We left as scheduled on October 13th, meeting up with our friends in Minneapolis and taking the Northwest non-stop flight to Hong Kong. I had a 4" x 6" size copy of our referral photo laminated and was using it as a bookmark. I didn’t get much reading done because I kept staring at the picture. Pat kept taking it to show the flight attendants. Everything was still very surreal to me. I wasn’t allowing myself to get too excited in case something happened and we would not be able to get Bailee on this trip.
I should mention that we have been traveling to China each October for the past eleven years to attend the Trade Fair in Guangzhou and visit various cities throughout China. Our primary business is importing fireworks to the US for wholesale/retail. In the past few years we have also become involved in importing decorative baskets and a few handicrafts for wholesale/retail. During these trips we have come to truly love China--both the wonderful people and the beautiful country.
We arrived in Hong Kong the evening of October 14th and made our way to the beautiful Kowloon ShangriLa Hotel. We spent the next three days on business appointments, showing off Bailee’s photo to our friends. They were all supportive of the adoption, although almost all questioned how we could accept a child we had never met. They worried that something must be “wrong” with her since she had been abandoned. We tried to explain to them that we would love her no matter what; I don’t think they really understood.
We had Bailee’s suitcase and one of ours taken to Guangzhou by courier so that we would not have to schlep them all over China with us. They charged by weight, we sent two large suitcases and I think it cost around $100--well worth it!
On October 18th we flew to Beihai. It is at the very southern tip of Guangxi Province, right on the Gulf of Tonkin. We were there to visit fireworks factories with one of our fireworks brokers from Hong Kong. Everyday, we were touring a different factory, and each night after a factory dinner, we would watch fireworks. The factories have test shoots for us of all their new products, hoping for orders, and anxious for feedback on how to improve the product. It’s always a lot of fun. One afternoon we spent an hour at the beach, went walking in the ocean and shelling. I was amazed at the size of the sea shells--they were huge compared to those we find in the Florida Keys.
On October 21st we left for Guilin, I was excited to be visiting this lovely tourist spot, but was beginning to get edgy, worrying when we would hear that we could meet our daughter. One of our good friends and basket suppliers from Tongling, Anhui left the Trade Fair in Guangzhou to be our guide in Guilin. On the 22nd, we went on the cruise down the Li River. If you are ever anywhere near Guilin, I would highly recommend this trip! The scenery was absolutely breathtaking (see photos below), and it was nice because it was a one day trip. (We took a cruise down the Yangtze River/Three Gorges last year--also very beautiful, but it was four days.)
It was very hard to be so close to our daughter, yet so far away. I just wanted to know when I would hold her in my arms. The whole time we had been in China, I kept looking at all the Chinese women, studying their faces, imaging what our daughter would look like when she grew up. Of course any time we saw children, my heart just melted.
We were all exhausted after a long day on the river, and decided to have a nice dinner and sleep late in the morning before our flight to Guangzhou instead of doing more sightseeing. That night I awoke to the ringing of the phone at 1:30 AM. I knew immediately what it was!!! It was Chris from EAC telling me she had sent a fax with the itinerary for picking up Bailee. So I got up and waited for the fax to arrive. After about 30 minutes, I called the front desk. They said they would go look for it and send it up to the room. Finally, with a whoosh, a piece of paper came under the door. With trembling hands I open it--all that’s there is the cover page!! I throw on some clothes and go padding down to the lobby in my bare feet. It’s pretty weird being in the lobby of a big luxury hotel in the middle of the night, all the lights are off and it’s soooo quiet. They got the night manager for me, and he unlocked the business center and we proceeded to sort through a stack of faxes at least 2 inches thick. Finally we found ours!! So, back upstairs I go to wake Pat up and study the plans.
We were scheduled to leave Guangzhou for Yangchun on October 30th and get Bailee on October 31st. We decided that Halloween would now be called Bailee Day! Pat was able to go right back to sleep (he amazes me!!!), I was up the rest of the night. Just one week until we would finally be united with our baby...
We arrived at the White Swan on October 23rd, spent the day relaxing and settling in. The next morning we headed to the Trade Fair, anxious to get all of our work done. Many more of our friends indulged us by telling us how cute Bailee looked as we showed her photo to everyone we knew. (A lot of people thought she looked like a boy.) Two of our customers arrived in the evening. It was their first trip to China, so it was fun taking them around sightseeing. One of them really hated the Trade Fair. He got very bored spending hours selecting baskets, so he just set off on his own to sightsee. He spent hours each day at the market near the White Swan, also saw many people’s homes. He would go up to people on the street and talk to them. He'd then ask if he could see where they lived. It was amazing, nearly everyone invited him in right away.
We got a fax on the 25th, changing our travel to October 29th! As the days went by, my stomach starting churning more each day. This was really going to happen, after all this time--I was a nervous wreck. Motherhood had been a wonderful fantasy for the past 18 months, but I knew nothing about being a mom. What had I been thinking--I can’t do this--I must have been crazy. I kept hoping Pat remembered a lot from raising his kids years ago.
Our last day at the Trade Fair, I was exhausted and wanted to go back to the hotel, but Pat talked me into walking just one more floor. We ran right into the booth of the Yangchun Native Produce and Animal By-Products Import/Export Co.!! Our daughter’s hometown.....they sell fireworks and baskets.....of course we go to talk to them. They want us to call while in Yangchun so we can meet with them. We tell them we’ll try, we’re not sure what our schedule will be. But we take a catalog to be polite.
That evening, October 28th, our guide Shigu came to meet with us. We found out that our dates kept changing because the orphanage director and two of the Civil Affairs officials had been delayed in Denver during a visit to the USA because of the October blizzard. They were now back, but very tired. The director, Mrs. Yu, decided that we could go register the adoption with the provincial officials in Guangzhou without her help, thus starting everything sooner. We weren’t sure how long everything in Yangchun would take, but we were hoping to finish by the weekend so we could get back to Guangzhou. We made arrangements to meet at 9AM to register with the officials and then leave for Yangchun after that.
Continue on to Part 3 of Bringing Bailee Home
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