As I look at Courtney sleeping in her crib, I am totally amazed at all that has happened this past year. She is a dream come true! I have to keep looking at her to believe it all finally happened.

I started the process in April of 1998 and had a DTC of August 6, 1998. After thinking I could not survive the wait any longer, her referral came on April 8, 1999. Finally on June 2, 1999, I traveled to China to get her.

The rest of our group arrived in the evening. Totally there were around 16 families, and though it was a large group, things went extremely well. Great Wall China Adoption certainly had things well planned out and taken care of for us, which made the trip wonderful and worry free. Many people were concerned when I told them that my travel group was so large, but in retrospect, I would not have had it any other way. It was much more interesting to share this experience with so many other new families.

When the group was finally together, we spent the following day in Beijing touring the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Jade factory and having an authentic Chinese lunch. The Great Wall was truly an awesome experience and much steeper than I had imagined. We went to Badaling and took the cable cars up to the top. I kept thinking about Mulan the whole time we were there. Speaking of Mulan, China is building a tribute to her which I believe will be finished in October 1999. I do not know where it will be located, but it was advertised quite a bit on the plane rides over and back.

The next day we met to leave for the baby's province. Part of our group went to Wuhan and would be getting their babies that day and the rest of us headed for Hefei where we would be getting our babies the following morning. It was a rainy day as we headed for the Beijing airport to take off for Hefei. When we arrived in Hefei it was raining, too. I was actually glad though, as the weather had been quite hot. On the plane ride to Hefei, it was so hard to believe that I was getting so close to my baby. Emotions were very much on edge as each moment brought us closer to being together. (This happened too when we first landed in Beijing. I kept thinking Courtney and I are in the same country and began to cry.) When the plane landed in Hefei I thought to myself, "this is your country and your home province."

Some people in the group were very nervous about getting their babies but for some reason I was very calm. I think that even up to this point, I was still wondering if it would happen. It was just too hard to believe that the next morning I was really going to be a mommy and be able to hold her in my arms.

When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Hefei and I opened the door to the room, tears started to flow again. (I am not an emotional person usually and crying comes hard for me, or well it used to anyway.) Seeing the crib and stroller in the room made it feel ever so real. In just hours, I would see the little person who would be sleeping in that crib and going places in that stroller. Believe it or not despite it all, I slept like a log that night. I think I finally knew beyond a doubt that I was going to get that baby after all!

When the morning arrived, I was crying as I left the room. I just could not believe how emotional I was. I guess it was from the long wait and the reality hitting that I was in China, in my daughter's province, and only hours away from seeing her face in person.

We met up with everyone for breakfast. After breakfast several of us went to the conference room to wait for the arrival of the babies. When we got there, another group from another agency had just received their babies so we sat back and watched as families were being made. It was such a wonderful sight. As we paced the floors waiting for the babies' arrivals, a group came in with three babies from another orphanage other than where my daughter would be coming from. These three babies were, however, for members of my travel group. It was pretty amazing that we were able to pick out what babies belonged to who just from seeing the referral pictures and hearing about them from their parents. Eventually everyone was there and they gave these babies to their new mommies and daddies. One by one each child was handed to the parent and a new bond began.

The babies from Bengbu (where Courtney was coming from) were late to arrive. It was decided to go ahead with the paperwork while we waited for them to get there. Well, in the middle of the paperwork, in they came. It was so funny how everyone dropped what they were doing and ran to see them filing into an adjacent room. I could pick Miss Courtney out very easily. She looked so much like her referral picture! I just could not believe how close we were at this point. I kept thinking I can see you, I can see you! You are not just a picture anymore!

They began to call the names of the babies out and one by one we each went to hold our child for the first time. I was second, so the wait was very short. So here was little ole' non-emotional me and I totally lost it. I mean I cried like a baby!!! The guide had told us on the way in that sometimes the baby will cry and sometimes it was the parents who cried! I knew that was gonna be the case. Courtney came right to me and never shed a tear. I am sure she wondered what kind of human waterfall was holding her when she first saw me. All I could say to her was "you are so cute". She was staring with those big black eyes holding tightly to a little yellow ring rattle I had given her. We walked around the room in those blissful moments in total awe!

