog from the Yangchun fireworks company lying on our coffee table, so they asked about it. The next thing we knew, they were on their cell phone, calling the President of the company. Telling him all about us.
We agreed to meet again at 8:00AM to begin the official adoption proceedings.
Continue on to Part 4 of Bringing Bailee Home
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