Day 5: Forever Family Day

We left for Nanchang late Monday afternoon after a much-needed and appreciated day of rest. The flight to Nanchang was about 2 hours, on China Eastern Airlines. I wish I'd remembered to snap a photo of the gate. We had a little extra time before the flight, so we stopped for a snack. It was Black Forest cake, and it was the first time I'd had chocolate in almost a week. I'd have a picture for you, but I ate it too fast. Plus, unlike in Beijing, where Blogger uploaded my photos with lightning-like speed, here in Nanchang it is taking about 5 minutes per picture. So I am going to have to edit this down to the good stuff: Gotcha Day (that's why you are all reading this anyway. Who cares about cake? ).

Here we are, about to say goodbye to the group and our tour bus. It was hard to leave all of these folks who have turned into friends already. I'm glad we'll be meeting again in Guangzhou.

We got to Nanchang just fine, met our guide, Sally, and headed for the Gloria Grand Hotel. It's nicer than the one in Beijing. We learned that they would bring Anna Kathryn to us at the hotel around 11:30 AM. The butterflies began.  The only thing to do was go to bed so tomorrow would come quicker!

In the morning, we went and ate (somehow, I managed to scarf down a lot of breakfast). We met another American family in the restaurant -- which is, strangely, a German-style restaurant-- who had their new daughter with them. They were so nice and even shared some Chinese formula with us, since we hadn't made it to the grocery store yet and didn't want to leave our hotel in case the group from the orphanage came early.  We got a crib, stroller, and baby bathtub delivered to our room, watched a little CNN, and checked e-mail while we waited.

At 11:15 AM, we heard a knock at the door.  And after all the years of waiting, it took just a minute to have her in my arms.  She is perfect.

Presenting Anna Kathryn BoDi Kovach:

Greeting the group from the orphanage.  Sally, our guide, is holding Anna Kathryn.  The man in the pinkish shirt is the director, and the lady with the sunglasses is (I think) the supervising Nanny.  She knew AK well but didn't solely care for her.
Here she is!


Our first family photo
After the orphanage contingent moved on to take another baby to her parents, we comforted her and played a little.  AK didn't seem overly distressed until the first (and way overdue) diaper change.  Tears flowed.  We decided bottle next, since she'd had a 4-hour bus ride and had napped on the way.

First bottle:

Then it was playtime.  Mark, the baby whisperer, swung into action.

After a trip to the lobby to change money-- we found out all of our appointments would be the same afternoon and all would be finalized today!!-- and order lunch, we headed upstairs for another bottle and a short nap.  She fell asleep in my lap.  Bliss. 

At 2:30, we were off, along with another AWAA family, to our appointments.  first, the Civil Affairs office.  It was stifling hot, and Anna Kathryn was sleepy, but so well-behaved (the Chinese say "self-disciplined").  We answered some super-easy questions about ourselves and promised to educate Anna Kathryn, and gave the official a gift (standard practice here-- ours was coffee, snack mix, and candy).

 Next, off to the notary.  This is like going before a judge. He looked at our paperwork, asked similar questions about ourselves, and wanted to know if we were satisfied with the baby.  Delighted is more like it, but we just said yes, we were.  He seemed nice and smiled at us and the baby.  Another gift given, we received our little red book with the adoption decree, and we were done.

When we got back in the van Sally told all of us that it was official, the adoption is finalized, and we are all forever families.  Sherri, the other mom, and I hugged and cried a little at that news.  We had a mini-celebration as we careened through the traffic toward the passport office.  All we had to do there was get a photo of AK for her passport.  Appointments finished in 2 hours!

So, now we have the next 5 days here in Nanchang to bond, play, and hang out and wait for the passport.  We went out to dinner with the family we met at breakfast and the mom asked how motherhood felt.  It's wonderful, but it's all happened in a matter of hours.  The whole experience seems "surreal, but nice"  (does anyone else know that movie quote?).

It's 6 AM here-- Anna Kathryn was so tired when we got in from dinner we put her to bed straightaway after another bottle.  She ate a ton of rice and eggs at dinner, too.  Mark and I followed at 8:30 (hee).  Guess who was awake at 3:15 AM?  Now Mark and baby are snoozing again and I think I will join them.  

Good night from China!  Love, Mark, Kimberly, and Anna Kathryn

PS-- Another family in our travel group got to their daughter's province to find that she is critically ill.  They are afraid if they can't get the rest of the trip and paperwork expedited and get her to an American hospital, she may not make it.  Please pray for Charlie, Leslie, and Susannah (the little girl).