October 2001

Journey to Our Children

Patti & Robert McGhie of Oakville, ON adopted Lily on the October trip. Patti offered her reflections on her trip to Nanchang.

On Sunday, October 7, our large group, comprising singles and couples, including those who had adopted before and those who had embarked on this amazing journey for the first time, as well as at least six children and other assorted family members, arrived at the Gloria Hotel in Nanchang.  It was misty and close to dinnertime; the hotel lobby was spectacular, with sky murals overhead and marble everywhere we looked, but we were so excited, we could barely eat, or devote much attention to admiring the facilities. Fifteen babies and their foster mothers were on their way to the hotel to be united with their forever families that evening! We had navigated the complex sea of paperwork, achieved the seemingly impossible and survived the long wait with our sanity intact. We had even shaken off the jet lag as anticipation of what was to come overflowed and energized us.  We planted ourselves in the doorways of our rooms and made casual conversation with our neighbours, listening for the unmistakable sound of elevator doors and baby pandemonium. When those first long-awaited cries drifted down the halls, we rushed out of our rooms, eager for the first glimpses of those beautiful faces. The moment had arrived at last!  Our children were placed in our arms and we had the chance to speak to their foster mothers, with Shirley our translator, present. The joy was indescribable.  We marveled at how well the babies had been matched with each and every one of us and at the way the bonding and closeness began to develop. What resilient and amazing children!

For the next three days, we visited the official government offices to finalize the paperwork, shopped at the porcelain store for spectacular figurines and vases, experienced awe as we toured the Pavilion and Cultural Museum and were entertained by the children at the daycare center we visited. The Chinese people were wonderful, and friendly—admiring our children, or scolding us unabashedly, but kindly, for the way in which they were dressed. Yulin, her brother, and our guide Shirley, took excellent care of us—counting baggage, telling us where to shop for water, food and clothing, taking us to fabulous restaurants and making sure we were everywhere we should be at the right time.  We were so very fortunate to have them with us as our long journey reached its ultimate conclusion. China is truly a different world, but we will be linked to it and to each other forever, because of the lovely children who brought us there.

Double Trouble

Jim Beattie and Eunice Dong of Toronto split from the main group and travelled to Wuhan to receive their  twin daughters

As Eunice and I reflect on our recent Wuhan trip to receive our phenomenal twin daughters, Madison Margaret (Da Shuang) and Chynna Mei (Xiao Shuang), we can’t help but smile with complete joy and total relief that the sheer overwhelming nature of the trip was so successfully completed.  This wonderful journey and its expected emotional roller coaster truly came to fruition in mid August when Bob Stevens of FOI informed us that our proposal from the CCAA had arrived and we were indeed offered twin daughters! What a shock...be careful what you ask for! Within the week our social worker Michael Blugerman presented us with our proposals. This was the point at which we instantly fell head over heels in love with our girls, all this from some 4”x 6” pictures. 

The timeframe between acceptance of our proposals and our travel to China was a wonderful yet exhausting whirlwind. The pinnacle of the trip occurred on Monday, October 8th, 2001, when Xiao Shuang Meng, and Da Shuang Meng, eleven months old, 12.5 and 13lbs, respectively, were lovingly placed in our arms. In our anticipation of this moment Eunice and I had expected it would be emotionally charged. What we had not expected was the sense of calm we both felt! Everything felt so wonderful almost like a pre-ordained moment. Our state of com-plete physical and emotional exhaustion was totally eradicated with one loving glimpse of our two bundles of joy. The memories of endless planning and tiresome paperwork, and the hurry up and wait syndrome were gone. All our efforts were so worth it!

The trip to Wuhan in many ways paralleled most trips abroad, with the obvious exception! Following the FOI packing list, researching on the internet, having lots of tolerance (not my strength) and not leaving your common sense at home were key. The success of the trip was highly co-related to flexibility, pre-planning and to the excellent advice and resources of FOI. Our facilitator Yulin’s sister, Yufen, was indispensable and our ability to actually enjoy the sights and tours available on the trip was totally due to their collective efforts.

The Children's Stories

There were six children on this trip. We asked the older children to give us their impressions of the trip. Two stories were contributed by
Liia, 11, of Oshawa, who travelled with her parents, Judy & Alan Tamm, and by, Abel (16) & Marline (11) who accompanied their parents, Val & Jerry Penner of Winkler, MB.

Liia’s story

I thought China was really interesting. The people in the group were nice. While we were in China I had bought a lot of stuff. I bought a silk shirt, an art set, candy and two purses.

Mostly every morning we would have to get up early to get breakfast and to make it to the lobby of the hotel so that we could go sightseeing. Near the beginning of our trip in Shanghai we went and saw Shanghai harbour during the day and night. Then, a few days after when we got to Beijing we went to Silk Alley, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall and the Lama Temple. Last, but not least, some of the other things we did were go grocery shopping, and go to many different restaurants for lunch and dinner.

The food was really good! I got to try a lot of different foods, from sweet bread to Chinese French fries!

Also I happened to make five new friends. Their names are Marline, Abel, Issac, Shelley, and Shunli. When we were in Beijing, at the hotel many nights I would go swimming with Marline in the hotel’s pool.

But the most exciting moment during our trip was getting my sister Mei Li. Yulin, the lady who was with us for most of the sightseeing, told us to come to the elevators on our floor, and all the people from the orphanages delivered the babies to each family.

It turned out to be a really fun, exciting and interesting trip going overseas, all the way to China! 

Abel & Marline’s story

In 1991, we, Abel and Marline, were adopted from Haiti by Jerry and Val Penner. Now, in October, 2001 we got to go to China and adopt Bethany Joy, our sister. We met really nice people on the way. They were all very excited to get their babies.

In China we noticed that most people were very curious. They would come up to our group and ask a lot of questions.

We liked climbing the Great Wall, seeing all the sights and finding out how the Chinese people lived. The food in Nanchang was really awesome. We found out that Bethany loves to eat everything, especially watermelon.

We met Shelly and Shunli, both 5 yrs old, who were adopted 4 yrs ago from China. They were a lot of fun. I, Abel Penner, was adopted when I was barely 6 yrs old. My parents remember me saying that I wanted to get adopted. Bethany wasn’t very happy to see us in the beginning but now we’re home and she’s really happy.

We thought that the whole adoption experience was extremely interesting and we’d like to do it again sometime.