Journey to Melissa

Beijing to Nanjing

Dec 6 - Beijing to Nanjing, gotcha day.
Breakfast buffet at the hotel - coffee was actually very good. Tried congee for the first time. Served cold here, very bland and boring to me. Really enjoyed seeing Beijing for the 1/2 hour ride out to the airport. We were very excited thinking that we would meet Melissa TONIGHT!

We did not enjoy our first in-country flight. The food was very strange to us. I did eat some sort of Jell-O with fruit in it. I was not adventurous enough to try the other food, which I can't even describe. Then we hit some fairly severe turbulence. I sometimes get airsick, and even with the Dramamine I had taken, I just barely kept lunch down. Lisa is a fearful flyer and was close to panic for a few moments. Eventually, this ordeal was over.

Waited 10 or 15 minutes at the Nanjing airport for our guide to show up. Finally, someone came and told us they had car problems and could not get the planned car to us. They put us in a cab and gave the driver directions. I was pleasantly surprised to find the cab actually had seatbelts in front. I asked the driver if he spoke any English. He just looked at me - guess not. We did 120kph to 130kph all the way to the city.

In Nanjing, our driver pulled up to a hotel and gestured to us to get out here. Only problem, the hotel name did not match the name on our itinerary. I tried to point to our itinerary and say that name, but he did not understand. The front desk staff spoke a little English but kept asking for our group number. What's a group number? If we had one, I still don't know what it is.

Finally, I remembered we had a cell phone number for our guide and I gave that to the staff. They called her and got things straightened out. Yes, we were in the right place (the hotel has two names out front. I could read the English "Mandarin Garden Hotel", but the other name was in Chinese characters and apparently matched the name on our itinerary) and our guide would be there in a couple of hours.

We checked in - very nice room, although we got stuck with twin beds again. We checked out the 4 different restaurants at the hotel before deciding on the Chinese buffet. Good choice! Outstanding feast of food and only about $4 each. We ate there often after that.

After lunch we met our guide - Sophie. She told us the orphanage director had told her what formula and bottles the babies are used to. Then she told us she would buy some for us. Very nice! The babies would be brought to the lobby at 5pm. We killed time getting our room ready and pacing a lot.

GOTCHA!

About 5:10pm after several false alarms, a small bus pulled up in front. Through the window we could see women with babies inside. As we rushed to the doors we could see that the first baby out was our Melissa! No problem at all recognizing her - she looked just like her picture. We were so excited! As each baby and nanny came in we kind of split off into little foursomes - nanny, baby, and parents. Our nanny held Melissa for a bit and let her get used to us before gently placing her in Lisa's arms. Very considerate!
It turned out our "nanny" was the director of the orphanage, a pediatrician with some US training and fair English skills. We met several times later on and I came to have great respect and admiration for this warm and compassionate woman. Melissa was wide-eyed and seemed a little stunned. So much was probably brand new to her! Additionally, the babies were dressed to keep warm in artic conditions, and the hotel lobby was probably about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. So I think, in retrospect, they were too hot to attempt much movement!

I don't have a very good idea how long we spent in the lobby. The next step was for one parent (me) to go to our guide’s room for paperwork and info about our daughter. The other parent (Lisa) would take our daughter to our room where she could feed, change, and generally get to know her.

In our guide’s room, the orphanage director gave me wonderful information about Melissa's eating, sleeping, and playing habits. I had my camcorder with me, but the room was really too cramped to tape. This was one time I wish I had a small audio tape recorder. After getting back to our room, I did try to write everything down, but there were some details I had already forgotten.

I signed a bunch of papers with nothing but Chinese writing on them. For all I know, I probably joined the Chinese army!

Back to our room where Lisa had gotten her first smiles and giggles out of Melissa. The magic trick? Stacking cups! We would stack them up; Melissa would push them down and laugh every time.

Melissa fell asleep in her tracks about 8:10pm and slept until 4am the next day. After she had a bottle, she wanted to play. We were up for the day - a habit for the next few days until we figured out we COULD get her to go back to sleep.