Trip Summary - Enroute to Sammie

Monday, October 31st arrives bright and early. We certainly didn't sleep much with the anticipation of meeting our new daughter. We were told that there would be two morning appointments for presenting the children. One at 9:30 a.m., and the other at 11:30 a.m. We were to board the bus at 9:15 a.m. or thereabouts. Well, it turned out that there was also an 8:30 a.m. appointment, and the bus that we were taking was unloading a group that had had the earlier appointment. A group of very solemn parents descended from the bus, carrying bundles of babies that you could see had been crying so hard that their faces were red and sopping wet – and were all asleep from the exhaustion of it all. My heart wrenched for them, as yet another abandonment – even though they were all going to wonderful homes. Tough little kids for sure! And so, I started our trip to get Sammie crying myself, crying for all these babies that had no say in where they had come from, where they were going, not understanding anything that was happening to them. What a day.

This photo is of Neil and I with a few of our fellow adoption group members prior to boarding the bus to the Civil Affairs Office. On the far left is Nadine and her older daughter (also adopted from China), Kim and Rob from Leaksdale (they have 3 biological sons), and then Neil and I. This was taken in the front lobby of the Dolton Hotel, which you can see is quite nice.