Long Distance Friendships Realized and The Red Sofa

The wait for Chloe was a long one but it was not a lonely journey. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we made many friends during the 2.5 year wait. As soon as our paperwork was sent to China we discovered Yahoo Group communities. First I joined a group for all families that were with our adoption agency that had a “dossier to China” date during the month of December 05 or January 06. We got to know each other and passed the time by chatting, participating in postcard exchanges, secret pal match-ups and even an online baby shower. We all shared in the joy as the families with the earlier logged-in dates received their referrals and traveled to China to meet their daughters. We also gained knowledge from their experiences while in China.

As it got closer to the time when we’d receive our referral, those of us with a January 12, 2006 logged-in date also formed our own Yahoo group. These are the people I am in China with right now. Of all the people traveling to China at the same time, there were 13 families who went to the Guangxi province. We feel very fortunate to have had such wonderful families in our Guangxi travel group. We all received our children at the same time, we participated in tours and several group meals together, and we had the opportunity to sit and chat at length with most everyone in this group. They are all truly remarkable people and I know I will keep in touch with many of them. It will be fascinating to see pictures as their children grow and I hope that someday I will get the opportunity to see some of them again.

One of the traditions for adopting families that stay at the White Swan hotel is to get photograph of all the children in the travel group sitting on the “red sofa”. Here is a picture of the 13 children from our travel group.

And here is a picture of four (out of the five) girls from the Guiping Social Welfare Institute.

Another tradition at the White Swan is the (very non P.C. but still priceless) adoption Barbie Doll. It is an honest to goodness (Caucasian) Mattel Barbie doll holding a Chinese baby inside a box with caption that reads “Going Home”. The back of the box says “This souvenir is presented by Mattel (HK) Ltd. to adopting parents of Chinese orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China.” You can not purchase these dolls anywhere. They are a limited edition given ONLY to adopting families. This is the 6th edition of the doll.

I had to include this picture today. Chloe was sitting on the floor playing with her toys. Next thing I knew she had her legs straight out in front of her, her head was laying on the ground, her thumb was in her mouth and she was sound asleep. She stayed like that for about 30 minutes. Then she sat up and kept on playing. Can you tell that she is feeling more and more secure around us?