London is in China! - I have to post pictures slowly!
I finally found some soy sauce! No, I mean it! I have yet to see soy sauce on a table or in a store since I’ve been here. I finally went to the hotel ‘western style restaurant’ called “Coffee Garden” and that had sushi on the buffet. There it was SOY SAUCE. How on earth in the whole of this country does every single Chinese person know, “When you see Cash coming, hide the soy!”
All right, I know you all want to know about the baby. The baby, the baby, the baby, well I guess no more attention for me; it’s all about the baby!
Much attention has been made in the adoption community about the ‘grieving’ that the child will inevitably do. Some start it on gotcha day and it takes days or weeks. Some wait for months and then just start crying and don’t stop for days. I however have started my grieving today and I don’t know when I will quit. Baby, baby, baby, baby when will it stop? I figure somewhere about the time she’s getting married to some guy I’m going to hate because NO guy is good enough for my little girl.
As for the details………
Let’s dispense with the China adoption questions. The second to last day in Beijing the adoption agency showed us a PowerPoint presentation about adoption and all the provinces. They showed a bunch of pictures of kids and the matching room and played music over it. They told us that we would cry while they showed it. They were right! I bawled like a little girl. Not because I was choked up, but because I had to listen to 5 ½ minutes of Phil Collins. And not the cool 80’s Phil Collins (not that he was cool in the 80’s) but the Disney Phil Collins! There is something about the heat and pollution here that makes the inhabitants of this country want to play Americans some really bad music.
In the matching room, they take our dossier (pronounced: dose-ee-are-uh) and the baby’s information –and I’m not joking here– and through “magic hands” we are matched up. The picture in the PowerPoint actually showed a lady with black silk gloves on. All I could think of was Joey from friends, “Jazz Hands”. For the record though, we were given MY baby. I’ve met they other babies and from what I know about the families, I think they got the right match but I got MY baby. I’ll get to more about that later.
So yesterday we piled onto the bus and you could just feel all the lumps in people’s throats. There was an air of pure fear and overwhelming emotion. If I had been a dog, I would have bitten every one of them. Now we had been told that we would be brought into a room and they would bring the babies in and one by one, they would call out the baby’s name. We were to come forward (I’m sure the meant calmly stand up and just wander over and act cool like, “Wha? Me?, Yeah I’m him, so what?”), hand our passports to the person and we would get our babies. Peggy said after we left the hotel, “You remember, you have passports, you don’t have passports, you don’t get a baby. You know one time we get there and one family didn’t brought their passport and very unhappy. You know? Ok. So everybody has passport.”
What they didn’t tell us was that we would walk into a room already filled with nannies (forever forward know as ‘aunties’) already holding babies, and not our babies as well. Now most of us calmly found a seat but then started looking around at all the babies. I’m sure everyone wanted to be able to locate his or her baby before the handover. I, being the only one in the group with a little mandarin under my belt, was being implored by some of the families to ask the auntie for the baby’s name. I tried once and got a stern, I can’t tell you that back. I advised those around me that was it, no more from me.
It was a freakin’ mad house in there. I’m sure very few parents remember anything except what they recall from the pictures that were taken for them. Not to say it was a bad experience, on the contrary, it was wonderful all the way around. It’s just that in the US I’m sure it would have been some sort of, parents in this room, babies in another, call each into a different room and hand off there.
There are essentially two orphanages in our group, Changsha and ZhuZhou (prounounced: Jew-Joe). We were waiting for the ZhuZhou babies. They brought in the Changsha girls first. I think there were four. After the first Changsha baby was called there was no way that anyone was staying in their seats. Everyone crowded around and the handoffs began.
As they finished the Changsha girls I could see the next set of girls. I saw London in the hall. She was fourth in line. I was hesitant at first to point her out to Christe because she had two red marks on her face, but did anyway.
They called our babies name and Peggy immediately gave me a scolding, “Cash!” “It’s your baby!” I don’t think she realizes how hard it is to get through a crowd of people without babies yet.
I’ve heard all kind of stories at the parent education meetings about how many different reactions the children have. I saw them ALL. I don’t know if ours was the absolute best but since we took hold of her she’s had no more than two cry-like little wimper things. But who can blame her? One was the evening’s bath when Christe was scrubbing her to death and she poured water over her head! The second was just before she went to bed. She wasn’t very happy with my breath in her face but some how mommy’s smelled just right.
