November 2005

Guangzhou

It was all just paper work and forms until we all received log in dates late in February; that’s when the news group FOI set up for our travel group started buzzing ... and this travel group started connecting by sharing ideas, experiences and our lives with one another until we were all able to meet face to face on October 30th in Hong Kong.
There was an instant connection among this group that now had the chance to put faces to cyber mail. What was most evident as Yulin gave us instructions at our first morning's breakfast, was the deep love in our hearts we all had for our daughters seen only in pictures and still not shared through touch ... that special moment was coming for our group tomorrow.

As we travelled the next day to Guangzhou from HongKong, Yulin caringly tried to further prepare us for the intense moment when we would be handed our daughters. What Yulin shared was not always the fairy tale ending. Regardless of Yulin's best intentions, we all just wanted to share our lives with our daughters.
As we gathered into a room at the Adoption Registry Office of Guangzhou, our group was privileged to see a young adopted boy meet his new parents for the first time. Full of joy and emotion for the opportunity to witness such a happy event, our group saw the harsh reality Yulin tried to prepare us for. These babies make incredible journeys from abandonment to new families, and this young boys journey now hit home. This beautiful young boy was brought in by his caregiver and placed in the arms of his new mom and dad ... this young boy screamed cries and tears of abandonment as he looked for his Chinese caregiver to return. The crying went on and on, and no caregiver returned. It was up to this frightened little boy to once again adjust. It was our travel group that cried for this boy and perhaps to some degree feared what was about to come.

Almost immediately, our first beautiful baby girl was brought into the room, and our first set of parents called to receive her. I know our whole group was waiting for that agonizing cry; but as each of our beautiful daughters was brought in and placed in all of our arms, not one cried. It was as though their birth in our hearts combined with the warmth of the love in our first touch, created for our daughters a secure place where they new they now belonged.

Overjoyed and I'm sure for many to some degree relieved, it was now time to become parents to a child we loved instantly, but new nothing about ... feeding routines, sleep routines, likes/dislikes and personalities. These and a lack of ability to communicate was the challenge ahead ... while sightseeing and being a tourist on a bus everyday!
With so much to offer tourists, FOI planned some amazing events and outings to help us pass time and connect as a group and within our newly formed families. I know that this travel group is thankful to FOI for the great care they took in watching out for our best interests while in such a different land full of history and unique in culture. We had Camilla, so kind and like our grandma, Joyce and Fay like our sisters, and mothers we had two, in Yulin and her sister Yufen.

On behalf of this FOI Adoptive Parent Group, thank you for helping us bring our families together and for treating us with the care that you would give to your own family. Near, far and where ever we are, all of us will forever be connected and I look forward to our continued sharing of stories, experiences and family lives.

Frank Canacari