I had expected to get a baby with at least 11 layers of clothes and split pants. I was handed a little baby girl in a Baby Gap romper and diapers. It was just too ironic to believe. All along I had been buying baby clothes on clearance and at Kmart. I jokingly called her "Courtney Clearance" because everything had been on sale that I bought for her. I told a friend of mine that I wanted her to have one name brand outfit. She told me that Courtney was a name-brand kid ... "Baby Big K." And here in China on Gotcha Day, Courtney came to me in a Baby Gap outfit! Go figure!! She was so serious most of the day, though she did crack a smile when we got back to the room. We had to finish the paperwork, so after a while of bonding, we were back at it. It was very hard to concentrate, though, because I wanted to go and play with her. It was truly love at first sight!

Those first few hours together were amazing. Everything we did was a first. The first bottle, the first crib, the first meal and the first time I had ever been anyone's mommy. Courtney took to the bottle easily. It did not matter what the nipple or bottle type was as long as it had formula that was all that mattered. I took the lactofree packets by Enfamil and made larger holes in the nipples. I found these nipples at Walmart called Munchkin fast flow. They are red trimmed and fit on the playtex nursers much better than the nipple adapters. The nipple adapters have a ring with them and if everything is not just right ... there are leaks! I took several jars of baby food and after a few days began to feed her that. She LOVED IT! I wish I had taken more as it was very hard, if not at times impossible, to find. She ate rice cereal, but did not touch the congee or eggs. Everything else she ate. I took a cassette player with Bette Midler and The Judd's music on the tape. I debated whether or not to do this as several people before had taken them, but did not use it. I figured if nothing else, I would listen to it. Thank God I took it as she loves music and fell asleep easily to it each night. I do believe in her subconscious mind she knows the words to Under the Boardwalk as sung by Bette. It was funny that when we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, the group was playing that song, too. Courtney was eating like a piggy and was not pooping. She started to get very irritable by the third day we had her. She had a cold so we knew that was part of the problem and her teeth were starting to come in so we knew that added to the misery. We had tried suppositories to no avail and also prunes. Thank God there was a member in our group that was on her second adoption and she told us about the miracle cure.

So we had all of this input going in but were not seeing any output. With the suppositories and prunes not working, we were at a loss as what we needed to do next. A member of our group, who had traveled a few years earlier to pick up her first daughter, told us that we needed to give Courtney a mini enema using the nasal aspirator. She told us to fill it with warm water and use it and that should solve the problem. Well, let's say it works REALLY WELL AND REALLY REALLY FAST! Before I could squeeze all the water in ... there was a huge geyser coming back out with all the "output" one would expect plus more! It was really incredible all she had in her. Instantly she became this little laughing angel! She did not cry at all during the whole process but she sure was one happy happy camper when it was over! A whole bright new personality emerged!

The next day it became evident that she was not going to poop on her own. Her ankles had slight marks on them and we have to wonder if she was tied to a potty for a while. We tried holding her over the toilet and made all the noises we could think of, but she only cried and appeared agitated. To make matters worse, her little rear end was red and sore looking. We figured it must have hurt on top of it all to go poopy. Again we were fortunate in that there was a doctor in our group who told us to use baby oragel to numb out the area. She also told us to use Vaseline too to make output more effortless. We tried the enema thing again at the same time as the day previous. We were in shock and tears at what was to follow. This poor child, in a matter of minutes, filled up about five diapers worth of poop. She had been holding all of this stuff in her little system. It was very sad and very amazing. Such relief she must have felt when finally it was all done. We did exactly as the doctor suggested and prayed that tomorrow she would go on her own. When the next day wore on and nothing was happening, we debated on whether to repeat the process from the days before. We knew after all the "output" we had seen that there really could be little in her. As we changed the diaper and wondered, she started to go. It was like she was saying "hey, I know what you are going to do, so let me save you the trouble". It was the same time of day as the day before. After that, the poopy problems were behind us. She is now quite the regular girl! If you have not traveled yet, remember that your group is a valuable resource. It is like an extended family and everyone helps out all along the way. When you put all the heads together, you have a very vast amount of knowledge and should be able to handle most any situation. Our group was very special and will always be a very important part of our lives!

