September 8: After breakfast we went to the lobby and met our local Hong Kong rep, Patrick. We got on the bus for the Hong Kong tour, starting with Victoria Peak, the highest point in Hong Kong. At 1,800 feet it’s barely higher than our house in Iowa City, but it makes for a more impressive view here. The view wasn’t what it usually is, as a typhoon near Japan brought in dense foggy weather. Apparently this is where the people with serious money live in Hong Kong. A house on about two acres part of the way down the hill sold recently. For $61 million. The house will be torn down. Up will be going a slender high-rise of 80 or 90 stories, with each story making up a condo of around 3,500 square feet. Expected selling price of each condo: $5 million and up.

Next we took a short boat tour of a fisherman village. Apparently a subculture of fishermen and their families live and work on the boats here. Historically, the women of such families were never allowed to step foot on dry land. They were born on the boats, grew up on the boats, got married on the boats, and repeated the cycle, all without ever standing on solid ground. In addition, the men would get "landsick" if they left the water, akin to our getting seasick. In order to accommodate these issues, and large celebrations for weddings and other parties, the world’s largest floating restaurant was built, called the Jumbo. Seating over 2,000 people at a single time, we noted it had its own wastewater treatment make plant floating behind it. [1219]

We next went to a Jade factory and shop. Very high end. Ethan was looking for a way to spend the Hong Kong $1 he picked up somewhere. Worth about $.15, he failed to make a purchase. Next we went to someplace more our speed - Stanley Market. Lots of little shops crowded together and geared toward tourists, but it was stuff geared toward Western consumers. We all found good buys, and wished we had more time there.

We ended up at a dim sum restaurant for a late lunch, where we all ate our fill. That ended the CCAI portion of the day, so we headed to the nearby Hong Kong Science Museum. It was great, and geared toward kids, so Ethan had a blast. We were there several hours. We caught a light dinner of Chinese baked goods and took a shuttle back to our hotel. We packed light, per advice given by CCAI, so I am now doing our laundry here at the hotel.
Tomorrow will be the day. Gotcha Day. We fly to Nanchang tomorrow morning, check into our hotel, and then get Sophie. We’re hoping she’s not as shocked to see red and blond hair as everyone else here seems to be. We’re preparing for a traumatic delivery, but hoping for the best. Either way, we’ll have our Sophie in less than 24 hours. Sleep will not come easy tonight.


-Eric

GOTCHA DAY!! September 9: We got up early, packed up our stuff, were told to leave our bags outside our rooms (a little nervous about that plan) and headed down for breakfast. Ate quickly and met downstairs with the group to take the shuttle to the airport. We got the airport, made it through check-in, and discovered exciting news – free Wi-Fi in the airport. We rudely ignored the other families all chatting around us at the gate in favor of madly checking e-mail and briefly posting for Ethan. We then took the plane to Nanchang. Unlike Beijing and Hong Kong, the Nanchang airport is clearly not designed for the international crowd. Very Soviet block, with almost no English, and small bathrooms with squat toilets. Fortunately, it was very small (it’s a city of around 4 million people, none of whom can afford to fly) so we passed through quickly. We were met by Evelyn and CiCi, our CCAI reps, soon to be our Godsends. They shuttled us through, and got us to our hotel, where they had already checked in for us. Our $51 rooms are outstanding. Newly renovated, everything is bamboo, steel, glass and marble. Lots of marble. There is a huge bathroom with separate bathtub and glass shower. Most importantly, free wired broadband internet access. Unfortunately again, we’re in mainland China, so no access to our blogs. I’m writing this on the 11th, and I’ll try to e-mail this to my parents so they can post. We’ll see.



We next had a meeting at 3:00 with our reps and the other families to talk about the delivery of our children. We got some more detailed information from the orphanage about the habits of each child. We then headed back to our rooms to get ready for the 5:00 arrival of our daughters.

We took turns taking pictures and video for each other (sadly I think the gentlemen doing ours may not have fully understood our video camera, so that moment may have been missed) as the babies were brought into the hotel conference room one at a time. Each family was asked to approach the door, where a province official compared our passports and the baby’s ID tag hanging around their necks to her match sheet, where the babies were then handed over to the parents. We were 10th of the 15 families.

As we approached, I handed the official our passports as the orphanage worker brought Sophie forward. Kerri and Ethan stood in front as Sophie approached. We could immediately recognize Sophie from the earlier pictures we’d received, although she’s recently had a haircut. Ethan got to her first, reaching out to receive her from the worker. He had her in his arms as the orphanage worker nervously held on before Kerri could step in to pick her up. And we had her. And we held her.

And it was all worth it.

Later, we took her back to our room to hang out, feed her, bathe her (she got carsick on the way over from the orphanage and threw up all over herself) and changed her into some new pajamas. We got her down to bed without incident, and she slept straight through until 6:00 a.m. We could not have looked more strange to her, but she accepted us without trauma of any kind. It’s been unbelievably easy.

