Day 4 � Shanghai
It is raining this a.m. We get showered and go down to the breakfast buffet that is included in our room rate. It is quite extensive, and yummy. We fill up, sure that the day will be busy. After breakfast we return to our room, gather the gifts for the orphange personnel, the vitamins for the children I had been advised to bring, all our paperwork and the orphanage donation and head back down to the lobby. Mrs. He is right on time and we load into a taxi to go to the orphanage. The cab ride is as crazy as I�d read they are. Jude thinks that any one of these taxi drivers could easily drive for NASCAR!! The ride to the orphanage is an experience of contrasts. We drive past huge, modern skyscrapers on the elevated highway and past small shack-size businesses in narrow alleyways. The Shanghai Children�s Welfare Institute is off such a narrow alleyway, barely big enough for our compact-size cab. The drive into the orphanage is under a canopy of huge trees. The orphanage was built as a private-missionary orphanage in 1911, so we imagine the trees could be almost 100 years old. We are ushered into a large reception room and meet one of the officials. After completing some paperwork and paying our donation the big moment comes.
A nanny comes in carrying Grace. Jude has the video camera rolling and the adventure begins!! Grace is dressed in a white sleeper with blue teddy bears, thin socks and red and white sandals with Mickey Mouse on them. She is quiet until the nanny puts her in my arms. After a moment of quiet the tears begin. She is understandably upset at being handed to these strangers who look, sound and smell strange. After a few minutes Daddy gets to hold her and Mommy mans the camera (we�re already Mommy and Daddy!). After some more paperwork the orphanage gives Grace a gift of a traditional red silk dress. It is then off to the room where Grace has lived for the past 10 months.
We get to be present while they feed the 8 or so little ones lunch, including Grace. The cribs are lined up like soldiers, there is a large �play pen� at one end of the room and stacks of blue and white diapers at the other end. We are allowed to take pictures of whatever we want (tragically, both rolls of film we took at the orphanage came out blank!). After lunch is complete, it�s off in the rain to our next appointment. We get to the Shanghai Adoption Bureau office in order to take our family picture and to finalize the adoption. Unfortunately, it is quite busy, so we head back to the hotel for a quick stop. We finally get a few minutes alone with Grace. She is PERFECT!!! She has already settled down, and actually slept in the cab (quite a feat, believe me) on the way to the hotel. After a quick 45 minutes alone we head back to the Adoption Bureau. Here we get the family picture taken, and after a short wait in the waiting room that is filled with people applying for marriage certificates, we are ushered into an inner office. We are asked a few simple questions about how we will treat Grace and like magic she is ours!! The adoption is final!! We are handed the adoption certificate and gifts for Grace which include a silk and embroidery painting and a mug with her referral picture on it. These will be precious momentos for Grace when she gets older.
After the Adoption Bureau we head to the passport office. Yet another picture is taken and a passport is applied for. Mrs. He will pick up the passport for us on Friday. We return to the hotel and spend the rest of the day getting to know Grace. She is started to feel more comfortable, but I expect it is more shock than anything else that is keeping her so quiet. We discover that Grace�s motor skills are delayed, as expected. She doesn�t have very good neck control and can�t yet roll over. She also has two Mongolian spots on her back. One is on her buttocks and the other is a very small one on her lower back. They are very faint, but do look like bruises. We will need to get Dr. Sinclair to document these when we get home. We order room service for dinner for all of us (Japanese noodle soup). We tried the formula that Mrs. He had us buy yesterday. Grace will not drink it. We try milk, since that is what the orphanage said they fed her. That works. Grace sleeps through the night, though a cough and congestion do wake her briefly throughout the night. Jude and I, on the other hand, don�t sleep much at all! We�re just too excited and amazed at the fact that we�re finally here and Grace is with us! |