The stroller was another issue we had in that Courtney hated the stroller that the hotel provided. I had purchased a skeedaddle stroller from Kmart and it packed very easily into the suitcase. It proved to be a life saver. She liked it very much and it was easy to use on escalators which were everywhere. It has a place to put stuff underneath it too, so that was even more helpful. She took naps in it whenever she got tired from the outings and it was so easy to use whenever we ate out. She still loves it. After the first trip out in it, she learned it meant we were going somewhere and does she love to go! Baths were not to her liking either. Now she thinks they are really great. With each bath, she gets more confidence up and plays a little harder and gets things much wetter. She is sleeping through the nights without any problems. She did this while in China, too. She will cry a little, but is never quite awake, so it did not take long to learn that she would go right back to sleep. She does not use a pacifier, but loves any kind of material and will suck on it especially at bed time. I was told that many of the babies suck on some type of material for comfort in the orphanage, so to make sure, I took a little blanket. Courtney is very hot natured so she ended up liking my T-shirt or a pillowcase much better. Ah the joys of motherhood when you are holding a child and end up with wet mouth marks all over your only T-shirt! I am sure there is much more I could write, but from all the months of reading travel stories myself, I think the trip itself is generally the same. I have one last installment to sum things up. If you have any specific questions though, I will be glad to try and answer them. The trip is still very fresh in my mind and how long that will last .. well I just do not know!

In looking back at the past few weeks, it is quite amazing at just how much our lives have changed. We got back from China two weeks ago today and already I see so many changes in Courtney. Each day a little more of her true personality comes shining through. In watching the video of the trip with friends, it is incredible how much her hair has grown and how she has changed. I guess all the vitamins in the formula agree with her. The only downside to the whole trip was the very long plane ride from the US to China. After six hours, I got awful leg cramps both coming and going. I have never been real prone to them either. I thought I was going to go nuts before we landed. I must have gone to the bathroom 50 times just to walk and stretch. We traveled mostly at night, so the plane stayed dark. Even with five full length movies on the way over, I still went bonkers! I could not sleep even with some medical help. In fact, I just was drowsier than ever so more miserable. Most everyone's travel stories I have read talk about there frequently being many empty seats. Well, I do not know what the problem was ... but .. we did not have empty seats on any of the trips! Buy that extra seat for the baby and travel business class if you can. We did not! I think that would have surely made a big difference. Having traveled very little and never out of the country, this trip was a series of many firsts for me. I went with little expectations and came home very happy and with positive feelings about China and especially her people. I am a picky eater so the food was the downside for me, but even with that, there was always something I could eat. I just ate a lot of the same stuff over and over. Guangzhou was a welcome sight just to see the golden arches and Hard Rock.

The people of China were very friendly and very courteous. Even on the plane over, I realized that there is much we could learn from them. They waste nothing and appreciate any kindness. I do not think I have ever been treated with as much respect as I was in China. I am proud of my daughter's birth country and hope to share with her the rich heritage from which she came.

I think much of the credit for such a wonderful journey was due to the extraordinary care that my agency took to make sure our trip was worry free. The guides went way out of their way to help us. They were knowledgeable and shared so much of themselves with us. They were very funny too and helped to lighten a stressful situation for us. I am single and traveled with a friend of mine. I tried really hard to pack light. Honest I did. But as the bellboy said in Hefei, "Your bags are the heaviest Madame." The guides even helped to make sure we never had to lift those heavy bags but just briefly at best. The luggage was delivered to our room from the airport and picked up at our rooms when we were to leave for the next stop. I know one of the guides I will consider my friend forever! Again, I must say, if you can go over early ... do it. Those first few days were absolutely wonderful. I had time to assimilate my surroundings and see some of China on my own. The travel agencies that book the travel can make arrangements for you so you do not have to do anything but show up. It did not cost much more either. I think if you check into, it you will be surprised at the cost. Best wishes to all of you who wait and who will travel soon. As they say, when you have your baby you really do forget about the long waits. I did not think it was true, but ... it is!

As one who doubted up to the moment of seeing my daughter face to face .... IT DOES HAPPEN!

Informative Links About China Adoption

Great Wall China Adoption
This is the agency I used. They have my highest recommendation! If you have any questions regarding this agency please email me.

Adoption Referrals By Province
This is a very interesting site! It is a list of referrals by province and many of the entries have additional links to other sites. It is a great place to spend time when dreaming of your referral!

China Sprout
This site has just about everything you ever wanted to know about China or can link you to a place where you can find answers. It is also a site where you can purchase books and other China related items. You can sign up for the newsletter, you can ask Xiaoning any question you want pertaining to China and get a reply. This is one of the most valuable resources I have found yet! Be sure to check it out.

Assistant Stork
Adoption information including addresses for Secretary of State and other helpful hints for the paperchasing phase of international adoption.

Agency Reviews
An adoptive parent has created a website which includes comments from adoptive parents regarding particular adoption agencies. Take it for what it's worth, but I found it interesting.

Please drop me a line. I love to get mail!

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