September 10th: We met in the lobby at 8 a.m. and headed for the tour bus to take us around to various provincial appointments. First we went to the adoption office, where we had a picture taken of Kerri, Sophie and me, followed by a brief interview about our professions, and assurances that we would never abuse or abandon Sophie. We then paid for some fees, offered up our gift (American cosmetics – a nod to demand, not to her appearance) and made way for the air-conditioned bus. A note on money here. Apparently counterfeiting is a real problem, especially with U.S. currency (insert North Korean reference here) so any time you pass American currency other than a $1 bill, the receiver slowly and deliberately examines the bill to ensure its authenticity. They do the same with 100 Yuan notes, worth around $14 each.

Next we went to a security office, where Sophie’s picture was taken without complication. Finally, we went to the Notary official’s office, where we answered the same questions and offered up the same gift. Yes, I do think he needed some American cosmetics, what of it? Apparently gendered gifts are fine here, as folks will score points passing items for the other gender on to ones with whom they wish to score points. With that we were told that Sophie was officially ours, and no one could take her away. And since we promised not once, but twice, not to abandon her, I guess we’ll keep her.

In the afternoon, the orphanage director and some of his staff came to the hotel to meet with us and describe the orphanage a little. We answered our questions and gave us pictures of the orphanage. The babies stay in rooms of 6 cribs, and he was able to tell us which babies from our group shared a bedroom. Three other babies from our group were with Sophie in her room.

I took Ethan for a walk down the main drag near our hotel. We were consistently and openly gawked at (culturally acceptable here we were warned in advance) but we just ignored it and kept on walking. I have been informed that I stand out even more because here in the South of China, people are short, while in the North people are taller. Apparently 6' is enough for people to comment how tall you are around here. I'm 6'5". Heck, even Lars might be considered tall here. We later found that the attention Ethan and I drew was nothing compared to when we had Sophie with us, when people would just walk right up, surround us, and pat her on the cheek to try to get her to smile. Wait staff in restaurants will actually pick her up and walk her around. One couple had a waitress take their daughter, feed her, and walk her out of the restaurant into the hotel somewhere out of view. Again, because we’re in a nice hotel, and we had been warned about this, the couple to ok it in stride, though not entirely without anxiety.

September 11th: We had a lazy morning, getting up for breakfast at the buffet. A note on breakfast here – they really seem to take it seriously. Granted, they seem to eat a lot of the same foods at every meal, including breakfast, but the spread is generous and the quality is excellent. I could get to like this concept. After breakfast we went with another family, Norma, Foster, and Justin (their 5-year old son) to a notable local Buddhist temple near our hotel. It was good for the kids to get out and feed the goldfish in the ponds. People stopped to take pictures of Ethan, asking him to pose with them. It’s really quite amusing. After lunch CCAI brought in a local physician to examine all our babies. It was a short examination, and included no waiting room time, insurance information, or repeated questions from residents. Not a bad deal. We also received a copy of the newspaper in which there was a list of descriptions of babies that had been abandoned, with a warnin g to parents that they only have 60 days to come pick up their child or they’ll be adopted out. The point of this escapes me, as that’s exactly what each of these parents wishes for their child, and coming froward would be admitting to the abandonment, a crime in China, for which I was told they would serve at least two years in prison. Not surprisingly, no one ever comes forward. I asked Evelyn about Sophie’s description, which listed her as having dark hair. Surrounded by the pictures of approximately 100 other babies, all with black hair, I wondered about the value of such a description. She said that among black hair there is light and dark hair, and Sophie’s was dark. Hey, they’re short of descriptive terms to differentiate these girls, so whatever works I guess.

Later we hung around the hotel room. Ethan got sick and spent the evening throwing up. Kerri stayed home with him while I took Sophie to a local restaurant with the rest of the group. Sophie ate like a champ. Not all the girls are eating very well, so this comes as a relief. Hopefully Ethan will feel better by tomorrow.

Random Notes: Beverage cans here are all the old-school pull tabs. They sell a Chinese beer here, Tsingtao, which is based on a German model taught when the Germans were here for some reason over 100 years ago. It’s good. Really good. It’s in restaurants for around 18 yuan ($2.50) a can, but I’ve bought three from the grocery store next to the hotel for 3 yuan ($.45) a piece. They live in our minibar fridge now.

Crossing the street is an adventure here, as the traffic signals are considered merely suggestions for cars, and totally and completely ignored by the abundant bicycles and mopeds. I’ll try to get some video of an intersection, as it’s an unbelievable free-for-all. Cars pull into opposing lanes of traffic, and just stay there, while pedestrians and scooters weave their way through the chaos. To be clear, I’m not saying that vehicles stop at the red light and then pull ahead when they feel like it – I’m saying they don’t stop for the red – they just find open space, regardless of lane or location, and fill it. Staying on the sidewalk we were mostly safe, except for a couple times when that was the open space the mopeds found.

-Eric