We arrived in China late last night and were in bed by 2:00 am. Our guide, Leila, told us that our plans had changed and we would not be meeting Zeke on Monday as planned, but rather, today at 4:00.
We got up at about 7:30 am and made our way down to breakfast. The breakfast buffets in China’s 5-star hotels, at least those we’ve experienced on our first, and now second trip, to China, are incredible. They have a little of everything from eggs to rice to fruit to noodles to cereal to steamed dumplings, and then you can throw in some salmon and some things too scary to check out too close, and you have pretty much covered everything. We all enjoyed having a good meal after all our travels and it was a good feeling knowing we were finally here again, this time waiting for Zeke.
We met up with Leila at 9:00 am, checked our paperwork to insure that we had what was required for this first meeting, and discovered that we needed to go to the business center for some copies of our visas stamped with the date we had arrived in Beijing. Other than that, we had everything else necessary.
We skipped lunch since we’d had such a good breakfast and no one was really hungry, walked to where we were going to meet Zeke so we’d know where the office was, wandered through some jade and silk shops (wow! Who’d have ever thought Jade could be so expensive), checked out the hotel swimming pool for later use, and then took some time for Hana to take her afternoon nap before we were scheduled to meet Zeke for the first time.
Leila met us in our room at 3:00 pm. We checked, once again, our paperwork and headed out. The walk to the bank building, and specifically to room 515, where the Henan Province Department for Adoption Affairs was located, took only about 15 minutes. We were a little early, but were told that Zeke was on his way. The drive from his orphanage in Xin Xiang City, to Zhengzhou, was about 1 ½ hours and he and the women bringing him should be on time.
Picture this: Ed (13) was in charge of still photography. Joe (12) was in charge of video and still photos. Emily (8) was in charge of waiting patiently. Hana (3) was sleeping in Heather’s arms. Steve was helping everyone with their assigned jobs. Heather was listening for the sound of footsteps and would periodically ask one of the kids to look out in the hall to see if they were coming. Well, all of the sudden Joe, who’d been out in the hall to check the latest footsteps, stuck his head in the door to announce “they’re here!”
Everyone got in position, Heather woke Hana to tell her that Zekey (Hana’s name for him) was on his way, and we were as ready as any family could be that was about to meet for the first time their son and brother.
Zeke entered the room holding the hands of two women (the director of the orphanage and a caretaker) from his orphanage. He looked so confused and scared, but did pretty well. He cried a little, but when handed a tootsie roll, calmed right down. Hana went right over to him and hugged him.
We all gave him a few minutes to take in the scene and then Steve and Heather each held him. It’s hard to explain what happens during these times, but now that we’ve done this twice, in different provinces, it seems like everything is loud. This seemed even louder than our first adoption. The women from the orphanage were poking Zeke and telling him to say, “mama,” “baba,” to Heather and Steve, respectively. Commands are being shouted, or to us they seemed like shouting. It’s kind of unnerving and must be scary to just a little guy.
We signed some initial paperwork, and then it was time to walk a few blocks to get the family photo taken of Zeke, Steve and Heather. The photo was required for our next meeting scheduled for Monday. As we started to head out of the office, with Heather carrying Zeke, Zeke started crying since he was aware that the women he came with were leaving. One asked to carry him down, so Heather passed him back and we all went down the elevator together. Zeke was passed back when we got to the lobby and we let the nannies leave and get out of site before we headed out.
Zeke did pretty well on the way to the photo place, we had our family photo taken, and then started walking back to the hotel. Heather soon gave Zeke to Steve and took Hana since she found that Zeke was pretty heavy to carry. In fact, he was so heavy we weighed him and Hana later in the hotel and found that, while Hana weighed 21 pounds, he only weighed 23 pounds. We can’t explain why he feels so much heavier (certainly more than 2 pounds), but he does.
We made our way back to the hotel, got to the room and spent a little time just letting him get used to all of us. It was nearing 6:00 pm and we determined that he was hungry so we decided to eat in the hotel. Here we are in the middle of China and the first meal with our new son was at Mama Mia’s Italian Restaurant. We had pizza and cokes. Zeke ate 3 slices of pizza (Heather wouldn’t let him have more for fear he’d be sick) and drank half a can of coke. He was so hungry. Hana, Emily and Joe actually fell asleep at the table. Ed stayed awake, but was close to sleep, and Steve and Heather were pretty tired. Remember, we’d arrived the night before after almost no sleep for 35 hours, slept about 5 hours, and now this busy day.
When we went back to our room, we started getting people ready for bed. Steve took care of Hana’s bath, while Heather worked on Zeke. She filled the bath pretty full of warm water and plopped him in. He looked up sort of shocked and then just relaxed. It was interesting watching him in the tub. He enjoyed moving his hands through the water. Heather, using some bath gel, cleaned and massaged the first foot and really took time attempting to get some of the dirt off. When she rinsed that foot to move on to the next one, he looked up, smiled, and lifted that first foot out of the water again obviously wanting it rubbed again. Who could refuse? He was thoroughly cleaned and just loved his bath. After getting dried off and his pajamas on, Heather picked him up and gave him a big hug. The more she hugged, the more he hugged her and then said, “mama.”
Zeke did great this first night, but was still quiet and reserved. Steve held him until he was almost asleep and then put him in his crib. Everyone else had their baths and went straight to bed. We had hoped to post this last night, but we, like the kids, were too tired so we decided we needed one more day.
This afternoon we walked into office 515, the Henan Province Department for Adoption Affairs, a family of six, and left less than an hour later a family of seven. What a blessing.
First look at Zeke.
Dad tries to hold Zeke – Zeke is still a little scared.
