Nan Cai Jing Becomes MelodyJoy

Today began with a two and a half hour China Southern flight to Guangzhou, where we were to meet our new daughter. The flight was pretty good, though it was the first time I've experienced dumplings as airplane food and the in-flight entertainment was a silent showing of old Mr. Bean reruns from England.

When we landed, they jammed us onto a bus and took us to our hotel. One twist was that our five star hotel was sold out so they were going to put us in some apartments owned by and adjacent to the hotel. "Very nice. Just like hotel. Internet and laundry." Well . . . no, not very nice . . . one of the women in our group found a dead cockroach in her apartment and I'm now sitting in the lobby using the wireless there because after two tries it wasn't possible to get web access. But we can probably move over to the hotel in a couple of days when the big convention leaves town. We'll survive, but it's kind of a disappointment. We do have quite a bit of room, at least. (And while the beds in Beijing were some of the most comfortable we've ever slept in, it appears these are simply a board covered with fabric!)

But no one cares about any of that . . . they want to hear about babies! About an hour after we got to the hotel, at the most, they loaded us back on buses to go to the adoption center--that's not really the name of it but I honestly can't remember what it is now. Upon arrival we walked into a room where we thought we would await our girls. Some families from France were just finishing up the process of getting their daughters and it was fun to see their reactions and reassuring to see how quickly the girls had become comfortable with them. Within minutes, we learned that we were in the wrong room and we were shuffled to the next one, a fairly small room with a large oval conference table in the center, with two walls lined with couches, and filled with about 18 very anxious families . . . at least 50 people in all.

Before we arrived there, Amy, our guide, had told us what order the babies would be brought in, which was extremely helpful as it allowed us to semi-plan for the exchange of cameras for the historical moments to come. Within minutes after getting into the correct room, they began bringing in babies in rapid fire fashion, starting with nine girls from another orphanage in GuangDong. It was great fun to watch the parents unite with their daughters. For a few, it was their first child and they were extremely nervous.

Then they started delivering the MaoNon babies. MelodyJoy was the sixth in line and when she first came through the door, we thought she didn't look much like her referral photos, which you can see down further in this blog. She came to Jeannette readily and took the rattle that Jameson offered her. No crying, no fussing. In fact, of all the babies, only one cried much at all and after a nap, she was in a very good mood, too. It was really amazing how smoothly it went for everyone.

Jameson was pretty emotional and excited, as we all were, to see Melody. At times he had a very funny look on his face and it was hard to read his thoughts.

MelodyJoy so far has struck us as somber and reserved. She has smiled only very rarely; once when she saw the face of another baby from her orphanage. She has cried only once, when she bumped her head at bathtime. However, tonight I played a couple of Billy Joel songs and she immediately started swaying and weaving to the music. We had been told that she enjoyed music.

After we got Melody, we met with the supervisor of the orphanage and got to give her our $3000 "donation" and the gifts for the nannies. They also let us ask her some questions about MelodyJoy. We learned that she is an active child (and we're starting to see this already) and that their pet name for her is Jing Jing. They also gave us a photocopy of the little tiny "finding ad" that was placed to try to locate her parents after she was found on June 19 and book with more photographs that were taken about five months ago.

After a little while, she fell asleep and slept hard and long. When she woke up, Jeannette experimented with a couple of bottles and she ate a little. Then it was time for her first bath, which went just fine until the aforementioned head bumping.

MJ seems to be pretty healthy overall. She is a little congested and may have a cold. She also has a small place on her arm that could be a rash or could be scabies, which are common with these children due to the climate and living conditions.

Tomorrow, Jeannette and I turn in some paperwork and have an interview to finalize the adoption. I believe that by the end of the day, she will officially and forever be ours. I'm sure there are a ton of things that I should include in this account that have slipped my mind but, as usual on this trip, by the end of the day, my mind is pretty fried and I'm ready for bedtime myself.