More about Gotcha Day

I wanted to write more about what happened on the day that we received Grace. On Monday, July 30 we went downstairs in the hotel dining room to fill out the paperwork before we were to go to the civil affairs office that afternoon. We each had to sign papers in that were written in both Chinese and English. All of  them required our passport numbers too. After we finished some of husbands and a couple of the wives went with Michael, our Chongqing guide, to the bank to exchange the US dollars into RMB, and then wire the money to the orphanage. Later DH told me that he felt funny about how things were handled at the bank. When I asked him why, he said that there was a woman from civil affairs that walked in to the bank by herself with a big bag of Chinese yuan. She proceeded to take bricks of RMB out of her bag and count it. Once the proper amount of money was counted out, the money was turned over to the bank and wired to the orphanage. Only after that did Michael collect the US dollars from each of the families. He said we would get our receipt and change later. DH said that the women took the money, over $30,000 USD, put it in her purse and walked out again. That was it, no guards, no Brinks truck, just a woman with her purse! I can't imagine feeling safe with all that cash in my purse!

So once the money was paid we met in the lobby of the hotel and rode over to the civil affairs office, which was about a 20 minute ride. We took the elevator up to the proper floor, walked about 30 feet before entering the civil affairs office area. It was white with some red decorating the walls, and was very friendly looking. We were told that the babies weren't there yet, and it would be about 10 more minutes before they got to the office.

After about that amount of time, 4 women and a man came walking in through the same entrance we walked in from, each woman holding 2 babies in their arms. We were not allowed to touch the babies, but everyone was totally excited. We were all taking pictures and trying to determine which baby was which. Grace was in the arms of her nanny and another baby. I can't remember which baby was with her, but DH and I figured out pretty quickly who Grace was. She looked so tiny! She was dressed in a black and white polkadot two piece baby outfit, and pink sandals. She looked so cute! Shortly after the nannies were done reporting in, they called all of us adoptive parents and family members into a big conference room to receive the babies. Alison, our guide, had told us the order that the babies would be handed over. We were number 2. So the first baby was being handed over, when I decided to ask one of the other adoptive moms to take still photos, while my dad took video. I was trying to show her how to use my dad's digital camera when they called our name. DH walked up and took Grace in her arms without me! I was and still am disappointed that we didn't go up together, and that I wasn't the one to take her from her nanny's arms! At any rate, she didn't cry or fuss at all. She just looked at us trying to figure out what was going on. She was so cute and sweet!

After everyone received their babies, we were brought a bag a formula and rice cereal along with one bottle already mixed and ready to give her. Grace started fussing, and we determined later that this is what she does when she needs to poop. She finished her duty, and we got her bottom cleaned up before we signed the trial adoption papers. We also were given the chance to ask Grace's nanny any questions and have them translated by Alison. Here's what we asked and her nanny's response:

Did our baby have any cribmates?
All the babies slept alone in their own crib.

Did her nanny have a nickname for our baby?
ShanShan

Was there anything that the nanny would like to tell us about our baby?
She asked us to be good parents to her, and to love her (At this point the nanny got teary eyed, so we know that Grace was well loved!)

I was also able to have both Grace's nanny and the orphanage director sign the "When You Were Born in China" book! (I asked DH to get Alison and Michael, our guides, to sign it too, but we ran out of time right then and didn't have them do it yet. I will take care  of that later this week.)

Each family had a photo taken with their baby's nanny and the orphanage director, and handed over the gifts each had brought from the US. We had brought 6 Tshirts: 3 of the Indianapolis 500, and 3 of the Colts Superbowl Champions, as our gifts.

We then all piled back in the bus and drove back to the hotel. We were to get to know our baby and decide if she was the baby that was meant to be ours before we headed back to the civil affairs office on Tuesday afternoon to sign the paperwork.

Here are some photos of our Gotcha Day.