The Adoption - December 17th, 1997

The next day at breakfast, we learned that the other group had some problems the day before.  Because of bad weather, the couple they were picking up at the airport was rerouted to Shanghai. They waited at the airport several hours before going on to the orphanage.  The group was quite upset at the delay, and their suggestions of renting a car to wait, or another bus were ignored.  After breakfast, we boarded our bus to the Registrar's Office, the other group had appointments after ours.  The missing couple had to stay overnight in Shanghai and would fly in this morning.

When we arrived at the Registrar's office we were asked to wait in an unused office that had a large black leather couch.  The office was cold, and although we had Jiang Li bundled well, we still wrapped a blanket around her to keep her warm. Each couple was called into the registrar's office and asked to sit. The orphanage director was there, as well as one of the nannies. The nanny offered to take Jiang Li, but she clung tightly to Mama. The director laughed at this and said it was good.  We had a short interview, pressed our thumb prints on the paperwork, signed our names with a fountain pen, then we were asked for the registrar's fees. As we were finishing, the lost couple arrived at the Registrar's office and went back to the hotel with us.  The orphanage was bring their baby to them today at the hotel.

We then went back to our hotel. In the afternoon, we were called into our guide's room. The orphanage director was there to collect the donation and give us the adoption certificate. We had gotten new bills and had split the cash up into three bundles.  The bills in each bundle were protected by thin cardboard on the top and bottom and each was wrapped in a zip lock bag.  One bundle was our spending money, one was for the official fees, the last was the orphanage donation. Ginger carried one bundle, I carried the other two. I handed the bundle over to the director and he counted the money - twice.  He said something in Chinese and everyone got very serious looks.  I was just saying "What?" when our guide said "not enough, not enough money.  I reached into my money belt again and pulled out the other bundle and started to count it.  Again, not enough!  I then realized that some how, the bundle of money for the orphanage had found its' way into Ginger's money belt. We got that bundle out, counted it and gave it to the director.  After I passed it over, I made a big gesture of wiping my brow, and said "Wheeee!". Thankfully, everyone laughed at my embarrassing mistake. Jiang Li's cold had gotten worse this morning, and being in a cold bus and waiting in a cold office had not helped. She had mucus crusted under her nose, and the nanny lifted the cover of her tea to allow Jiang Li to breath the steam.  The director told us that Jiang Li needed to see a doctor, would we like him to arrange it? We thanked him, and explained that we had a doctor in our group, and that we had already started medicine for the cold.  He also cautioned us that Jiang Li eats everything and would not stop herself.

After the paperwork was complete, he gave us a Christmas card, a brochure on the orphanage, a rubber stamp with Jiang Li's name and birth date, a new baby memory book (printed in Chinese, but with western babies on the cover), and carved statue of a rat.

We stayed the remainder of the day at the hotel, getting to know Jiang Li, now our Amanda.