Scrapping Thoughts

In Nanchang, Jiangxi Province: February 17 – February 22, 2003

When Rachel wasn’t upset over being held by Mama or that Mama didn’t shovel ten pounds of food into her fast enough, it was pretty obvious that Rachel was a cutie.

There was the smirk:
“Heh, heh. I just ate two bowls of noodles! And I’m ready for bowl number three.”

There was the look of surprise:
“What!? You again with that flashing thing?”

The “I’m really cute, and boy can I drool!” look:

The She-can-barely-see look:
A wardrobe mishap in the making. But with a fresh dry bib!

The “I’m the cutest kid on the couch” look:
By the way, this is not the famous “Red Couch” at the White Swan. This is the infamous “Brown Couch” in Kelly and Carl’s suite in Nanchang. That’s their Emma on the far right side of the couch.

And finally, there’s the look she has after spending the day charming the heck out of everyone else.
Nigh-night, Rachel.

February 16, 2003

Mary and her neice Laura had been the first of our group to arrive in Nanchang. They had flown in from Hong Kong. The babies arrived before the rest of us. Mary took photos of the babies as they arrived.

After a long flight from Beijing and a trip into Nanchang, we arrived at the hotel at 6:33 pm.

We waited to check-in. The babies has been whisked away to a conference room somewhere.

We got our room assignments, went to our rooms, gathered our cameras, and took the elevator to the floor where the babies were.

We heard them all. Crying, noisy. We walked into the room. I looked around, trying to find a child that looked like Rachel.

I took pictures, but I had no clue which baby was Rachel. After what seemed to be an eternity, the babies’ names and parents’ names were called out. We were last. I finally figured out this baby was Rachel.

Since I held Sarah first, I thought John should get the chance to be the first one to hold Rachel. She stared at him. He stared at her.

Then it was my turn. I was checking Rachel out, to make sure she was all in one piece, when I made a fatal mistake. I bounced Rachel and patted her bottom. She let out a blood-curdling scream and cried. I bounced and patted more. More screaming.

The orphanage workers took her away from me, because I obviously didn’t know what I was doing. (Tell that to my then 4-year-old at home!) They gave her back to John, and shoved a bunch of small food items in her mouth that looked oddly like Cracker Jacks. They handed John the bag and gestured that he should keep putting these Cracker Jacks things in her mouth. As she screamed.

Score one for John — he knew not to put food in a crying, screaming baby’s mouth.

I found out Rachel had come straight from her foster home, but that was about all I was told, other than she liked sweets. It was pure chaos, and the babies all were turning beet red from overheating. Our facilitator finally got all of us out of the room and back to our own rooms.

Once we were in the room, we found out why Rachel was screaming. She had a horrific case of diaper rash, and a cigarette burn. The ash from the cigarrette was still in her diaper. Some idiot had been smoking when putting her in a diaper.

That’s when Rachel found out what a Mama does. And I kept telling her what a Mama does for the next year, until she finally believed me.

February 14, 2003

I had hoped that Rachel’s Gotcha Day would be Valentine’s Day, but things just didn’t work out that way. So instead we were in Beijing for a few more days before leaving on the 16th for Nanchang and Rachel.

For me, Valentine’s Day is more about fun and chocolate than about romance. Because face it, you don’t always have romance in your life. It’s more fun to spread cheer and have fun with your friends than to feel sad that you don’t have someone special.

The hotel restaurant was all dressed up for Valentine’s Day. There was going to be a big dinner event there that night. But we had already planned to hit the “Snacks” restaurant on the 4th floor for fun. But that was in the evening. In the meantime, we had a 1/2 day tour of the Great Wall at Mutianyu.

In hindsight, I had the good fortune to have an asthma attack as we walked up to the gondolas that would take us to the top of the Wall. Because I was having so much trouble breathing, John and I didn’t walk the Wall like the rest of the group. We basically stayed in one place and looked around. And what fun we had!

These photos are just a fraction of all the Wall photos I took during that hour on the Wall. It was warm, sunny, no wind. We were having fun trying to find the end of the Wall. We looked down at a small village in a valley, through my camera’s telephoto lens. We found crumbled sections off to one side. We just looked and absorbed. It was WONDERFUL.

In the evening, after a bit of a rest, we took Kelly and Carl up to the “Snacks” restaurant. We pigged out on Dim Sum Beijing style, drank tons of beer and tea. We laughed and had a good time. The other customers and the staff of the restaurant seemed to enjoy our jolly spirits; there were smiles all around.

Our total bill came to a very small amount, in U.S. currency, despite all the food and drink we consumed. We did notice right away that more than half of the bill was for beer… I suppose that would have been embarrassing if we weren’t having so much fun.

About half way through the meal, Kelly and I had started campaigning for chocolate ice cream. There was a Haagen Daaz about 1 block from our hotel. After eating and drinking our fill, we staggered down to the Haagen Daaz. But not without first ooggling at the HUGE Valentines bouquets many women were carrying. We’re talking at least two dozen white and red flowers of all types. I’m sure many bouquets had three dozen flowers.

Kelly and I were a little obvious as we exclamed over all the flowers. But we did get our chocolate in the end — an interesting fondue, ice cream, and fruit concoction. Plus we got fondue forks and a bouquet of yellow tulips!

