Friday, March 29, 1996 - We woke up early the next morning... not because Lara was crying, but because her foster mother was expected at 7 am to give her a final breakfast, and my mother and I didn't want to be caught in our pajamas.

Lara slept solidly through the entire night in her makeshift crib. And despite our excitement, my mother and I both slept well, too. In the morning, Lara woke up calm and peaceful, and seemed happy to be with us. She only cried once, when I left her to go into the bathroom. Already, somehow, someway, I believe she knew that I was her mother, and she didn't want me to leave her.

Our first peek out of the window showed us a wet, gray, and rather dreary town, so we were happy enough to stay in our room and admire our baby, while we waited for Lara's foster mother to arrive.

She knocked on our door right on schedule and brought another little baby into our room with her, wrapped up like a small hotdog in a very large bun. This tiny infant was settled onto one of our beds and left there while Lara's foster mother went about her business of feeding all of our babies.

I paid close attention while she fed Lara. After all, I'd never fed a baby myself, and I wanted to make sure I learned as much as possible about Lara's routine. Flat on her back, Lara was fed a paste-like mixture of formula and rice flour, spooned in quickly, neatly, and efficiently.

Afterwards, Lara's foster mother asked me to fill a bottle with hot water for Lara to drink. I wondered about this, since the water we had in our thermos was at nearly a boiling temperature, but did as she asked. She looked strangely at my red plastic bottle, with its disposable liner and odd looking nipple, and after a moment, put it aside. I never did find out whether she thought the water was too hot for Lara or the bottle too bizarre.

Then she left us alone with Lara and the tiny baby sleeping on our bed, while she went off to feed the other babies. Lara didn't seem interested in the water, so we played with her, and peeked at the other baby until Lara's foster mother came back and retrieved it.

While she was gone, I went through all of the clothes I had brought for Lara. On my adoption application had requested a very young baby, and before I received Lara's referral photo I had purchased a number of baby outfits for her, sized six months. After I learned that Lara would be nearly 10 months old when I got her, I was pretty disgusted at the waste of having purchased all those tiny baby clothes, and stubbornly decided that I wasn't going to buy her anything else until I saw her in the flesh.

I took all the tiny baby clothes to China with me, figuring that I could give them to the orphanage and buy her something to wear in China. It was a very happy surprise to discover that Lara fit all of her six month size clothes perfectly. She was well nourished and perfectly healthy, but obviously very tiny for her age.

We took the elevator downstairs to the 2nd floor restaurant and enjoyed a great Chinese breakfast, with assorted dim sum and lots of attention from the young waitresses. Afterwards, Lara and I visited some of the other families, and saw their babies for the first time.

We didn't really have any idea about what was going to happen or when. And since we didn't want to risk inconveniencing the group, we stuck close to our room, waiting. Finally, about mid morning, Mr. Gu arrived with Tracy to give us Lara's adoption paperwork and to tell us to be ready to go out with the babies at noon.

With that information, my mother and I decided to take Lara out and explore the neighborhood a little bit. In particular, I wanted to buy some baby formula and rice cereal. Luckily, the rain had stopped, and there were a number of small grocery stores very close to our hotel. I found formula and baby cereal with no problem, and everywhere that we went people smiled and were very warm and friendly to us. One man on a bicycle pointed at Lara and shouted, "Yangchun?" When we nodded, he smiled broadly and gave us a big 'Thumbs Up' gesture of approval.

But it was pretty warm, and we didn't see anything particularly scenic, so we returned to our room pretty quickly, along with some strawberry yogurt and other lunch snacks. While we waited, I picked out all my dirty clothes and sent them out to be laundered.

At the appointed hour, we took Lara downstairs to the main lobby where we met up with the other families, their new babies, and all of the foster mothers. Lara's foster mother was there, and she immediately took Lara off to cuddle and show off to the other foster mothers.

It took some time for the group to assemble, and then we had some extra hanging around time, waiting for I don't know what. But it was nice, because it gave us a chance to see all the babies, and for their foster mothers to play with them one last time.

The five babies ranged in age from seven months to nearly a year old and all looked healthy and normal. But I couldn't help thinking that I got the most beautiful and adorable baby of all.

Finally, the group was ready to go, so we piled into our bus and started off. I still didn't know where we were going or why, but it was nice to get out. And Lara clearly wanted to see the world, too. Unlike all the other babies, Lara didn't want to cuddle, she wanted to face out, so she could see everything and everybody. I'd known her less than a day, and already I knew that she was my perfect baby. I was amazed at how well our personalities meshed. And so happy and relieved that I finally had my wonderful child.

We drove through Yangchun. Like many towns in hot climates, the buildings were very open and lots of activity was going on outside. As we left town, the countryside became a little hilly and very attractive, with what looked like tea bushes growing on the hillsides.

We drove for a couple of hours, arriving eventually at a modern courthouse in Yangjiang, near the coast. To my pleasant surprise, all of the foster mothers arrived also. We waited outside while Mr. Gu talked with the authorities about processing our baby's passports. It was hard to know what was going on at the time, but later on it became very clear that while we were waiting, Mr. Gu was working very hard to smooth and facilitate the entire process for us.

After a while, we all went inside where we waited some more. Then one by one, each baby was compared to her baby photo. After this, we were ushered into a beautiful courtroom to wait on long wooden benches for the baby's passports to be prepared. While we waited, we talked and visited and played with our babies.

I also had a lovely conversation with the orphanage director. Through Tracey, he told us that he had forty babies, all beautiful and healthy, and he hoped to find homes for all of them.

It was a long wait, but when the passports were ready, each parent was called up in turn, and given the baby's passport in a very nice little ceremony. It was a very pleasant occasion, and a special memory.