The day that we have waited 17 months for finally arrived!!! We departed Beijing on China Southern at 8:30 a.m. and landed in Guangzhou around 11:30 a.m. It had just finished raining and we were immediately greeted by the heat and humidity. In addition to Ike,our national guide, we met Li, our local guide. Li told us this was the cool spring weather. If we wanted to come back in July, then we would be greeted by 100 degree heat and 95% humidity. We arrived at the White Swan Hotel about 12:15 p.m. and we were to head out to meet our babies at 2:15 p.m. We checked in and prepared for Chloe's arrival. Shannon was all nerves. We stepped out on Shamian Island briefly to find something to eat. Shannon couldn't eat. Poor Matt settled for a Diet Pepsi and Pringles from the 7-Eleven. We went back to the room, unpacked and gathered together all of our documents needed for the Gotcha Day festivities.
At 2:15 p.m. all the families promptly boarded the bus with gifts and documentation in hand. The drive from the White Swan to the Guangzhou Civil Affairs office was the longest of our life! Shannon's heart was racing as we crowded into the elevator to go to the 5th floor. We entered the office and made our way down the red-carpeted corridor. We were the first group of families to receive our children that day. We were ushered into a large room with benches lining the wall and a meeting table in the center. It was very quiet except for the sound of babies playing across the hall...our babies! We all rushed to the door to sneak a peek, only to be met by the peering eyes of the nannies and orphanage director trying to do the same. We were told by Ike that the babies would be brought in one by one according to our family number of the itinerary sheet GWCA had given us. We were family #7. The chaos then erupted as families tried to find another family to record their gotcha moment. Then it began. Nine of the ten families were adopting from Qujiang SWI and one family was adopting from another orphanage.
We were told that this family would go first (which threw the order out of whack). The Civil Affairs official stood in the doorway and announced to everyone, "This child is...(and their Chinese name)". In walked the nanny either holding the hand of the child or carrying the child. One by one the process was repeated until it was our turn. The official announced, "This child is Qu Le Wen", and in came Chloe, carried by a nanny. She had so much hair!!! She did not cry, she went to Shannon and began to take in the scene. She was just as they described her to us, alert and always wanting to see the action. When all the babies had been presented to their new families, we took Chloe down the hall and discovered that she could crawl!! As we were shuffled from room to room, Chloe never cried, just looked around. She is really gorgeous and she is ours!!
After going to get the babies passport photos taken, we went back to the hotel. When we walked into the room, Chloe began to cry. She was tired, hungry and irritable after such a long day. She sucked down two bottles and then went to sleep. We are officially a family of three.
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