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Our Trip
December 4, 2001 - Day Seventeen: Wrapping it up click HERE for Day Seventeen Photos Question for Ms. Foster's Classroom: Some people create their extended family with special friends. Do you have special friends who you consider your family - even though they aren't related to you?
Today started when I heard Ann coughing at about 5 a.m. There's been a flu bouncing back and forth between us and it hit her with a vengeance. After breakfast at the China Hotel buffet (something that is going to be hard to give up when we leave), Ann hit the doctor who's on call 24 hours here at the hotel. An advantage to a huge international hotel in a resort city. She then sacked out and I spent the morning in the hotel business center, sending back logs of these daily reports to my niece. There's been a computer problem it seems like and they're about six days behind. Sorry. I've gotten a ton of e-mails from people wondering what happened. That took about two hours and I came back to the room to find Sophia out like a light, the lights out, and both of them dead to the world. So I enjoyed a quiet lunch, and returned to the room, laid down and around 1, everyone started to shake themselves awake. I know: a really boring day in an exciting and exotic foreign city. But we're both pretty tired and with Ann sick, and me barely able to keep my head above water too, it seemed the prudent thing to do. The other 16 couples seemed to be of the same mindset and I ran into a few of them at the pool when I took Sophia for a stroller run. She loved blasting around in that thing and we stopped in the lobby, which rivals the Daytons 8th Floor Auditorium for sheer holiday-ness. Very cool. Putting me in the spirit. We left before Thanksgiving, so we're Holiday Challenged. The elves working the lobby bar posed with her and then I took her out on the streets for a quick spin. We got back by 3, did the final paperwork in the agency's guide's room, and then all gathered in the lobby for a photopalooza. This is pretty much the last time together for American China Adoption Agency Group 64. Literally everyone but us is leaving at the crack of dawn and going for a quick 20-minute flight to Hong Kong. Some are staying overnight but the rest will fly to San Francisco on United and then disperse from there. It was interesting to see the group gel over the two weeks we spent together. ACAA is based in the DC/Virginia area and a lot of the families were from there. But there were also people from Michigan, Memphis, Iowa, Florida, upstate New York and Georgia. At the final photo session in the behemoth lobby of the China Hotel, everyone was blowing through rolls of film taking pictures of each other's children, the other families and new friends, and our guides (Liniker who has run this thing since landfall in Beijing, and Amy, who handles Gaungzhou). Lots of exchanging of e-mails before everyone departed for their rooms to pack. Since we don't leave for another day, I hit the Hard Rock with Kelly Craig for last minute souvenirs. He, Suzanne and Janelle are going with the group as far as Hong Kong, and then head to Tokyo for a more direct flight back to Dulles. Like us, they're doing the trip on frequent flier points, which allows them some flexibility. We had dinner at the buffet with the Craigs. The buffet is the size of a football field. The dessert area is like nothing I've ever seen. There was also a Japanese grill section where you pick your meat (I passed on the octopus and other varieties of fish) and they grill it up right in front of you. Kelly ordered table service, which is when they bring these two trays with RED HOT flat rocks on them, along with an assortment of meats and veggies. Then they cook the stuff on these rocks. I have no idea how they got these things to near nuclear temps. And I really don't want to know. All in all, a very fun last evening with our new friends. Going back to the group, there were obviously many couples like us. But there were a couple of families that brought their kids. The family from Georgia had a grandma and nephew tagging along. There was a guy from New York whose wife couldn't make it, so her sister and her husband escorted him. This is REALLY a multiple hands type of task. When we were between housesitters (and once again, Thank God for Becky Gellerman), we thought that I might have to do this stag. Whew. Another family from Long Island had the mom's sister, Heather, come along for just an extra hand. We
think that we might do this again sometime, and this experience
has taught a few, but not many lessons, for next time. We really
lucked out. Not too many problems. Except of course Ann getting
sick… Ann's Comments: As Paige said my day consisted mainly of trying to get better. Visited the doctor here and he gave me a combination of Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. He wanted me to go to the hospital for my tooth, but I think I'll wait until I'm home. There's only a few more days left of the trip. Rested for most of the day. Ended up flipping through the t.v. channels and found an interesting Chinese variety show on CCTV (the Chinese network here). There were a couple of hosts and several different short music performances, talent shows, and audience interviews. Now of course I didn't understand a word any of the people were saying, but music and talent translates because it auditory and visual. There was a group of four women playing a variety of Chinese percussion instruments, another pop/contemporary singer with four dancers, a young girl who was balancing on a seesaw that had a moving pendulum (or whatever that thing is in the middle of a seesaw). She would put dishes on one side of the seesaw and then move the other side. The dishes would fly up in the air and she would catch them in the air. At 3:30 we went to Liniker's room and picked up Sophia's immigration visa. One page is on the outside and the rest of the documents for her visa are in the inside of a brown envelope. We cannot open the envelope - someone from the U.S. immigration section has to open it. We met everyone downstairs at 4:00 for picture taking. We were exchanging addresses and contact information; and taking lots of pictures of the other couples with their children. It was controlled chaos. As I was taking pictures I realized that I didn't have a chance to connect with all the couples. There were 18 in this group. People kind of split up into different smaller groups - people with similar personalities and interests. The next part of the photo taking was of the babies lined up on the stairs. It took three levels (maybe 4?). Most of the babies were good for the picture - smiling, checking out the other babies, and wondering why all the adults were taking pictures of them. Sophia just sat there and took it all in. Didn't cry. The next picture was of all the parents and their babies. That was a neat one because Paige and I haven't had many pictures taken together with Sophia nor have we of the entire group. After the pictures, I said goodbye to some of the women I really connected with. One of them was Mary. She was the one who I talked with on the way back from the medical appointment last Saturday. We talked about how we feel all the babies were placed with the right families - in a way that we don't understand. It seems like each baby fits with her particular family. It's intentional selection more than I think any of us realized. They are now seeing how this is true. Their daughter's birthday may not be the right one because their documents from the orphanage say their baby is 16 months, but she only has 4 teeth. They think she is about a year old, but they changed the birthday so Larry and Mary could have her (they are 46 and 50). When she said that I said, "Then there's no question that your daughter is meant for you and your husband." She agreed. We ate dinner with Kelly and Suzanne. Really nice way to end the segment of the trip that included the other couples. We had a great meal and talked for over two hours. Very fun evening. Went
back to the room and got Sophia ready for bed. She was pretty exhausted
and fell asleep right away. Despite a couple meltdowns today, she
had a good day. One thing we're going to have to watch for is her
tendency to save food along her gums. Some of the older kids do
that. There's one 2 ½ year old in the group who we heard
does that. I didn't think it would start so early in children -
but maybe that's an indication of a lack of food at the orphanage
(though Sophia certainly doesn't show she's undernourished).
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