This is the 19th installment in a series of columns I am devoting to the adoption journey my wife, Claudette, and I started in 2005. Hank Bond, publisher and editor of the Greenup Beacon, asked that we share our story with you. Maybe you have an interest in adoption or know someone who does. If so, I hope this information is helpful. We adopted our daughter, Josie Claire Siyan, from China in 2007.

While in China, we communicated with our friends and family members via a website we set up prior to leaving for our two-week journey throughout China.

In a post titled “We made it to Guangzhou!,” dated Feb. 3, 2007:

“We made it to Guangzhou, and it's 70 degrees at 9 p.m.!  We shouldn't need our coats all week.”

“Our guide in Nanjing, John, and driver, Li, picked us up at our hotel in Nanjing during midday and took us to McDonald's again.  After all of the authentic Chinese food we've had all week we didn't mind another dose of Mickey D's.  I swear I think half of my sore throat problem is linked to some of the very spicy (hot) Chinese food I've eaten this week.  I feel like I'm on the mend now.”

“After lunch John and Li took us to the airport.  Li was an excellent driver, and John was an excellent guide.  They both went above and beyond the call of duty for us, making our seven-day stay in Nanjing wonderful!  As we were their only couple for the week, it was nice to be ‘pampered.’”

“We got checked into the airport and came across Antinette, Rick, and their daughter Hadley, who were waiting on an earlier flight to Guangzhou.  Antinette is a friend Claudette met in one of the Yahoo adoption groups.  You'll recall from an earlier post that we were at the Civil Affairs office at the same time as Rick and Antinette to get our girls.  We found out they are staying at the White Swan Hotel where we are staying in Guangzhou.”

“We waited for a while on our flight when they moved it to another gate on the other end of the airport.  We made our way down to that end.  Our flight ended up being delayed (seems to be a pattern for our trip).  Josie got upset one time because we would not let her walk all over the place by herself.  She cried and cried!  I finally went to a little shop and bought her some M & M's and two lollipops.  That did the trick.  And a very nice Chinese woman came over and gave Josie two pieces of candy and two small tangerines. We then made our way onto a bus to go to the plane.  Another very nice Chinese woman gave up her seat so Claudette could sit down with Josie.” 

“We finally flew one hour and 55 minutes from Nanjing to Guangzhou.  Josie did not like to wear her seatbelt, and let us know it very quickly.  She cried for a good while, until a stewardess came up and said we could unbuckle her seatbelt and Claudette could hold her.  She did fine after that.”

“After arriving in Guangzhou our guide from A Helping Hand (AHH), Susan, met up with us and pushed one cart of luggage while I pushed the other.  Claudette carried Josie Siyan.  Our bus driver arrived and loaded all of our luggage on the bus.  We were the only family on the bus.  One more of the 11 families had yet to arrive.  Susan waited on them.”

“Once settled in our room we made our way, per Doug Darbro's suggestion (thanks, Doug!), to Lucy's to get some great American food!  We had chicken fingers, French fries (which Josie loves), onion rings, and very cold (we haven't had that much on this trip) Coca Cola!  Josie ate some congee and enjoyed what she didn't dump all over her tremendously.  It was a delicious meal!  I'd say we'll be eating there quite a bit for the rest of our trip.”

“Well, it's been a very long day.  We're going to get ready for bed (9:29 p.m. here in China) now (we have a very beautiful view of the Pearl River from our room).  We are going to eat breakfast in the morning here at the hotel, and then go to a church service at 10:45 a.m.  Then we have some very brief paperwork to complete tomorrow.  That's all on the agenda.  Monday will be very busy, and Tuesday is wide open.  Oh no, not more luggage to carry back Claudette's upcoming shopping spree?”

“Our room here at the White Swan Hotel has a crib in it.  It's a very nice bed for Josie.  However, she's tried twice to climb out of it.  And she keeps yelling ‘Daddy,’ and ‘Mama.’  Hopefully she'll be asleep soon.  We're all three very tired from our busy day.  Our room sure feels nice.  It has a great central air conditioning system in it.  It's nice to use air conditioning this time of year!”

“Claudette's sound asleep, and Josie Siyan isn't happy in the crib.  So, I got her out and put her in our bed.  She is laying down on a pillow, and just began scooting over to get the television remote control!  She's nowhere near being ready to go to sleep!  She's singing a song now.  She's such a sweetheart!  I just found the Chinese version of ‘The Little Mermaid’ for Josie and she's clapping her hands because she's glad!”



Terry L. Hapney, Jr., Ph.D., is a professor in the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University, and an eastern Greenup County native. He may be reached at hapney@marshall.edu.