We walked back to the hotel in high spirits. It was absolutely the best Valentine’s Day ever!

February 13th — I wake with swollen, very sore feet. There is no way I can handle a full day walking tour in The Forbidden City and The Summer Palace with these feet. I give John my APS camera, lots of film cartridges, very specific photo instructions (like this photo of the covered walkway at The Summer Palace), and send him off.

My goal for the day: put my feet up (literally), and hop a taxi down to the SciTech Mall about a mile away, to see if I can find a good pair of comfortable athletic shoes.

John is having fun wandering around with our group, revisiting familiar places from our December 1999 trip. He does an EXCELLENT job taking photos, much to his surprise.

Around lunch time, I decide to venture out. All the taxis have disappeared. I guess they have to eat lunch, too. With trusty map in hand, I take off for a very painful one mile walk to the SciTech Mall.

SciTech Mall is really one big store. Nordstrom on steroids. It could be overwhelming to the average Western shopper. Unless that average Western shopper is a well-seasoned veteran of The Mall of America. I start riding elevators, walking floors, in search of the place where athletic shoes are sold. Smiling at all the people wondering what I was doing in their Mall.

After using my entire Chinese vocabulary*, I finally become the owner of a pair of blue size 9 Nike Airs. In my new shoes, I almost stroll back to the hotel.

John comes wandering in after 6 pm, exhausted from the day tour. But excited that we are going to a Beijing duck place recommended by our liaison, Tu. With Tu’s directions and my map in hand, a bunch of us take off for … the subway and Wangfujing Street.

After walking a short way down Wangfujing, we duck down an alley and find The Duck. It’s the same fabulous Beijing Duck place we ate at on our first trip. Eat great food. Get grossed out by duck parts and duck soup (what was Groucho thinking?). Now mandatory photos with The Duck afterwards. Kelly and Carl looked particularly comfy with The Duck.

We decided to go down another alley off Wangfujing Street. We found a night market — an absolute delight! You could buy anything you want there — from porcelain and jade to scorpions and snakes on a stick. It felt like the Minnesota State Fair. Especially the food-on-a-stick part.

As you can see from this final photo, I was having WAY too much fun running around. I didn’t think about my feet again until I was in the subway. I was too busy soaking in everything I could about Beijing — so in the future I could tell Rachel and Sarah about this wonderful time in their homeland.

This evening test showed me I was ready for the next day — a trip to The Great Wall.

*Jiao. Mei Guo. Bu hong se de. Xie Xie. — Nine. United States. Not red. Thank you!

We arrive in Beijing the evening of February 11th, after a mega-hour set of flights from the Twin Cities. We stop in Toyko and pick up another couple from our travel group, Dan and Anne.

I don’t remember much about the flights other than it was long, John was crabby, and I was chatty. The chattiness was Valium-induced, and made all those endless flights so much more tolerable.

Check in at the hotel, get the luggage in the room, turn on CCTV, and crash. Wake up at 2:30am.

I love Beijing. It is so cool. I pinch myself — I can’t believe I am in China, and back in Beijing. It feels as familiar as Chicago, and with map in hand, I’m having a grand old time running around.

The morning of the 12th, Carl, Kelly, John, and I take off to walk from our hotel to Tiananmen Square. A simple, 4 mile walk straight east, as our hotel is on the main drag that goes between Tiananmen and the south gate of The Forbidden City. The four of us have grand adventures, and just take everything in.

I think this is the pedestrian bridge over Wangfujing Street — the street with everything on it. Over the course of our stay, we’ll wander Wangfujing twice, and have a blast each time.

We finally get to the south gate, after stopping at a McDonalds to get some Cokes and Coke Lights (that’s Diet Coke in China). We really work up a thirst walking our way down the street. The weather is perfect for a winter day’s stroll.

John and I stop for a photo op with GreatGrandpa Mao. Then it’s through the underpass and up onto Tiananmen Square.

We wander around, taking photos. It is so much fun to watch Carl and Kelly absorb everything around them.

We are not the only tourists. However the other tourists have Chinese faces. So we do stick out a bit. A friendly smile goes a long way.

A hunt for a bathroom, and a realization that I have big blisters on my feet. &#^*$($!! socks. We decide to brave the subway back to our hotel.

Thanks to a friendly Australian who teaches us The Ways of the Beijing Subway, we buy our 3 yuan (36 cent) tickets and hop on the next west-bound subway.

What a blast! We only vaguely know where we are going, and I am matching up characters on the subway map with the map in my backpack. Kelly and I are giggling. The subway population either looks at us and wonders if we are absolutely insane or understands that we are having a grand adventure and smiles at us.

We get off the subway, and I walk one more painful mile back to the hotel. I’m too embarrased to want to hire a pedicab, and fortunately, most of them have either vanished or are occupied.

I don’t remember much about the rest of the night, except that my feet hurt like hell. But I had a good time with fellow adventurers, a ton of pictures, and I was looking forward to what the next day would bring.

After leaving these two to be boarded by our Sainted Groomers…
… and leaving this one in the care of several good friends …

… these two got on a 747 at MSP …

… and flew to Beijing via Toyko. In six days, they would become parents to this one.And so, the China portion of our adventure to adopt Rachel began…