Friday, January 26, 2007

Well, it's 11 AM Beijing Standard Time and Angie has gone down to the lobby for another documentation meeting. I eagerly volunteered to stay with Becca. Angie wanted to stay with Becca as well, but didn't figure I could handle all the paperwork alone.

I want to take this time to tell you how wonderful a mother Angie is to Becca. During the adoption process, Angie would be concerned that she would not make a good mother; she sometimes (not often though) worried that she didn't have the skills to be a mother. But as mothers that all have gone before us know, an instruction guide does not come attached to the baby. And yet, we have an innateness about us to know what to do. And yes, Angie not only stepped up to the plate and hit a home run, she hit a grand slam. Becca has chosen Angie, appropriately though tough at times for me, as the primary caregiver. Angie's love and devotion for Becca shine through, as you can see in the photographs. She has helped advance Becca's developmental delay at an astounding speed. Becca will cry if Angie (but not if I do) leaves the room, though only for a few seconds. I didn't think I could love Angie anymore than I already do but I have fallen in love with her all over again. I think Angie's favorite time with Becca is during bath time as Angie loves the water and so, now, does Becca. She also loves cuddle time when Becca first wakes up in the morning.

I have so many "favorite" times with Becca, but if I had to choose, I love her feeding time. She makes sounds like a monkey and then bobs her body up and down until she gets her bottle. And fortunately, unlike me, she knows when to stop after she is full. She looks up at me with such a content expression on her face. A few minutes ago, I finished feeding her and then sang to her as she fell asleep. As I was feeding her, tears dripped from my eyes and trickled down her cheek. The sheer joy of her life and God's presence with us, at times, can be almost overwhelming. When she gets tired, she suckles on a shirt, blanket or cloth until she goes to sleep. Her favorite blanket is one given to us from Angie's high school best friend (thanks Lucy and family); Angie and Lucy have another special bond as Lucy is adopting Ally from China; her log in date was January 2006.

A lot of folks back home have asked us to comment about the food in China. From my experience, the main dishes are rice, noodles, beef and chicken. Sure, there are some more exotic foods such as shark fin soup, braised gooseneck, sea cucumber, scorpions and water beetles, but these are not a daily staple. If you think such weird foods are unique to China, just look at the guy next to you in America who is sliding down a slimy, raw oyster or sucking the head of a crawfish. Enough said!

I also would like to comment on the other families in our group. 14 of us (6 families) all from around the United States converged on Beijing last week for one common purpose - to meet and bring our daughters home. Our daughters have been part of our lives since referral time, and for us from the day Becca was born. It has been my pleasure to interact and get to know each of these families. They all share similar feelings, love and devotion to their daughter as we do. We are and will always be bound together by our daughters' tie. I hope that we will stay in touch and perhaps get the girls together at Disney World or some similar spot in the U.S. as the girls grow up.

For those future adoptive parents (FAPs - no, not an official acronym so please don't post this on any rumor websites), this journey is exhaustive. I recommend you take the waiting time to eat right, get enough sleep, exercise (according to your limits) and indulge in the culture and people of China and, more specifically, your child's birthplace province. Don't fret, the trip, though exhaustive, is also exhilarating and amazingly peaceful. Though you should take into account others' negative experiences, just be aware but not frightened. Angie and I could twist some of our experiences thus far and give a negative perspective to them, but we chose to focus on the positive aspects of each experience and they have been wonderful. Our fellow adoptive families in our group have done the same.

This is Angie now. Victor had a headache yesterday, so Becca and I decided to venture out and let him rest. Our whole group had an outing planned, but it was very difficult to go alone. I realize how much I have depended on Victor during this entire trip. Of course, I had 5 other families and Lina and Jane to help me, but I was still very apprehensive. We planned to take the girls to a park and then a Chinese restaurant. I was definitely concerned about behavior in a crowded restaurant!