Day 1 in China - Feb.23, 2004

The Civil Authority Building was down a narrow alley, with the bus again squeezing by within inches of the parked cars. The lobby and glassed in office were sparsely decorated, but had comfortable leather chairs for our wait. We all decided to take a group photo while waiting, sort of a before and after series. Looking back on this picture, it is quite moving to see everyone without babies, then to see the next group picture, a few minutes later, where everyone suddenly has a baby for a lifetime. What a life changing moment for families and babies alike!

Without warning or fanfare, the six babies arrived! With the precious cargo came eight staff, including the two directors, four nannies, the bus driver, and another anonymous official. Soon "Huai Zhu" was called out, and a bundle handed to Andy. As I took pictures, Zhen began looking around at all the commotion, and gazing in wonder at Andy, his beard, and his beaming smile. She was very calm about it all, accepting the change, and seemed fascinated by everything happening around. Her Nanny came up to her, and received a warm, scrunched up face smile. We could tell right away that Zhen had been well loved, well fed, and well cared for, as had all the babies. There was no crying, only fascination with the goings on.

Zhen twisted herself around to get a look at all she could. No smile for us yet, but she played with Andy's beard, and enjoyed the rattle toy we brought. Her Nanny was sweet and caring, and she played with Zhen quite actively, jiggling and bouncing her. We all saw right away that the babies were used to a bit of roughhousing, and did not have to be treated as delicate "china dolls".

We brought along questions to ask of the orphanage caretakers. Time was so short, and in the midst of such confusion, we didn't think that we would have time for a long discussion. We showed Zhen's Nanny the questions in Chinese, and she answered in Chinese. I videotaped the interview, to be translated when we got home. We did find out that Zhen had been left on the Institute doorstep with a note giving her birthdate. As required, she was taken to the police station to be recorded, then back to the Institute.

Julie and others in the group had arranged to send disposable cameras to the orphanage in China. Each camera had the names of several children, with a request to take pictures of them, and hold them until we arrived. We printed them in China, and this was our only glimpse of life into the orphanage (we were not allowed to visit).

See Pictures From The Orphanage Here

Meanwhile, on the home front, we later learned that in celebration, Julie and Rochelle had cooked a special steak supper. They had invited Doris to be with them and were all together thinking of us at the very moment Zhen was placed in Andy's arms! Doris and Julie had said "Andy and Grandpa have Zhen now!", to which Bailey replied "How do you know?" Rochelle laughed, and said "good question!". An explanation of suppositions and probabilities followed.

We all collected for a group picture in the lobby of the Civil Authority. Quite a scene, with everyone crowding in: the proud parents, government officials, Nannies, Orphanage directors, and of course the kids! Andy handed his camera to someone for the photo, and when it was handed back, the wrist strap was still on and the camera fell, lens casing broken on the marble floor. A big disappointment, but for the rest of the trip, my camera and Andy's professional quality video camera did the job. Andy and I traded cameras back and forth during the trip, so a wide range of viewpoints resulted. I was often the main picture taker, so I am not in as many photos as the proud parents and kids.

At handover time there was a bit of a paperwork glitch. Julie was required to send a notarized statement giving her consent to the adoption, because she was not present in China. This had been translated in Toronto by a service, which was not good enough for the Chinese officials. The document had to be officially translated in China. Fortunately, this could be done for tomorrow (for an extra fee) for the final paper signing.

After the initial excitement, we all took the elevator to an upstairs photo studio to have official adoption photos taken. The photographer was quite skilled in getting the babies to look at the camera. Only Fiona had some difficulty sitting still (portent of things to come), her active curiosity causing her to try to take off after any interesting thing. Zhen sat back, observing everything, accepting all. The babies all took the excitement in stride, and even though it probably was their first time away from the orphanage.

We boarded the bus, and headed for the hotel. The kids had been up since 5 a.m. for their 4 hour bus ride, but there was now very little crying, just fascinated stares out the window. Back in the hotel room, Zhen remained wide-awake and curious. As Andy uploaded the day's pictures to his laptop, Zhen scrabbled her hand on the mouse pad, and was fascinated when this resulted in the arrow moving on the screen. The beginnings of a future computer genius! We saw her first smile for us then, a whole face scrunched up smile that has became her trademark. From this point on, she readily smiled, first at Andy and me, then at just about anyone!

Andy phoned Julie, and shared our first time with Zhen. Julie could hardly talk - quite an emotional time for the new parents. We promised to upload pictures right away to the photoalbum website so Julie, and all the other friends and relatives of all the parents could share the excitement and view our progress. This was easy to do in the Nanjing hotel, with an inexpensive and fast Internet connection right in the room. Julie then had Doris call me, and we had a good chat about everything.

Andy warmed up the bottle to feed Zhen. It must have tasted quite different, because she made a face, and stuck her tongue out. After a while of berfulling around, she finally drank a whole bottle. Zhen's little eyes kept closing, then she would shake her head to keep awake, still not wanting to miss anything. The little rattle was a big hit - she kept gazing at it in wonderment as it waved around in front of her, clasped in a little fist, making noise. When placed on her back, she managed to turn herself over and lift her head, but the Nanny had said that she is not crawling yet. We played with Zhen, and she was overjoyed with all the new toys. Her smiles filled her whole face. No anxiety, no worries about missing her Nanny. Zhen enjoyed playing with our beards (Andy had considered shaving his off, because there are not many beards in China - we found out later why - have you found the link to the "Beards" page on the home page yet?). It was obvious that Zhen accepted us quite readily as her caregivers.

