Adoption Day

Adoption Day, May 10

Just a quick post that was supposed to go with the pictures.  Alyssa Keona Wu joined the family today; adoption papers were all completed.

We are calling her by “Ni Shi” the name she had at the orphanage.  She is beautiful, slender, smaller than she looked in those original pictures.  She has a great deal of energy, is strong and active, really likes helping others.  She pushed a baby’s stroller around, with supervision of course, while we were waiting during the paperwork process.  She has a lot of language (in her home dialect), is very curious and smart – she learned a couple of games with us – she’s a natural mimic.  She definitely has a sense of humor.  She finds ways to explore and play with everything.  She ate a huge dinner.  She also has strong feelings – the first couple of hours were really hard for Cher, and for Ni Shi, but things have changed rapidly.  She sailed through the doctors examination (clearly knew what to do).  She has “lazy eye” but seems her vision is fine … will just need to get it checked out when she gets home, maybe wear a patch like Cher’s cousin Tim (and Nancy’s brother Tim!) had when they were little.

This was one of the most emotional, chaotic, stressful, crazy days ever.  We gathered in a big meeting room, with tables set up like a business meeting with big chairs … a very awkward room for this situation.  Shirley, the facilitator, was giving instructions, going over the day’s schedule, talking about payments and documents while people were all emotionally focused on waiting for the children, watching the door.

The children were all brought in at once, and quickly introduced to the adoptive parents, and then the orphanage staff who had brought them just left.  Most people recognized their babies right away from the pictures; of course we knew Alyssa as the oldest and walking by herself.  All the kids started crying, parents were crying … bedlam!  While of course everyone was so happy to have their new baby, the process could have been handled a lot more gently.

Most of the babies cried for a long time before settling, trying to figure out what would comfort them was a challenge for every family.  Ni Shi is the oldest of the group, and had the most language and understanding of what was happening.  She cried for a long time, with just Cheryl with her … Nadine and Nancy let them be by themselves, and kept vigil outside the room praying for their peace, trust, love.  It was kind of heartbreaking. 

It was hard for all the parents …

So the babies came at 10 am, and by 2 pm Shirley wanted us on the bus to go to the adoption center to get all the adoption paperwork done and pictures taken.  It wasn’t much time to get to know this new family member, try to get some food into them, get them into a stroller, etc.  On the other hand, it was good to get out and do something.  Ni Shi went willingly, held hands with us, and settled down at the adoption center … it was a big waiting room, again looking like a business office, not very child friendly.  At least there were no tables there, so there was space to walk, push a stroller, sit, be a little more comfortable.  Ni Shi enjoyed “helping” to push a stroller – she definitely has a helper spirit, a good match for our Cher.

One of the tasks was to get pictures taken with the new parent and child.  Ni Shi likes having her picture taken - she smiles (wait till you see her incredible smile and hear her laugh!) and waves her hand.  The photographer wanted her hand down, and the smile disappeared – smile and wave go together.  We’ve seen this happen several times – when a camera comes out there’s a big smile and wave. 

We got on the bus to go back to the hotel … we stopped on the way and most people went to Walmart to shop for bottled water, strollers, diapers, etc.  We decided to wait on the bus … Ni Shi enjoys squirming around, climbing, but she also will sit quietly on a lap and just look around – she’s a very visual kid.

We finally got back to the hotel … she won’t let us change her clothes yet … but she’s well able to use the bathroom (both sit down western style and squat types).  We went to dinner at a local restaurant next door which was pretty funny … they brought a pot of tea with just water, no tea leaves.  We asked for tea, and they brought back a pot with lukewarm water with a few leaves floating on top.  Third try was a charm – we got some actual tea.  The meal was quite good, and Ni Shi ate like a little horse … she was really hungry, and liked everything.  She really has a sense of humor, and makes everyone laugh. 

We brought her to Dr. Jerry for her physical last night … she was really good, knew to open her mouth for him (she let Cher brush her teeth, too).  She still wouldn’t let us take her clothes off – it’s all she has from the foster family she had been with, so we’re taking her time with this.

She slept very well on the end of Cheryl’s bed all night … she sprawls and squirms, but sleeps hard. 

More pictures tomorrow … haven’t transferred from all the cameras yet.