This time there was another family there that we meet at our hotel at breakfast, they had just received a little girl with heart issues the day before, were finalizing today with the local province, and then they were flying on to Fuzhou to adopt a three year old boy without an eye (sounds like nothing slowed him down), what an awesome family! We talked to them on and off as we all finalized our adoptions locally. First we went into an office to confirm that “Yes, we knew she was cleft before we came,” “yes, we like her and want to adopt her,” along with a number of confirmations about us. We signed and put our red inked thumb print on top of our name. When it came time for Penelope’s print, they asked for her right foot and as she started to cry when I took off her shoe they said “Fine, fine, fine, right hand, right hand” thinking she would be better with that… HA… crying louder… so funny. What was really nice is after inking her hand they did one print on paper then one on the official paper and gave us the nicer first stamp to keep. What a great keepsake of Penelope’s “Yes, I’ll take them, even though I have no choice and no idea what is going on.” After giving a “gift” to her we were off to the next office, a family photo of the three of us, I assume for her official adoption decree that we will receive before we leave the province. We paid the second lady several different fees, (registration, passport, finding ad, etc) and the “orphanage donation.” I heard somewhere along the adoption road it is an amount that approximates the cost of expenses up until adoption, it would be interesting to find out if that is true. Then it was off to the third lady, the notary, where we confirmed more information about us and accepted Penelope for the final time “YES.”
Yesterday when the orphanage nanny gave her to us she also gave us the disposable camera we sent in a care package (with all photos taken but not developed), the clothing she was found in (we laughed because they looked like they would fit her today), the note that was left with her when she was abandoned, and medicine because she is currently sick (a croupy cough with some major congestion). They offered us three medicines; cough, decongestant and amoxicillin (an over-the-counter here in China), yesterday we only took the cough medicine because we didn’t have that but today we asked for the amoxicillin just in case because she doesn’t sound good, can’t wait to get her back to Dr. Howard.
I’ve never heard of anyone getting the clothes their child was abandoned in, so we were very excited. It is so rare for there to be a note left with a child and for it to be saved and given to us is more awesome than I can describe. These children usually come with so little: no birth date, no family history, no medical history, no parent’s names… any shred of who they were, or any piece of their history is so precious to us. After we gathered back in the waiting room Todd asked Vicky to translate Penelope’s “Finding Ad.” When a child is abandoned the local government puts a notice in the paper asking for anyone with information about this child to come forward and give that information or claim that child, when you adopt you usually receive a copy of your child’s finding ad. As Vicky translated it was “uh-oh” hmmm seems in the ad she was found in a blue outfit and we were given a pink one, several minutes of conversation with the orphanage nanny and several phone calls later Vicky said they were checking at the orphanage to see if there was a mix up and find out if the ad was wrong or the wrong outfit was brought. A while later they said that the pink outfit was a different girl’s and the ad was correct and a switch needed to be made. The correct outfit would be in the mail today and arrive to be swapped before we leave the province.
After photos under the sign it is back in the van to the hotel. Passing over some LARGE speed bumps on the way out we got a small smile a gurgle from Penelope, too bad we couldn’t go in and out a few times to see it again, talk about a child’s face changing like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, she is heart-stopping-ly beautiful when she smiles. Too bad we couldn’t go in and out a few more times just to see that sunshine. Back at the hotel we relaxed and Violet was chasing Grams, trying to tickle her and Penelope watching all this was smiling away, which just ramped it up, Todd started chasing Violet and tickling her, we’re all laughing and then Todd turned to Penelope and did the little pincer “I’m going to tickle you look” and she outright laughed! It was joy our ears, Gramma was snapping pictures, the rest of us grinning like fools! What a wonderful moment.
We checked out the pool and while Violet showed off her swimming skills with Pa and Daddy, Penelope splashed in my lap on the steps with Grams, it wasn’t the 85 degrees it stated on the sign so we didn’t last long but it was fun none the less. We missed getting photos, all of us with our “bathing caps” on… to funny… we’ll have to go swimming again. The weather here is so cold and wet and rainy so not ideal for walking around and checking out the city. We’ve already been chastised several times that we need more clothes on Penelope. So sorry, packed for the 70 degree weather we were expecting not the 60 and raining we are currently having… we hope it will be 80 degrees in Guangzhou like it is supposed to be, it would be nice to be able to walk around, we will be hotel-stir-crazy by then.
We’ve been calling her Penelope, she does respond to Mei Qi, or Qi Qi but we still stick it out with Penelope because the response to the other two isn’t that great. Yesterday when Penelope was calm every time she would see the orphanage nanny she would start crying again. Penelope’s progress is so much slower than Violet’s was that we’ve decided not to visit the orphanage, which is bittersweet for us as it was something we really wanted to do and had arranged ahead of time. Once you have her in your arms and she is your first priority, nothing else is as important. Sorry to the momma’s on our list we wanted to get new photos for, at least we were able to deliver a package for a little girl from her soon to be forever family. I am usually writing these in the middle of the night when I get up so please pardon my being all over the map and I’m not being very eloquent. Tomorrow is a morning of sightseeing either in the park a mile away or at an embroidery factory. Changsha is the embroidery capital so we three quilting women are very excited.
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