Forever Day January 16, 2000

Nanchang, Jiangxi, People's Republic of China It is early Sunday morning in Beijing. The streets are relatively quiet It is time  to  leave for the airport to fly to Nanchang, the capital city of Jiangxi province,where we will meet our little daughter, Emma . It seems strange to think that within 12 hours our lives will be changed forever.  There is chaos at Beijing airport. All flights have been delayed this morning. We settle down at our boarding gate and wait. The atmosphere is tense in the group. There are thirty five people traveling to pick up seventeen babies.There are couples, single moms  and even a lone husband from all over the USA, from Maine through the mid-west to Alaska We are all bursting with excitement and anticipation. At last we are called to board there is a rush and then confusion as we are at the wrong gate. A scramble down some stairs and then we are ushered through a door onto the tarmac. Before long we are in the air, flying to Nanchang, flying to our Emma. There is much conversation on the plane. All the families reaching out to meet each other. So many people with love to give. The flight is less than 2 hours long and soon we are in Nanchang, riding in the bus towards the Lakeview Hotel.

On the bus we are told by Helen, our Children's Hope co-ordinator in
China, that the babies are already at the hotel, waiting in the lobby.
How can we go to our rooms, gather all our gifts for all the "aunties"
and the orphanage director, retrieve all our paperwork and ignore the
presence of our babies? So Helen calls the hotel with her mobile phone and arranges for the babies to be taken from the lobby, avoiding any potential "unprepared" meeting.  Suddenly someone yells: "There it is! " Out of the darkness, shrouded in the fog and rain, the Lakeview Hotel appears. Tall and circular. We hurry out of the bus into the cavernous hotel lobby. Crossing the lobby floor, I catch a glimpse of women holding babies on a balcony two floors above. There they are! A baby's cry echoes across the lobby. A few of us start running for the elevator. One of the women in our group starts to cry. We find our room. It seems to take forever for our luggage to arrive. All we need to do is find the gifts and wrap them. The bellboys finally bring the luggage to the door. We hurry. Frances wraps each gift in red paper as I find them buried in our voluminous suitcases.

It is 7:15 p.m. There is a rush for the corridor and the elevators. We descend to the 3rd floor. Into the meeting room. There is chaos! The room is crowded with crying babies, Chinese men and women. Some of our group are holding babies. Tears are flowing.  I search for our Emma but cannot find her.Frances is looking in another part of the room. We meet in the middle. Neither of us can recognize her. Finally, we ask an unfamiliar Chinese woman " Where is Cen Li?" Another woman hears us and gets excited. She rushes out to the corridor. And then she returns, holding our little Emma. Frances takes her into her arms. She is howling, covered in sweat. She is swathed in a knitted yellow outfit with several layers of clothing underneath.
Little Emma Li is inconsolable. Her face is bright red from all her
exertions. The young "auntie" is trying her utmost to calm her down but to no avail. I take her into my arms but she cries even louder, kicking and screaming. She wants no part of me! Frances takes her back but she continues to cry.  We start asking questions in the tumult. We learn that Emma Cen Li was in foster care from the day she was found in Hengfeng, abandoned in a basket at the front gate of the town orphanage. Her mother had pinned a note to her clothing. Written on red paper, she gave her birthday, May 18th 1999 and little else.  The orphanage director comes to talk with us. She gives us photographs of Emma and her foster mother. By this time, little Li Li has fallen asleep in Frances' arms, exhausted from crying. The orphanage director tells us that Emma is very clever and inquisitive. She assures us that Li Li is a happy baby, always smiling and, she adds, she has very beautiful eyes! We are told that she is healthy and has never had any medical problems.

At last we take her up to our room. She smells of a mixture of sweat and stale urine. We gently undress her only to find that her diaper is dry. We realize that it is her underclothes that carry the odor. She has five layers of torn, dirty clothes on, each one evidence of the poverty from which she has come.  We give her a towel bath, wiping her gently with warm water and soap. She starts to shiver so we dry her and dress her quickly. She is quiet and curious now. She starts to play with everything that we give her. She looks at us intensely, following every move we make. We realize that she must be hungry so we give her some banana-flavored baby food, which she devours with wide ?eyed zeal .She sucks at my finger as I wipe the food from her chin and put it back in her mouth. Now she is yawning, tiredness coming over her little body. We realize how  late it must be for her. So we place her in the little blue crib that the hotel provided. Slowly she shuts her eyes. Opens them again. She is testing to see if we will still be there. And then she is asleep. Smacking her lips together in some satisfied reverie. She lies with her arms spread out wide. Gentle and beautiful and at peace with us for now. Frances and I look at each other. We are both in tears. We know how happy and fulfilled we each feel. The long journey to Emma is over. At last.
Forever.  (MJ)

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