January 2007

Jorden’s Story - Our journey to Emma

Jorden (14), Naomi(9), Ryan(12), and Aidan (6) Chin travelled with their parents, Anna & Darren Chin, to China to meet their sister Emma. They offered their stories.

The day was finally here – the day on which this whole trip was based upon, receiving our little sister Emma. The day had a very hectic start to it. You could feel the excitement in the air once the time came to board the bus to go into the government building, it was only a matter of time.

We arrived at the government building and you could tell that nobody wanted to wait any longer. Unfortunately we did since the babies had not arrived yet. We climbed the stairs up to the fifth floor and were asked to wait in a  large  room to  get  our  sister.  We watched at the window hoping to get a glimpse of the babies arriving.

A good half-hour to forty-five minutes went by until the announce-ment was made that the   babies were finally here. One by one, the babies entered the room. It was wonderful to to see all the families smiling with their new children finally in their arms. Finally our name was called and there at the door was Emma. She was finally there with us. After two years of waiting our sister was finally there for us to hold. It was the best feeling of my life, and I could tell it was the same for the rest of the family too. The journey to China may have ended but the new exciting journey as a family has just begun.

Lauren’s Report

Lauren (12) & Logan (10) travelled to China with their parents, Mark & Marlene Koza of London Ontario to meet their sister, Sabrina. Both gave accounts of their journey to China.

It seemed like such a long wait. We were sitting in the waiting room at the Adoption Offices in Changsha for what seemed like ages. We had heard that  the nannies were there with the babies, but didn't know when we would see  them. All of a sudden there was one baby, and then another coming through  the door. We were waiting to hear our names, but the babies kept going to  the other families. Finally we heard our names being called. We couldn't  believe that it was finally our turn and we were going to see my baby sister for the first time. When we first saw Sabrina we didn't recognize her, she  was much smaller than we expected and looked a bit different than her  referral picture.

The biggest surprise is that she didn't cry. She looked  around for a few minutes to find the nanny that brought her, but then she  started looking at us and studying our faces. Eventually she started to  smile and laugh, and she really seemed to recognize my brother. We had sent  a pillow to her through Blessed Kids with our family picture on it and I  think that this helped her to recognize us and be more comfortable. She was  so cute and beautiful.

The trip was really fun and interesting, but I am happy to be home. Sabrina  is the perfect little sister. She is really happy, smart and likes to play. My Mom is really happy that she likes to sleep too! 

Logan’s Report

My baby sister Sabrina was in Hunan Province, so we travelled to the Capital city of Changsha. One of the things I will remember most about being there is the traffic. There seemed to be no rules for driving, and people went where ever they wanted. If you tried to cross the street, the cars won't stop for you, even if you are carrying a baby. We said that we were surprised that no one got hit by the cars. The next morning we went down to the lobby and there were police and ambulance in front of the hotel. Someone had been hit by a car! They also like to honk their horn, all the time!We liked to sit at the front of the tour bus to watch the traffic go by, it was really scary. My Mom has promised to never complain about the traffic at home ever again.

MY TRIP TO CHINA

Rebecca travelled with her mother to China to adopt her sister Claire.|
The photo is a back-at-home photo with all of the  five Burznynski children – all adopted from China.

During my trip to China I saw many beautiful and exciting places. They were cities named Hong Kong, Guangdong and Beijing. I also saw a lot of sights in these cities, which I will tell you and also my experience of picking up my baby sister named Claire. My plane ride was very long and I did not like it much because it was around 17 hours and at the end of my plane ride to Hong Kong I got sick. Then when we arrived we went on a boat cruise and ate a meal on it. That was a very long day. The next day we took a bus to Guangdong to our hotel which we stayed for a week. When we got to the hotel my mommy, my Uncle Rob and I were very excited because we were soon going to meet my baby sister Claire. When my mommy and I got to meet Claire it was a very special day. She was very beautiful and a happy baby. When we got Claire she smiled at us when some of the other babies were crying until they met their parents. I played with Claire a lot. When we got back to our room we got a huge surprise, Claire started to walk.

In our spare time we toured around the city, we went to government offices and went shopping which I enjoyed very much. I did not like the food very much except at breakfast and when we went to McDonalds and also had pizza. The Chinese food in China is not the same as Chinese food at home.

Let me tell you about the bathrooms when we went out. They are not very many toilets at some places except for the hotels and some of the stores. We were very lucky because we did not have to squat very much at a hole in the ground. We also went to some  palm which are very large and a tradition in China. Our second week was more exciting because we did a lot more touring and that's when we went to Beijing. When we got to Beijing it is a very big city and lots and lots of people. We went to a lot of sights including Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China which was my favourite place to go. Let me tell you a little bit about these places. Tiananmen Square is very, very big. It has a big picture of Mao Ze Dong  there. [He is] one of China's former rulers. He is something like the Prime Minister is to Canada. The square is very large and you do a lot of walking. Forbidden City you do a lot of walking and walking and walking. The temples are very big and you spend a lot of time at them.

I saved the best for last. The Great Wall Of China is one of the seven wonders of the world. I was very lucky to walk up and down the wall. It was sometimes difficult because the stairs were very awkward and. uneven. Sometimes you had a ,huge step and a small stop and I had to hold the railing going down or I would fall.

We did most of our shopping in Beijing and that was a lot of fun. We went to the Silk  Store and lots of other malls. We also had our own personal bus and driver. I am a very lucky girl to get to go to China where I was born. I learned a lot of history in China which I will never forget. It was an awesome trip and hope to go back again. I am very proud of my heritage and very proud to be me.

Rebecca Burzynski