Januray 2004

…. from the land of Pandas

Donna & Gregg Cook brought their young son Benjamin along to China to meet Benjamin’s new sister, Jennifer.

Sichuan Province is famous for its spicy food, Giant Panda Bears and, in the hearts of 13 families who recently traveled there, our beautiful girls and boys (yes, boys!)Our journey to the foggy city of Chengdu in central China began shortly after the Christmas. As our group got to know each other over e-mail and then on the plane, I felt very fortunate that our deck was stacked. We had two families who had adopted from China previously, as well as medical professionals along. We had our own personal social worker, interpreter and coordinator - Yulin of course! To complete the group, there was a grandpa, two siblings, some aunties and quite a few folks who could converse in Mandarin. Many of us had traveled to foreign countries before but this trip was like no other – it was a trip to change our lives forever. We left a snowy Vancouver behind and flew 12 hours to Shanghai.

Our family was traveling as a threesome. Our 4½ year old son Benjamin was thrilled to be going to China to pick up his new sister Jennifer and we were pleased that he was old enough to make the trip with his mom and dad. After a short overnight in Shanghai, we flew another 3 hours to Chengdu where our bus picked us up and driver and interpretive guide introduced us to the region en-route to the hotel.

We met our babies shortly after arriving in our hotel. Our babies had traveled far to meet us too. Gathered from two orphanages, Nanchong and (insert name of other orphanage) at opposite directions from Chengdu, the babies had been on the road for most of the day. To our surprise, the happy moment came in the hotel lobby, 45 minutes after arriving at our supremely luxurious digs at the Holiday Inn! I didn’t even have time to get the butterflies or burst into tears (as I had been doing for months previously whenever I imagined this moment.) There, in the lobby was a large group of caregivers holding the children. Wow! What a chaotic search through the pack to find the baby we had been dreaming of for all these months. Benjamin helped us find our little girl and we finally connected, shot some video footage of the first meeting and enjoy our first interactions with our 11½ month old daughter, Jennifer Lia. We took her to our room and Ben was the first one to make her laugh. From that moment on, he was designated as the family member in charge of that most important job! And laugh she did! Wow, we fell in love so fast.

The trip began to go in fast-forward from that moment on as we grappled to discover our children’s needs and to bond with each other. The different personalities of 13 children became evident from the first hours on - each reacted in his or her own way to this, a huge change in their lives. There were some tears, yes, but as the days passed, each one brought more harmony and less tension on the faces of those little ones and their parents too! It was incredible how quickly the babies bonded with parents and family members.

Donna Cook