First Family Days
Well, it’s in the wee hours of the morning and I can’t sleep, so I’ll take advantage of the quiet and catch you all up on the last 36 hours. First, thank you all for writing your e-mails and keeping us posted; it means a lot to us to know that you’re watching our trip. Be aware that I am able to post to the diary but cannot actually look at the website itself, so any goofs will be fixed when I get home. Hopefully, all Liann’s pictures came out okay.

Okay, catch up time. First, a little about Chongqing. It is a beautiful city, very hilly, with cleaner buildings than Beijing (i.e. less evidence of the air pollution on the building walls), and much less sprawling than Beijing, although as you recall from an earlier post, most of Chongqing’s population is made up outside the city itself. Our hotel is stunning; Greg and I are clearly outclassed by the joint, although Liann looks perfect in it.




So yesterday we traveled two hours to Fuling to the orphanage. The countryside is so beautiful, with great spans of green hills and mountains, dotted with rural houses. Fuling is a hilly city as well; the orphanage lies down at the bottom of a steep hill. I actually did not realize we were there, until someone pointed out the crowd of people standing at the gates of the orphanage. Apparently, adoption days always pull a crowd of locals, who smile and wave at the babies as they leave. It’s very sweet.




We had thought that we would go into the babies’ crib room and very systematically be called to receive our babies. Zhou also had to check on the next groups’ babies, so as a group of them was brought out to the courtyard, I thought it was the next month’s babies ready for their pictures. Then Zhou asked, “Does anybody recognize this baby? It’s one of ours!” with a big smile on his face, and then more and more of the babies began appearing with their caregivers in the courtyard, all wearing the same yellow-green outfit. I spotted Liann pretty quickly and walked over to her and asked “Ai Yu?” to the caregiver, who nodded and began saying “Mama” to her and pointing to me. Liann repeated “Mama” and looked at me, but began to cry a little. Greg came over then and held her; she went immediately to him and began to reach for his face and pat his cheeks. Definitely going to be a daddy’s girl, I think. Then I was able to hold her, and there were no more tears. I think all of her caregivers came over at one point and held her and talked to her; it is clear she was very loved by them, and I was happy that they were able to say goodbye to her and she remained okay. Really, for the most part, all the babies in our group did beautifully; a couple of the babies were very sad and cried, but I think all of them had rallied by the time we left the orphanage.

We had lunch in Fuling and fed our babies for the first time. I must tell you, Liann likes to eat. She was DIVING for the spoon of steamed egg that Greg was feeding her, and telling him in no uncertain terms when he was too slow with a sharp babbled syllable. It was a riot.

Then we traveled back to Chongqing to get our adoption decree and have our family picture taken. We had a lot of wait time in the meeting room in the office to start to get to know our babies. Liann seems to be a pretty good-natured baby; some of the other babies were mightily entranced by her key ring and tried to grab it; she would reach for it, but then move to another toy. It did not seem to be a big deal to her. Give it time. More about Liann – she’s very curious and inquisitive, and shows evidence of it by either sticking out her tongue and curling it up over her upper lip, or sucking in her upper lip; she loved riding on the bus and looking out the window. She also was not bothered a bit by her bath (which I have read is often a sticking point), but liked the water. She does smile, but she’s such a cheeky girl that she can’t smile very wide. It’s adorable. And she seems to be the talker of the bunch; she’s got this deep booming voice and loves to say “mamama” and “dadadada.” Greg and I are clearly hooked.

This morning we went shopping at a local department store for baby items – diapers, extra blanket, etc. It basically looks like a Kaufmann’s, except that there’s a drug store and a grocery attached as well. You pick your items, get a ticket for them, take the ticket to the cashier, pay, take the ticket back and get your item. It was a lot of fun just doing something local and normal. We had many people approach us and pat Liann’s arm or make “cheek” blow up faces and smile. One elderly woman approached us and scolded us for having her too warm! (Quite a switch – normally people are scolded for keeping them uncovered). We figure this afternoon we’ll wander to the bookstore after giving her lunch.