July 2005

The Celebrity Babies

People who had adopted from China told us to pack a hockey bag in our luggage to fill with souvenirs, clothes and other bargains. So we did, but we never used it. The souvenirs we brought back wouldn’t fit in a hockey bag. They are wonderful stories about the Chinese people interacting with our daughter. These are worth more than any jade amulet or silk dress.

We were part of the July group that adopted nine babies. On Monday, July 18, we met our beautiful daughters in the conference room of the Gloria Plaza Hotel in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province and a two-hour flight south of Beijing. We spent the majority of that week shuttling to government offices and lounging in our hotel room with our baby, Gemma, getting to know each other. Though we made excursions to Wal-Mart, the local grocery store and restaurants, we didn’t pay that much attention to the locals. We were too focused on our adorable baby.

On Friday we headed back to Beijing. We were a fairly conspicuous group at the Nanchang airport. With nine babies, nine sets of adoring parents, two sets of grandparents, four other friends along for the trip, and two guides we totaled 36. As we stood around just inside the airport, people gathered on the periphery, watching us and smiling and waving at our babies. After passing through security, we sat at our gate waiting with all the other passengers traveling to Beijing. A group behind us played cards and kept pointing and smiling at us. I sat Gemma on the seat between Fraser and I and gave her cereal, made up on the spot by her father. An older man and his wife came and sat right behind us and watched us feed her. Gemma kept turning to look at them and finally the man held out his arms to her. She took his finger, which I interpreted as a sign that she liked him and gave her to the gentleman. The minute  he  held her he  was surrounded by a crowd. People chatted to Gemma, touched her hands, smiled and gave us the thumbs up. It was all quite wonderful to see how happy everyone was about her. But I must admit, I was even happier when she burst into tears and looked around for her mother. She stopped crying the instant I took her back. Meanwhile, Fraser handed out a bunch of Canadian flag pins, we got from our local Member of Parliament, to the people around us. He began chatting with a physics teacher and got an invitation to stay in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics. Babies certainly have a way of opening doors.

In Beijing, our guide, Faye, took number of us on a jaunt through the rain to a nearby grocery/department store to buy more baby cereal. On our way up to the fourth floor baby clothing department,  I had a harrowing moment trying to get off the escalator with the stroller. There were no elevators for mothers with strollers. The elevators are only used for "goods." I asked Faye what people do when they go shopping with their babies and she said people don’t go shopping with their babies. It occurred to us then that we hadn’t seen a Chinese baby in public which was probably one reason why our babies drew lots of stares and smiles.

One of the highlights was our trip to the Great Wall. We visited the Badaling section through the mountainous region an hour and a half drive from Beijing. The Wall was spectacular. Walking it meant hiking steep inclines and walking up countless stairs. Using a stroller was impossible, so Gemma rode in the backpack on Fraser’s back, which made her the tallest of the Wall-walking-crowd, being about 6'4". She could see everything going on around her and loved it. As it was a Sunday, there were hundreds on the Wall. It was a sea of people, many carrying colourful umbrellas as sunshades. FOI had given us a little laminated card that says, "This is Our Adopted Daughter" in Chinese characters. I tied the card to the backpack so people could read it. And people did. Gemma was a bit of a celebrity, as everyone wanted to have their picture taken with her and were waving and thumbs-upping us. It was truly wonderful.

Season Osborne (Gemma’s mother)