We were scheduled to leave at 8AM for Guangzhou. Our taxi driver was going to follow Mrs. Yu (who was delivering a toddler to her new parents) so we wouldn’t have to drive on the bad road again. The orphanage and city officials insisted we have breakfast with them as we had been unable to have dinner the previous night. So once again, we had quite a crowd. All the fireworks people showed up also. Mrs. Guo and Mrs. Liu grabbed Bailee and started shoveling congee in her mouth. I kept telling myself it was only for one more hour, then Bailee would be all ours! After breakfast, we took group photos outside the hotel. (If anyone reading this received a little girl, age 3-5 from Yangchun on October 31, 1997 in Guangzhou, let me know--I’ll send you some photos of her.)
The city officials gave us a sack full of local products before we left. There was a package of pantyhose, a package of knee-high hose, and two different types of dates, which were soaked in some type of potent alcohol resembling gasoline. Shigu looked in his sack and told us we could have his gifts too. We ended up leaving most of it for the room attendants at the White Swan. We did bring one box of each type of date home with us. We loaded up the taxi and were off!!
While we were sad to be leaving Bailee’s hometown, we were anxious to return to the comforts of the White Swan. We are hoping to take Bailee back to Yangchun within the next five years. We will always have very fond memories of Yangchun and the wonderful people we met. They are all so excited that the children are receiving good homes. We received a letter from the fireworks officials after Christmas, in which they said "Bailee Marie is so lovely and healthy, we make sure that she feel very blessedness in your family and you are her best parents." Feelings like these make for a very pleasant and smooth adoption experience.
The different route home was not nearly as scenic, but only took four hours instead of six and a half. We found out the taxi driver didn’t like it because there were more tolls to pay. Bailee was pretty good, she slept about an hour. The rest of the time, Pat and I passed her back and forth trying to keep her entertained. Bailee granted us our first smile on the way to Guangzhou.
Shigu suggested that we get the visa photos and the medical exam done in the afternoon. He felt the clinic would not be as busy. So we had lunch and rested. Bailee had her first bath. I was so unsure how she would react after hearing stories of other parents. I didn’t need to worry. After her first unsure look, she started smiling and really enjoyed herself. She even liked having her hair shampooed. To this day she loves the water, jumping with delight when she hears the tub water running.
We met Shigu at 3PM. We walked right into the photo shop, no waiting. The medical clinic was the same, no other adoptive families were there, so things went very quickly. Bailee did not like this part of her day. She was okay while being weighed, but the crying started once she was undressed for the exam. By the time they checked her ears and throat, she was screaming. I got her settled back down, only to have her need a DPT shot. Once they prepped her leg, the screaming started again. One of the nurses in the “shot department” told Shigu she thought there might be a problem with one of Bailee’s eyes. We had noticed a very slight laziness in one eye, but it was definitely not a serious problem.
Now we were done except for our visa interview. This was a problem. Today was October 31st and our appointment was not until November 6th. We tried calling Sarah Metzger again to change the appointment, but there were no cancellations. We were stuck. I didn’t mind waiting for the appointment, what bothered me (control freak that I am) was being unable to finalize our flights home. At one point, Northwest was holding three different reservations for us.
By evening, we started calling Shigu “the shadow.” He would appear out of nowhere, with no advance notice. He was staying somewhere on Shamin Island and really had nothing to do, so he’d come over to the White Swan and find us. We could be eating, strolling around the shops, or in the room. We didn’t need him to take us sightseeing as we had seen all the tourist areas in Guangzhou already. On Saturday, we finally convinced him that should go home, we could handle the visa interview alone--it was the American Consulate and we were Americans, how hard could it be. He was very hesitant to leave us alone, but finally did. I must say that Shigu did an excellent job taking us around and dealing with all of the government and orphanage officials. We felt that he shouldn't have to wait around for another five days with nothing to do, incurring the costs of his hotel room, meals, etc.. when he could spend some time at home before his next adoption group arrived.
In the beginning, we were disappointed to have so much time in Guangzhou. But it turned out to be really good bonding time for us as a family. We were staying on the business floors of the White Swan, so we had a bedroom and a separate living room. It was more like staying in an apartment than a hotel. Bailee got settled into a routine, and came out of her shell more each day. She enjoyed walks in her stroller around Shamin Island. We went to the amusement park near the White Swan and she had her first merry-go-round ride with her dad. We also went to the downtown area for shopping one afternoon, but Bailee just couldn’t tolerate the poor air quality, she’d start coughing almost immediately.
During our week of waiting, we had an interesting phone call from Xiumin, Shigu’s sister who lives in the US and works for an adoption agency. She was curious if we were happy with the baby and if she was adjusting okay. We told her the baby was great and we loved her. She had been worried because Shigu had called his other sister in Beijing telling her that he was worried about Bailee because she didn’t smile and he was concerned about her eye after what the nurse at the clinic had said. The sister from Beijing then called Mrs. Yu at the orphanage expressing these worries. Mrs. Yu offered to bring a different baby to Guangzhou for us if we were unhappy. We assured Xiumin that we didn’t want another baby. We loved Bailee and couldn’t imagine a better daughter and to please let Mrs. Yu know we felt that way. She was really glad to hear that. We felt so bad, we wrote a quick note to Mrs. Yu. We drew a big smiley face and wrote Yang Feng by it, and we wrote a few words about how happy we were with Bailee. I don’t know if she understood it, or had someone who could translate it for her, but we felt better.
Just when we thought we’d had it and could play no more gin rummy or watch CNN or the same HBO movie one more time--Sarah Metzger called and had a cancellation on November 5th. She would also try to expedite our visa for us. At least now we could make concrete plans to get to Hong Kong and home.
We had our visa interview on Wednesday, November 5th. The place was packed! Evidently there was a family who had an expired document of some kind and Sarah Metzger was working with them to try to solve the problem, so things were getting really backlogged. New groups kept arriving and soon the second waiting area was full. I think we were there for at least two hours. We had all of our paperwork filled out ahead of time, so it was very simple. One desk took the paperwork with the sealed medical exam, passport and the photos. Soon the passport was returned and Pat went to pay the visa application fee. Then we waited for the interview. While we were waiting, a couple did not have the proper translations on some of their notarized adoption documents. Their facilitator proceeded to take the papers and translate them there in front of the consular staff. The staff all about had a
heart attack. The facilitator was sharply rebuked and told to never do it again. It’s been said before, but always check your adoption documents for accuracy before you leave your child’s hometown. It could save you days of delays in case of
problems.
Mrs. Metzger did our interview. She was very nice and very overworked on this day. She asked us if Bailee truly had a special need and what it was supposed to be. She also spoke to her to test her hearing. We were never asked for copies of our tax returns, or any type of income information. (After I toted nearly 100 pages of tax returns around China.) Maybe it was just too busy of a day--I’m not sure why. She stamped our papers and told us we could get the visa in the morning. We took a quick photo in front of the flag, paid the visa fee and that was it.
The visa was ready as promised in the morning and we took the 11AM flight to Hong Kong. We had a day and a half of business appointments to finish. It was very easy to get Bailee into Hong Kong. We had to show her visa packet as proof she was going to America, and she was only allowed to stay in Hong Kong for 7 days.
This little bit of time in Hong Kong flew by. I was really ready to go home. We’d been gone for almost one month, and I wanted to get Bailee home and settled into a routine instead of in and out of hotel rooms.
Continue on to Part 6 of Bringing Bailee Home
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