The moment we finally met our son didn't go anything like we pictured. I mean we prepared ourselves for many worse case scenarios, but in our minds we always thought we would at least capture the moment no matter how good or bad on camera, but we didn't even get that chance.
After being in Beijing for less than 24 hours, we boarded our 3 hour flight for Fuzhou, Fujian province. The flight was only slightly delayed and our daughter slept the entire time - it was glorious. Our adoption travel guide met us after we collected our luggage and handed us a package that outlined our schedule for the remainder of our time in Fuzhou. In the back of the package there was more information about our son from the orphanage. At first we thought it was answers to the questions we sent to them at Christmas, but these were different. Likely another family's questions for their adopted child, but luckily the answers did cover many of the same ones we asked.
We sat and read through this info at the airport McDonalds while our daughter continued to sleep in my husbands arms for about another half hour. We found out we were waiting for another family to land that was also adopting from Fuzhou. They were an American couple that were using a different adoption agency but would be using the same guide as us for the rest of our week. After only a few minutes of meeting the American family we found out that they started their trip as a family of 9 and by the end of their time in China they would be a family of 11. Yes, you read that correctly. They have 5 biological children (their 15 year old travelled with them and was amazing with the kids, including our daughter), the youngest of which was only 18 months old. They also have 2 adopted children from Atlanta (where they live) with special needs. When we met them they had already picked up their 13 year old adopted daughter earlier that week from a different province. She was a cheery happy child already calling her parents Mama and Baba (Chinese for Dad). They were going to be meeting their second newly adopted daughter, who was almost 2 years old, when they arrived at our hotel.
Our arrival at the hotel is when everything we planned for changed. The American family's child was already there waiting for them and as they walked in the door they were handed their little girl. We were trying to figure out what to do while our guide was helping the other family with translation and paperwork for their adoption. We were trying to figure out what room we were in when two women came through the front doors of the hotel carrying our son. We both knew it was him right away and we both just sort of stood there dumbfounded not knowing what to do, while our daughter repeatedly asked "what are we doing?".
Our guide came back over to us in order to help us finally check in and realized what was going on. The next half an hour was an absolute blur. Our guide walked us over to the lounge area of our hotel lobby and our son was put into my arms immediately. We had no time to get out our camera, any toys, prep our daughter, or even process what was happening. So even though I was having a complete panic attack on the inside, I tried to pretend that everything was fine. Our son cried at first and tried to squirm away from me when he was handed to me. Luckily I have been working out and I was able to contain all 27 lbs of him. My husband tried to go and find our camera and some snacks to made the transition a little bit better, but as soon as he returned with both items they sat him down and asked him to fill out paperwork. Basically he signed temporary agreements making us his guardians until we signed the official paperwork the next day. The whole process took 10 minutes. No questions were answered, no instructions given. The only thing I was told about our son was that the silver bracelet he was wearing was from one of his nannies.
Next we went to finish the check in process and go to our room. And that is when reality hit! We had nothing unpacked and didn't have any food or formula (we anticipated buying these things before he arrived) for him once be became hungry. We basically went into survival mode which is unfortunate because neither of us really got to enjoy the moment.
My husband went with the other father (from Atlanta) and our guide across the highway to get some food and formula. I stayed with our daughter and son and tried to keep them both happy with rice puffs. I tried at one point to put our son in his crib so that I could find the diapers in our luggage to change him. That didn't go over well, he immediately started crying so I carried him around with me from suitcase to suitcase trying to find the things I needed. Besides that moment, he was very quiet and didn't make much noise at all. This was a good thing since the novelty of meeting her new brother had already worn off for our daughter and she was snuggled up watching Beauty and the Beast on the I Pad for the 100th time so she was zero help to me. My husband returned an hour later and we then tried to figure out the water to formula ratio for his bottle by interpreting the Mandarin instructions on the side of the box. Thank goodness for Google!
After both kids were fed, I changed our son into some pajamas. He was only wearing one pink shoe when he arrived, apparently the other one was lost on the way to see us. He had only 4 long sleeve shirts on and a pair of fleece lined jeans on. Our room was unbearably hot, but even with all of those layers he didn't seem to mind. Fairly quickly after I changed him he basically rolled over on our bed and put his finger in his mouth (he's a finger sucker this one) and fell asleep. He was likely exhausted from the days events but I was completely stunned. Especially since we have never experienced an easier bedtime in our entire lives as parents. Both kids were asleep by 8:30 pm. While the kids slept my husband and I tried to organize our room and grasp the life changing event that happened that day. Our son only woke up once when I tried to move him to his crib but it only lasted a few minutes and he proceeded to sleep all the way to 6 am. Our daughter on the other hand was up at 1:30 am China time thinking it was morning and was ready for breakfast. My husband and I took shifts laying with her and talking to her since we had another full day ahead of us.
So that's it, that was the day we met our son. As crazy as it was I wouldn't change it for anything. It was the day our family finally became complete. A day that we will celebrate and talk about for years to come.
