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1994 Seems like the Fast Track Now:
Clare
For our homestudy in 1994, we found an organization in our
area. To make our China arrangements, we found an agency by calling
a few advertised in Adoptive Families magazine as having China
programs. (This was before the time of extensive World Wide Web
sources, but a very workable approach.) By phoning some questions
and requesting information packets as well as phone numbers of
reference families, we gained enough information to choose an
agency confidently. We chose Christian World Adoption, (go there) but felt others
would have served well, too.
About six months after formally beginning our process, we
were on our way to Clare's city of Changzhou, in the Jiangsu
Province and about midway between Shanghai and Nanjing. Changzhou
lies on the Grand Canal and has a population of over one million.
In December, 1994, our group of four singles and six couples
received our infants (all six to ten months) from the Changzhou
Children's Welfare Institute, which we toured in part, seeing
two of the well-kept nurseries. Betty and I first saw Clare (7
mo.) smile when her two primary caretakers identified themselves
to us as we parents-to-be prepared to leave after our first visit.
A bus trip to the provincial capital, Nanjing, for brief interviews
and signing adoption papers followed. The next day we returned
to the Children's Institute for the infants. The personable director
had cribs sent to our hotel.
The remainder of our trip (12 days total) was joyful and tiring--normal,
in other words. All the children fared well, with nothing more
serious than one case of constipation among them by the time
of our return to the U.S.
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Back to Guilin, 1997: Lisa
Clare was such a joy to us that we reentered the process in
1996 and, in September, 1997, not quite three years after Clare's
joining us, we accepted the referral of 19-month-old Lisa Juanjuan
from Guilin, Guangxi Province (now the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region). This had been our first city visited on our first trip
to China. We used Children's Home Society of Minnesota (go there). (Circumstances
of timing perhaps unique to our case resulted in our using an
agency other than CWA. We have no reservation about recommending
them.) Juanjuan (first tone and sounds almost like 'june' and
means "little rivulet"), as we will continue to call
her for awhile, considering that she is accustomed to it, is
a small but energetic bundle of good cheer. Diagnosed earlier
with a heart arrhythmia, she has not shown signs of a problem
since she has joined us. After a thorough examination, her pediatrician
summarized his findings: "She's a pistol!"
We traveled in early October, joining two other s-n CHSM couples,
whose children were in Nanning. Clare, at nearly 3-and-a-half,
went with us. As we anticipated, Clare's adjustment to having
a new 20-month-old sister was the trip's big challenge, but we
felt she could start it best in China and that we would simply
hunker down and do it. The alternative--being away for two weeks
or so and returning to present Clare with a 20-month old sister
had no appeal.
Arrangements for the trip went fairly smoothly. We made our
own plans for travel to and from China, our in-China travel and
accommodations being arranged by a capable young China-based
Chinese woman with whom CHSM contracts to accompany (and assist
in the adoption procedures) some of their adoptive families in
China. We arranged for our own meals, giving us needed flexibility
with the girls, whose success at napping and bedding down at
night in our somewhat cramped conditions was poor. (Those without
children may not be aware of the consequences which typically
follow a toddler's or pre-schooler's missed naps or significantly
disrupted nightime sleep. The child's diminished control represents
a heightened challenge when the family's living space is a hotel
room and hallways.) The other two couples (experienced parents)
befriended Clare--a great help to us and to her. We think Clare
deserves credit for doing as well as a three-and-a-half-year-old
could in coping, under unfavorable circumstances, with the changes
and uncertainties brought by the new makeup of our family.
Juanjuan's immunization record was accepted at the Guangzhou
clinic, so she was given only the MMR shot (which her record
did not show as already received). We observed good conditions
and practices at the clinic and noted that electric generators
came on not more than twenty minutes into a power outage the
clinic experienced during our visit. Her blood test (here in
the U.S.) showed she had had no contact with Hep A, B, or C.
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