I can’t tell you enough how lucky we got to have such a well-behaved and patient little girl. She has let both of us hold, clothe and feed her. She clearly enjoys the experienced style of mommy over my fumbling approach. I’ve told London a couple times, “Daddy’s a my way or the highway kinda guy. You better get used to it!” I think she’s coming around.
After we returned to the hotel the first time I had to go fill out some more paperwork again. By myself again, this would be the paper that would allow us to adopt her from the Chinese government. Peggy used my camera to capture the event.
A few ours later we had to wake London up from her nap to take her (and all the babies) back to the same office (and room) where we gotten them only hours earlier. I was a little apprehensive about bringing her back there but she held up like a trooper. This is where we had our ‘interview’. “Do you have problem with this-uh baby?” “Do you going to love this baby.” We said yes. So we put a red thumb print stamp over our signatures. London used her right footprint.
Down the hall to pay to get our first family photo. Then across the hall to pay the fee for the foot stamp, down the hall to pay a fee for babies passport, and then back into the room to wait for the notary. The foot stamper-interview girl gets a gift and the notory gets a gift.
Now for some first time baby tips…….
Number one. When mommy’s showering and she says, “take care of the baby”, and baby cries, do not try to feed her the june-bug looking things the indigenous people like, just because you think she will like them.
Number two. If you are from Kansas City and your daughter goes for a spent barbeque pork rib you left on your plate, you let her grab it. And if that girl wants to grab another one, you let her. And if she wants to gnaw on the ends and knows to turn it over when she runs out of meat, you let her.
Number three. If you like to stand in front of a microphone and sing and your little girl picks up a rattle and makes like she’s singing, you tell her good job! And then ask her if she takes requests. And if she does you always ask for something by Phil Collins. All Chinese love Phil Collins.
As for the I got MY baby part...........
The other families have been subjected to me for close the four full days now. I’m the group leader. When there is a descision to be made, the
coordinator Peggy and I have to make it. Poor suckers! Now these folks have figured out quickly that I’m the entertainer. It’s what I do. At dinner last night my girl entertained the wait staff, the other families and maybe a few of their babies. All of the other parents kept asking, “What kind of pictures did you send in to get her?” and “Oh my god, did you get the right baby!”
Peggy as well as the other mother and fathers could not believe that London had grabbed the spare ribs herself. I just kept yelling, “Kansas City Represent!” My little girl eats ribs to the bone,
snores when she sleeps, farts, entertains the crowd, likes to sing and overall is just a big ham. She sleeps like a log and most importantly she can shoot you a look of dagger through the eyes I thought took years to perfect, just like me.
As for more tips on China ………….
The soda can technologies is 30 years behind. I’ve already cut myself trying to make a necklace for Christe out of the tabs. Also the US should take a few tips from the Chinese! Calories Shmalories, I’m going for ENERGY BABY! Give me the food with the most ENERGY!
If you are going to buy baby sandals, always get the ones designed to play soccer with!
As for some real deep stuff………
The orphanage had a small photo album for us. It contains the birth note, probably written by London’s biological mother. There are a few pictures from a month ago as well as a few from piror. We also have a ‘first picture of life’. It’s from when she was brought to the agency. She was 10 days old. It really stirs up the emotions.
I’m going to go try to get baby some food, and maybe me too. Oh yeah Christes in the mix there somewhere too.
One other thing, Peggy and I have come to sort of a mutual shit-giving level. I let her know the other day, (I’ll do this phonetically), “Wor shur dah bee-dzur.” Which means I know you call us ‘big nose’. Which is a local way of saying foreigner and not in a polite way. She was laughing then she told Nadine (the local guide) and she laughed. Now whenever I have to go to her room and I knock to come in, Nadine always opens the door. When Peggy hears my voice she says, “Do you want me, Big Nose?”
Mommys just know how to take a sleepy girl and make her pretty (less the toofie-drool).
Signing off from China, this is ‘Big Nose’.
All right, I know you all want to know about the baby. The baby, the baby, the baby, well I guess no more attention for me; it’s all about the baby!