Zhen still had not cried, but we heard her first cry when she was laid down to sleep. She had a little hoarse cry that was more like a shout of protest rather than an all out baby cry. Andy walked and rocked, then rocked and walked and sang, and she almost fell asleep in his arms. As soon as she was put down in the crib - cry again. We made sure she was bundled up with clothes, and had a blanket tucked around (as she was probably used to in the orphanage). After a short little cry, Zhen was off to sleep. Andy went off to change some money into Yuan, and to a parent meeting with the guide, while I proudly watched Zhen sleep. Andy came back with lunch from KFC!

Zhen had a good 2-hour sleep. The guide took us to the local "shopping center" across the street. Andy bundled up Zhen in his "baby trekker", facing front, and away we went. As we crossed the bridge over the street, we got our first taste of the attention we were to receive during the whole trip. People would stop and stare, then smile and give us a thumbs up. We were quite a procession, with all the males carrying babies front or back, all Caucasian (except for Nina, who didn't speak any Mandarin Chinese anyway - only Cantonese), and three men well over six feet tall! Even I (at 5' 8") was looking over most of the crowd.

The shopping center was a large modern building of many stories, with many sections, mostly individual entrepreneurs. The ground floor held a food store with all packaged goods, none fresh. We bought baby formula, water, juice, baby food, and some dried noodle meals for us. I have never seen so many sales people around. There were two or three women in each aisle, and many more hanging about in clusters. They grouped around the babies, and when I showed them my card ("We Come to China to Adopt a Litle Girl"), they all smiled, laughed, and nodded in understanding. They promptly went and told everyone in the store, staff and customers alike, so we had a really appreciative audience as we moved up and down the aisles. The clerks packaged up our groceries, and ushered us to the checkout. Later we realized that they had moved us ahead of several other customers, who graciously had moved aside for us.

We toured the rest of the floors of the building. It was difficult to figure out the organization. Some sections seemed to be one department store, perhaps government owned. Counters separated other areas with specific types and brands of merchandise (e.g. counters for Sony, Panasonic, Remington etc.), which were run by individual entrepreneurs. Prices were spectacularly low, except for electronics from Japan. There is still much resentment and negative feeling against Japan, and prices discourage buying. A few secret entrepreneurs wandered about the store, offering watches and CDs from within a half opened suit coat lapel. A lot of displays offered high-end clothing and accessories, as well as children's clothing and toys. We promised ourselves to return for more groceries, as well as clothing for Zhen - she unexpectedly weighed in at 20 lbs.!

Back to the room for a quick change for all, then off to supper. Cherry, our knowledgeable guide, asked us to be in the lobby by 5:20 pm, knowing that some will be late. Most of us were late, spending time getting a new little one ready for an outing. We found that Zhen would not drink from a cold (or even room temperature) bottle, and insisted on a warm one. Fortunately we had brought along a light travel thermos, and we made up bottles half volume, double strength, and then later would add the hot water. We made up juice bottles, packs of diapers and wipes, toys, a bib, extra clothing, and carried camera batteries, extra tapes, energy bars and water for us, copies of official papers, a medical kit, spare chopsticks, a travel knife/fork/spoon set just in case, small flashlight, maps, and hotel key card. All this was carried in Andy's backpack, establishing a routine for the rest of the trip.

We marched off as a group down the street for supper, while Cherry tried to keep us together. She later commented that our group was one of the most adventuresome that she has had, and was difficult to keep together. The restaurant was in an old building that probably dated back to British colonial times. It was originally a residential house, with high ceilings, ornate chandeliers, carved wood banisters, stained glass in the doors, large fireplaces, and wide moulding. Again, there were many serving us. We were 12 people at a round table in our own room, and Cherry ordered for us. In the middle of the table was a round glass "Lazy Susan", and the dishes were placed here about 4 at a time, and rotated until most of the food was gone, then another 4 dishes would appear. We were a little surprised at the small quantities (and quickly understood why we did not see many overweight Chinese). Each dish only allowed each person to have one piece. We were all hungry, and ordered more. The food was delicately prepared, with an emphasis on vegetables. Some meat and shrimp arrived, all with delicate sauces that complimented the flavour of the food. A big hit with the babies was a dish made from egg custard, and they all seemed to be used to rice.

The servers (usually 4 or 5) stood around the periphery of the room, waiting to refill the water and beer glasses from huge 2 litre bottles, picking up dropped napkins, watching out for needed plates or utensils, etc. Every time a camera was pointed in their direction they ducked out of the way. After 5 or 6 courses, and lots of bottles, the cost came to only $5.00 (CDN) each. Unbelievable!

We marched back to the hotel, soaking up the sight of continuous bicycle and bus traffic, streams of people, and gleaming buildings with brilliant neon lights. We proceeded into the hotel, with doors being opened, smiles from the counter, and an employee running ahead to push the elevator button for us (he looked like security, radio earphone and all). They had told us we would be spoiled here and so we were! Zhen easily went to sleep around 9 pm. So did Andy. After a respectful time I woke Andy so he could get undressed. He uploaded the day's pictures to the Forestlife Photoalbum, so that everyone could share our first day. I e-mailed Doris, and Andy did the same for Julie. Zhen was up only once for a bottle (establishing a pattern that lasted for months), and we got a reasonable 7 hours sleep. We were still jetlagged, but starting to catch up. As we gazed at this little life in our hands at the end of the day, we were starting to realize what an enormous change of life for all of us had begun on this first memorable day.