Waiting in Line at the Beijing International Airport!
Joylin is a new little friend of Ian's. Her parents (Paul & Nancy) from Pennsylvania are back adopting their second child. Nancy is fascinating as she has written a book soon to be out on amazon.com about adoption. She was the first Chinese adoption to the country of Canada back 40+ years ago. The parents who adopted her were Chinese immigrants to Canada. She has been an incredible resource and support for me during this phase of the adoption--explaining various aspects of the process.
We are on the plane flying to Guangzhou. Upon check-in there was a problem with my passport number entry. It had been entered incorrectly by someone. Hence, they could not pull up my reservation. We had to wait until the travel agent who made the reservation was able to correct the problem. Another gal in our primary travel group had the same problem. I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one with an error. Our guide in Beijing said that two hours after we land we’ll most likely get a call that our girls are ready to be picked up. We’ll proceed at that time down to the Civil Affairs Office. The suspense of this is unbelievable. Two of the ladies in our group of 4 families from our orphanage have already adopted girls from China. So, they have been really helpful in alerting us regarding what to expect. They’ve also given us some really good advice on helping the girls not be afraid of us. One of the moms (who is adopting her 3rd Chinese daughter) said once she met her first daughter, she took her back to the hotel room and proceeded to change her clothes and bathe her. She thought this was the thing to do because the little gal had been traveling some distance to reach her. She wanted her to be comfortable. As it turned out, the experience was horrific. The little gal had never soaked in a large bath of water and was frightened. She said she felt awful that the first encounter was so scary. With her second, she took the advice of a friend that she NOT immediately change her clothes and bathe her. In fact, she let the girl even sleep in the clothes from the orphanage. Apparently, the smell of the clothes coupled with easing into knowing her new mom helped in her transition.
My friend Christy had given Ian a gift prior to departure; a t-shirt that said I’M THE BIG BROTHER. It has a picture of a little boy on the front. Anyway, the idea came to me last night that I should give him that as his gift and tell him how important today was going to be for all of us. I shared with him all that our Beijing guide described would happen. I told him that he was one of the most important people in this whole process---as far as helping Hannah not to be afraid. I reminded him how much we loved him and that when we got to the government office he might be a frustrated that so much attention was given to all of the little girls. I told him that did not mean he was less important. In fact, that would be his opportunity to really ‘shine’. I said that wearing the t-shirt would help others know that he was the BIG BROTHER. He seemed to like that. I told him that he could put it on whenever he was ready to.
When we were at the airport ready to depart, he came over to me and said, “Mom, can I wear my BIG BROTHER shirt now?” I was so happy. I heard him tell one of the ladies in our group that HE WAS THE BIG BROTHER. She confirmed to him that he would be a GREAT big brother….Ian said, “yeh”. I had to smile at that.
Keep checking back throughout the day. You’ll be the first to know what happened.
Thanks for following this journey
Joylin is a new little friend of Ian's. Her parents (Paul & Nancy) from Pennsylvania are back adopting their second child. Nancy is fascinating as she has written a book soon to be out on amazon.com about adoption. She was the first Chinese adoption to the country of Canada back 40+ years ago. The parents who adopted her were Chinese immigrants to Canada. She has been an incredible resource and support for me during this phase of the adoption--explaining various aspects of the process.
We are on the plane flying to Guangzhou. Upon check-in there was a problem with my passport number entry. It had been entered incorrectly by someone. Hence, they could not pull up my reservation. We had to wait until the travel agent who made the reservation was able to correct the problem. Another gal in our primary travel group had the same problem. I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one with an error. Our guide in Beijing said that two hours after we land we’ll most likely get a call that our girls are ready to be picked up. We’ll proceed at that time down to the Civil Affairs Office. The suspense of this is unbelievable. Two of the ladies in our group of 4 families from our orphanage have already adopted girls from China. So, they have been really helpful in alerting us regarding what to expect. They’ve also given us some really good advice on helping the girls not be afraid of us. One of the moms (who is adopting her 3rd Chinese daughter) said once she met her first daughter, she took her back to the hotel room and proceeded to change her clothes and bathe her. She thought this was the thing to do because the little gal had been traveling some distance to reach her. She wanted her to be comfortable. As it turned out, the experience was horrific. The little gal had never soaked in a large bath of water and was frightened. She said she felt awful that the first encounter was so scary. With her second, she took the advice of a friend that she NOT immediately change her clothes and bathe her. In fact, she let the girl even sleep in the clothes from the orphanage. Apparently, the smell of the clothes coupled with easing into knowing her new mom helped in her transition.My friend Christy had given Ian a gift prior to departure; a t-shirt that said I’M THE BIG BROTHER. It has a picture of a little boy on the front. Anyway, the idea came to me last night that I should give him that as his gift and tell him how important today was going to be for all of us. I shared with him all that our Beijing guide described would happen. I told him that he was one of the most important people in this whole process---as far as helping Hannah not to be afraid. I reminded him how much we loved him and that when we got to the government office he might be a frustrated that so much attention was given to all of the little girls. I told him that did not mean he was less important. In fact, that would be his opportunity to really ‘shine’. I said that wearing the t-shirt would help others know that he was the BIG BROTHER. He seemed to like that. I told him that he could put it on whenever he was ready to.
When we were at the airport ready to depart, he came over to me and said, “Mom, can I wear my BIG BROTHER shirt now?” I was so happy. I heard him tell one of the ladies in our group that HE WAS THE BIG BROTHER. She confirmed to him that he would be a GREAT big brother….Ian said, “yeh”. I had to smile at that.
Keep checking back throughout the day. You’ll be the first to know what happened.
Thanks for following this journey
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