Much attention has been made in the adoption community about the ‘grieving’ that the child will inevitably do. Some start it on gotcha day and it takes days or weeks. Some wait for months and then just start crying and don’t stop for days. I however have started my grieving today and I don’t know when I will quit. Baby, baby, baby, baby when will it stop? I figure somewhere about the time she’s getting married to some guy I’m going to hate because NO guy is good enough for my little girl.
As for the details………
Let’s dispense with the China adoption questions. The second to last day in Beijing the adoption agency showed us a PowerPoint presentation about adoption and all the provinces. They showed a bunch of pictures of kids and the matching room and played music over it. They told us that we would cry while they showed it. They were right! I bawled like a little girl. Not because I was choked up, but because I had to listen to 5 ½ minutes of Phil Collins. And not the cool 80’s Phil Collins (not that he was cool in the 80’s) but the Disney Phil Collins! There is something about the heat and pollution here that makes the inhabitants of this country want to play Americans some really bad music.
In the matching room, they take our dossier (pronounced: dose-ee-are-uh) and the baby’s information –and I’m not joking here– and through “magic hands” we are matched up. The picture in the PowerPoint actually showed a lady with black silk gloves on. All I could think of was Joey from friends, “Jazz Hands”. For the record though, we were given MY baby. I’ve met they other babies and from what I know about the families, I think they got the right match but I got MY baby. I’ll get to more about that later.
So yesterday we piled onto the bus and you could just feel all the lumps in people’s throats. There was an air of pure fear and overwhelming emotion. If I had been a dog, I would have bitten every one of them. Now we had been told that we would be brought into a room and they would bring the babies in and one by one, they would call out the baby’s name. We were to come forward (I’m sure the meant calmly stand up and just wander over and act cool like, “Wha? Me?, Yeah I’m him, so what?”), hand our passports to the person and we would get our babies. Peggy said after we left the hotel, “You remember, you have passports, you don’t have passports, you don’t get a baby. You know one time we get there and one family didn’t brought their passport and very unhappy. You know? Ok. So everybody has passport.”
What they didn’t tell us was that we would walk into a room already filled with nannies (forever forward know as ‘aunties’) already holding babies, and not our babies as well. Now most of us calmly found a seat but then started looking around at all the babies. I’m sure everyone wanted to be able to locate his or her baby before the handover. I, being the only one in the group with a little mandarin under my belt, was being implored by some of the families to ask the auntie for the baby’s name. I tried once and got a stern, I can’t tell you that back. I advised those around me that was it, no more from me.
It was a freakin’ mad house in there. I’m sure very few parents remember anything except what they recall from the pictures that were taken for them. Not to say it was a bad experience, on the contrary, it was wonderful all the way around. It’s just that in the US I’m sure it would have been some sort of, parents in this room, babies in another, call each into a different room and hand off there.
There are essentially two orphanages in our group, Changsha and ZhuZhou (prounounced: Jew-Joe). We were waiting for the ZhuZhou babies. They brought in the Changsha girls first. I think there were four. After the first Changsha baby was called there was no way that anyone was staying in their seats. Everyone crowded around and the handoffs began.
As they finished the Changsha girls I could see the next set of girls. I saw London in the hall. She was fourth in line. I was hesitant at first to point her out to Christe because she had two red marks on her face, but did anyway.
They called our babies name and Peggy immediately gave me a scolding, “Cash!” “It’s your baby!” I don’t think she realizes how hard it is to get through a crowd of people without babies yet.
I’ve heard all kind of stories at the parent education meetings about how many different reactions the children have. I saw them ALL. I don’t know if ours was the absolute best but since we took hold of her she’s had no more than two cry-like little wimper things. But who can blame her? One was the evening’s bath when Christe was scrubbing her to death and she poured water over her head! The second was just before she went to bed. She wasn’t very happy with my breath in her face but some how mommy’s smelled just right.
I can’t tell you enough how lucky we got to have such a well-behaved and patient little girl. She has let both of us hold, clothe and feed her. She clearly enjoys the experienced style of mommy over my fumbling approach. I’ve told London a couple times, “Daddy’s a my way or the highway kinda guy. You better get used to it!” I think she’s coming around.
After we returned to the hotel the first time I had to go fill out some more paperwork again. By myself again, this would be the paper that would allow us to adopt her from the Chinese government. Peggy used my camera to capture the event.
