A month has passed. One month since we walked into that
cold, cold civil affairs office and stayed there for the whole afternoon (four
hours) filling out paperwork. Once we stepped off the plane in Kunming that morning of February 5th
and felt the heat of the day, I promptly told Nathan that we’d be leaving our
coats and fleece sweatshirts on the bus when we went in to meet Eliana. Yeah,
smooth move, Ex Lax. It was like a meat locker in that place!
But there we all were, eight families (22 people before
babies), two guides, and a couple of official notary people, all in a room that
would have fit about two families comfortably. In the middle of the room was a
big table, large enough to seat 8 adults, just waiting for us to scribble down
whatever it was that our guides told us to write down (as none of us could
think clearly due to Brain Freeze, both from the room temperature and baby
brain).
I have yet to mention the Special Black Pens that we had to use for that day’s paperwork; here I am showing off Its Majesty:
And as you might remember, we were perched by the one and
only window in the room, Nathan keeping an eagle eye out for The Baby Parade.
The next thing we knew, in popped a nanny carrying a baby to our Sacred
Paperwork Room and all was shot. I’ll never forget our guide, Sherry, making a
big fuss (all in Chinese) to shoo the babies out of the room until we were good
and ready for them to come in.
The whole event of receiving our babies was far more chaotic
and less ceremonious than I would have liked. Sure, it is what I expected
(after all, I’ve spent two years reading other people’s stories). In came a
line of ladies carrying babies...
...and one by one, they quickly called out our
baby’s Chinese name. Let me tell you, it is not
that easy to recognize your child’s name when it is pronounced like it’s
supposed to be pronounced! (as in, without the American twang) One second I
hear our guide Sherry saying “Cheng Hai Bo” and the next second, a baby is handed off to me.
Just like that! There were no tears from Hai Bo, Nathan, or me. I’ve cried enough
tears over the past two years and at that point, it was just “Here’s my baby
now let’s get down to the business of taking care of her and let’s finish up
this paperwork so we can get back to the hotel and crank up the heat!”
If I remember correctly, there was only one baby (out of nine) who
cried after the hand-off (Hi Mackenzie!). And her crying was minor, very minor.
She settled down pretty quickly. Otherwise the babies were all very calm,
Eliana included.
First thoughts. When I first held her and realized she
couldn’t hold her head up, I immediately thought, “I’ve been handed a
three-month old”. She was much tinier than we expected. Balder than expected. Small
hands that loved to grasp our fingers. Stunning nails. Lovely eyes. Smallest
baby in the room; developmentally the “youngest” baby in the room. She had the
aroma of antibiotics, and her orphanage. I wish I could have packaged that
smell up—it was so distinctly “China”…its food, the air, the water. But
it escapes me now, and I miss it.
Cheng Hai Bo was wearing two pairs of pants, socks, shoes, a
long-sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, and a thick coat on top of that. Other babies in
the group had on similar outfits.
Soon we were handed a pack of medicine and hurriedly given
instructions on how to administer. And of course we were given our first (of
many) sermons on keeping those babies warm! It took a while for me to register—my baby has pneumonia, my baby has pneumonia.
I just couldn’t believe it. It really isn’t all that unexpected for the babies
to come with some kind of “cold”, but I wasn’t factoring in something like pneumonia. It wasn’t until our nurse
friend Stephanie pointed it out to us that we noticed the little IV bruises on
both of Eliana’s wrists and ankles. At some point we were also told of additional
IVs that were needed and the trip(s) we’d be making to the orphanage clinic. It
was not how I had pictured my Ideal Gotcha Day Baby, but as we now know, that
silly respiratory infection was a gift from above.
We headed straight to the hotel from the civil affairs
office, gathered our luggage, and began to make sense of how in the world we
were going to do the ‘baby thing’ on the road. And while the Cobweb-Brained
Parents were about that business, The Princess fell promptly asleep on our bed.
And that was Gotcha Day, 28 days ago. Since then, we have
had a month of smiles, sparkling eyes, and speedy growth.
Eliana Haibo, we Gotcha. And we broughtcha home.
