Joy

Finally, a photo! We will post more as we are able.

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

It will be tough to even begin to explain all that went on today, but we'll give it a try. Yes, we are parents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is Monday February 6 at 7:15 p.m. and Joy is peacefully asleep in her crib. Even though we have only had our little daughter for nine hours, we have experienced happiness, laughter, eating of cheerios, and veggie puffs, tickling, sadness, stress, napping, walking, a bath, exhaustion, formula, blankets, bunting, tylenol, hugs, rejection, crying (all three of us) and much more.

So much has happened since our last blog and we have been a bit delinquent, so we'll try to catch you up. Sunday wrapped up our time in Hong Kong. Sam, David and Mary visited the Hong Kong Museum of Natural History and reviewed millions of years of geological development. Paul took a nap. We packed up and left for the airport in the early afternoon and said goodbye to Hong Kong. It is a wonderful city. I'm sure we only saw a teensy bit of it, but even so, we loved it.

A short aside from the trip: Even though we are able to update our blog, we are unable to view it. Apparently, the government has a bit of control over what is viewable here. Thankfully, we can at least publish. Anyway, since we are unable to look at our blog, we can't see any of your comments. We wanted to say thanks for commenting and we hope that you continue to do so. We also hope that when we are in Guangzhou, we will be able to access both sites. If you would like to email us directly, you can at rupperts@cox.net. We so appreciate being able to keep in touch via the web. It makes it feel like we are not so far from home.

The mainland is very different from Hong Kong. Chongqing is a very city with 30 milllion residents. At one time is was the capital of China. It is in the mountains and is very cold. We have seen parts that are very green and pastoral and parts that immediately remind us that we are in a third world country where some people are in the business of daily living and survival.

Our flight to Chongqing was very smooth and the "Golden Resources Hotel" is really nice. It was also great to get the chance to meet the other six families in our travel group. It is really a varied bunch of families. Many of us are first time parents, and most of us are adopting girls. Two families adopted boys, there are two big brothers along on the trip, one mother already has five or six children back home, and the families are from Colorado, Texas, New Jersey, New Mexico and other places. Even though we are all focused on our own adventure, we have quickly become close to the other families, bonded in such a unique event.

So you probably want to hear about our trip to the orphange by now, don't you? We took a 1 hour bus ride this morning to the orphanage. There is a very interesting story about three sisters who were very influential in recent Chinese history. I could entertain you with the story if I remembered any of the actual facts. One of them was the "first lady" of China, and a bunch of other stuff happened. The Short story, the sisters lived through WWII and were very affected by the damage and the babies left abandoned and homeless, so they started the orphanage. Due in part to their influence, and monetary support from Cathay Pacific, the airline we flew on from the states, the Chongqing orphanage is perhaps one of the nicest in China. Even so, it is a pretty heartbreaking experience to visit. It is cold, there is no heat, windows are open, and there are bundled up babies everywhere. The nannies seem to take extremely good care of the children and obviously love them very much.

We arrived at the orphanage about 9:30. We were told we would have a little time to sit and get ready. But, as our guide walked us up the stairs and we turned into a large room, we realized that the babies were right there! We thought that we were going to be sixth in line, as they call out families one by one. But to our surprise, we were called first!! Joy was in the arms of her nanny and as soon as she saw us, she started to cry. The nanny immediately handed her to us saying, "Mama and Baba," which are the words for mommy and daddy in China. Then, she began to WAIL. She arched her back and just plain screamed! It was quite chaotic, because we were asked to step aside and the next family (Sam and David!!!) stepped forward. Thankfully, our common sense took over and we walked her down the hall to a quieter (and nanny free) area. By the time we left, she was calm and by the time we were on the hour ride back to the hotel, she was eating veggie puffs and playfully kicking her legs.

Once we got back to the hotel, she was even better. Sometimes, children in her situation experience something called "Velcro Bonding" where they attach to one parent and reject the other. Joy really attached herself to Mary, and would scream when Paul wanted to hold her. Thankfully, that has improved throughout the day. We played with her and Paul got the first smile, which was a relief. We remembered what the agency said, "Feed the hungry baby, change the wet baby, play with the baby..." That is what we did and it worked. She loved her bath and stacking cups and was really quite getting used to things. Then, at 3 p.m., we met in the lobby to take a quick ride to the Registry Office. This is where the adoption becomes official according to China. We had our photo taken, turned in some paper work, got finger printed, even Joy (which she did NOT like) and gave our small token gifts to the registrars.

We returned to the hotel and after a little more quality time (and some tears, mostly brought on by having been awokened for her official photo and finger prints) and a bottle, Joy fell asleep. Then it was time for the grownup tears, as the whole experience started to hit home. Being first time parents is hard and we have so much admiration for those that have gone before us. Little bits of advice that many of you have given us fly through my mind at just the right moment. We know we have so much to learn and that life as a family will be the most rewarding experience we could know.