A few ours later we had to wake London up from her nap to take her (and all the babies) back to the same office (and room) where we gotten them only hours earlier. I was a little apprehensive about bringing her back there but she held up like a trooper. This is where we had our ‘interview’. “Do you have problem with this-uh baby?” “Do you going to love this baby.” We said yes. So we put a red thumb print stamp over our signatures. London used her right footprint.
Down the hall to pay to get our first family photo. Then across the hall to pay the fee for the foot stamp, down the hall to pay a fee for babies passport, and then back into the room to wait for the notary. The foot stamper-interview girl gets a gift and the notory gets a gift.Now for some first time baby tips…….
Number one. When mommy’s showering and she says, “take care of the baby”, and baby cries, do not try to feed her the june-bug looking things the indigenous people like, just because you think she will like them.
Number two. If you are from Kansas City and your daughter goes for a spent barbeque pork rib you left on your plate, you let her grab it. And if that girl wants to grab another one, you let her. And if she wants to gnaw on the ends and knows to turn it over when she runs out of meat, you let her.
Number three. If you like to stand in front of a microphone and sing and your little girl picks up a rattle and makes like she’s singing, you tell her good job! And then ask her if she takes requests. And if she does you always ask for something by Phil Collins. All Chinese love Phil Collins.
As for the I got MY baby part...........
The other families have been subjected to me for close the four full days now. I’m the group leader. When there is a descision to be made, the
coordinator Peggy and I have to make it. Poor suckers! Now these folks have figured out quickly that I’m the entertainer. It’s what I do. At dinner last night my girl entertained the wait staff, the other families and maybe a few of their babies. All of the other parents kept asking, “What kind of pictures did you send in to get her?” and “Oh my god, did you get the right baby!”Peggy as well as the other mother and fathers could not believe that London had grabbed the spare ribs herself. I just kept yelling, “Kansas City Represent!” My little girl eats ribs to the bone,
snores when she sleeps, farts, entertains the crowd, likes to sing and overall is just a big ham. She sleeps like a log and most importantly she can shoot you a look of dagger through the eyes I thought took years to perfect, just like me.As for more tips on China ………….
The soda can technologies is 30 years behind. I’ve already cut myself trying to make a necklace for Christe out of the tabs. Also the US should take a few tips from the Chinese! Calories Shmalories, I’m going for ENERGY BABY! Give me the food with the most ENERGY!
If you are going to buy baby sandals, always get the ones designed to play soccer with!
As for some real deep stuff………
The orphanage had a small photo album for us. It contains the birth note, probably written by London’s biological mother. There are a few pictures from a month ago as well as a few from piror. We also have a ‘first picture of life’. It’s from when she was brought to the agency. She was 10 days old. It really stirs up the emotions.
I’m going to go try to get baby some food, and maybe me too. Oh yeah Christes in the mix there somewhere too.
One other thing, Peggy and I have come to sort of a mutual shit-giving level. I let her know the other day, (I’ll do this phonetically), “Wor shur dah bee-dzur.” Which means I know you call us ‘big nose’. Which is a local way of saying foreigner and not in a polite way. She was laughing then she told Nadine (the local guide) and she laughed. Now whenever I have to go to her room and I knock to come in, Nadine always opens the door. When Peggy hears my voice she says, “Do you want me, Big Nose?”
Mommys just know how to take a sleepy girl and make her pretty (less the toofie-drool).
Signing off from China, this is ‘Big Nose’.
Comments
luv ya bunches,
JordyXOXOXOXOXO
Congratulations! Enjoy your time and have a safe trip back.
Christe,
Forget Tomfooleries. Looks like I need to move the party to a BBQ joint on karaoke night. We'll be sure to have them remove the appropriate 'C' pages from the songbooks. I, for one, don't want to hear Cash belting out 'Against All Odds', 'Groovy Kind of Love', or anything else by Phil.
You all don't know me and my family, but we lived through the Chinese adoption experience in January. (rosenbloger.blogspot.com)
I LOVE your commentary! Too hilarious and exactly on the money! It's fun re-living the high points through your blog! Thanks a million and congratulations!
Stacey
http://sizegenetics-reviewx.tumblr.com/