September 2008

These are a few of my Favourite Things

My name is Lina Cunningham-Bracht and I went to Xi’an and Beijing in September 2008 to meet my baby brother, Jian. I am 5 and Jian is 2. On the long plane ride I played my Ninendo DS, but I left it on the plane. My favourite things about China were the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors and the Summer Palace. I made a new friend named Ai Ai. I played underwear soccer in my Auntie Tanja’s hotel room and went swimming. My brother, Jian is very funny. I like him a lot. The best thing about being a big sister is playing with him. The worst thing is sometimes he pushes and bites. I feel like I want to go back to China. I want Jian to come with me, and mommy and daddy too. The best thing I bought was a Panda bear case at the Beijing Zoo. We watched all the Pandas and I threw up because I ate mango pudding with milk in it. My favourite food was dumplings and I got to drink pop for the first time. I got all sugared-up. I liked playing games with Maria, our guide in Xi’an, in the van. It was nice to see Aunty Yulin again. She gave me my name scroll, which I liked because my dog Bixby ate the one I got when I was a baby. That’s it. Bye-bye China.

-Lina (5½)

A Trip of a Life Time

On September 20th my mom, dad, and myself left home to begin our journey to Nanchang, China to get my little sister, Nicole Ling Lypko. To be honest, I was a little nervous how this change was going to affect our family, because I’ve been an only child for 14 years. I know now, it is definitely a change but a good change.  I loved every minute of the trip.  It was emotional, fun, exciting and absolutely awesome. I believe the best part of the trip was the day we received Nicole. We arrived in Nanchang on September 22, and first we went to check in at our hotel. The hotel was so nice. That afternoon all 8 families went to the government building across the street to get the new additions to our families. Crossing the street in Nanchang was taking your life into your own hands.  Traffic was crazy, it seems like there are no rules on the road and you had to dodge cars to get across the street. Once we arrived at the government building, the babies were brought in one at a time and given to their chosen family. It was an incredible moment. There were smiles, tears and lots of excitement.  Unfortunately, all the babies were there except ours and baby Mae-Ling (who was from the same orphanage as Nicole). It was disappointing for the two families not to receive our babies at that moment. We left the building without Nicole and were told she would be brought to us at the hotel.

We waited anxiously at the hotel and about an hour and a half later, there was a knock on our hotel door and there she was, my cute baby sister. I was very happy to see her and excited to hold her. She cried at first, but not for long. She was hungry so my dad gave her a bottle. We really enjoyed our two weeks in China and getting to know Nicole was so much fun. We met great families and wonderful babies and I hope we keep in touch with them. We loved the whole experience. This trip was the beginning of our new family of four. Nicole is a perfect fit in our family and going to get her was a trip of a lifetime.

-Brennan Lypko (14)