September 2007

My name is Bethany Brown. I am 7-years-old. I went to China to adopt my baby brother. We flew to Beijing, it was a 13 hour flight. Then a few days later we went to Chongqing to meet my brother.

We had to go to the 14th floor to get our babies. We sat down on couches to wait for the babies. It seemed like it was one hour to wait for the babies, but it was probably a half an hour. I wanted to go back to the hotel. Finally there was a big crowd at the door and all the babies were there. Our baby was the first one to come in the second group. There was Islay in a single group from the first orphanage. Then came Mark, then was Zachary, Lauren, Hope, Bianca, Jaime and Abby. Kylie and Shan Lin came last from the third orphanage. Later, in Beijing, we met Amy from Guangzhou and her parents. Mark's nanny was pretty and friendly and said thank you for every gift she got. More than one baby cried because the babies were hungry. They had a long four hour drive to get to us. I was really happy when I finally got to hold him. Then we took him to the hotel and put him in the crib to sleep. Then we played with him. The next day Mommy and Daddy signed the papers for the adoption. I stayed at the hotel with my cousin, my sisters and my grandmother. It wasn't much fun because my cousin had to do his homework. We had a bath and played with our ponies. Then mommy came home with our brother and we ate lunch and played with him. He could stand up in his crib and crawl across the bed. We had to catch him. I didn't want to leave China. I loved China too much. It was the best trip ever of anywhere else I've ever been. It's never been better than that.

Bethany