Friday, October 16th 1998

   <---- The Gaoyou Children Welfare Institution of Jiangsu China.
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We left home that morning  knowing that it would never be the same… On October 16th  @ 05:30 am our friend  was waiting for us to go to Dorval airport to board Flight 1223 to Toronto, Los Angeles, Osaka (Japan), and Shanghai (China).
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                                                                                          .   .Our itinerary----->
We got to the airport nice and early. We were very excited. It felt very unreal somehow. But here we are, beginning the last and final step before we finally meet our daughter Gao Kang (Catherine Mei-Kang). “We have waited so long for you, and despite the picture we received from the  agency, we know very little about you, but we love you very much…We brought everything with us that we might need to care for you, but still, we worry we won't know what to do when we finally meet you…” Our group was pretty good. There was 4 other couples adopting from the “Gaoyou Children Welfare Institution of Jiangsu China”. 9 others were adopting from Nanchang,  (Province of Jiangxi).
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Sunday October 18th 1998                                                                                       .Picture received from the Orphanage --->

We traveled 18 hours to get to our hotel room in Osaka (Japan). The Nikko Kansai International Hotel is luxurious and looks also very expensive. The Osaka airport is beautiful and very modern-probably modernized for the recent Olympics in Nagano. After a good night sleep, and a great breakfast, we flew to Shanghai , in the morning to meet our guide‘Jean’, at the airport. As soon has we stepped in Chinese soil, suddenly everything was different; police everywhere, everybody in a big rush, no smiles. A big cultural shock. Its like we would step on a different planet. It was great to meet our guide. As soon as we got outside the airport, it was totally overwhelming-the crowd, the noise, the smell, the congestion, the traffic, bicycles, etc. …the enormity of our mission really hit home.
Our group tearfully split up. We split into 2 groups.
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. .                            .Group split-up, at the Shanghai.International Airport. --->
We are going to Nanjing to meet our daughters and they to Ranching to get theirs. We were all gone meet next Friday in Beijing (Peking), to finalize the adoption paperwork at the Canadian embassy, get the Canadian and American visas, and Chinese passport for her. Since we had 5 hours before the train ride to Nanjing, we visited the city: a arts & crafts factory, and a museum with garden. ,We also visited downtown (old Shanghai) it's a busy city with full of flea  markets. Our national guide gave us some instructions and our local guide took us to the tour bus for a short tour of Shanghai. Absolutely incredible. At the arts & crafts factory, we bought Kings stamp of her Chinese and English name. Shanghai is incredible: busy, buses, trucks, bikes, pedestrians, all over the place. Incredible High-rises ultramodern steel beside old broken down homes. Really amazing The crowded shops, the Chinese writing everywhere;  no English sing except for the odd IKEA, ESSO, etc.…

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                 ..                               The train ride with our friends Mel and Marie ---->.
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By then,  it was time to go to the train station, to get to Nanjing -What an experience that was! The guide dropped us off the bus about 3 blocks away from the ticket teller. 3 couples with 8 huge suitcases, 3 strollers 6 backpack! A very old man with a large cart immediately arrived, and for 10 yuans ($1.80 can) agreed to cart it all to the train for us. It is difficult to describe, but picture the oldest men you've ever seen with the biggest pile of suitcases you've ever seen on the most crowded sidewalk. It turns out he was like Jack Rabbit Johansen, We lost him but finally catch up. Getting on and off this train was the ordeal of all times. We  literally jammed up the car with our luggage. After a 2 hours ride, we arrived in Nanjing starving, exhausted, our plan was to unload the luggage by creating a human chain. The attendant had a fit because we created chaos; when she managed to open the door, there were ½ dozen of the most disgusting smelling ‘dirty’ people we've ever seen literally jumping on us to carry our luggage. Thankfully at that moment our guide, Ching, arrived and took us over… We opted to carry our own luggage –not realizing that we had to go downstairs and then upstairs with a load of about 300 pounds of luggage…By the time we got to the bus, we were in pain! It was then 20:30 hr., We got into the bus, and after the presentations, as we were setting in for another hectic bus ride, Ching (our guide) gave us his shock announcement: THE BABIES ARE COMING TOMORROW (OCT. 19TH 1998) @ 11:00 FROM GAOYOU!!!!! Suddenly everything was forgotten and we were frantic with questions: where do we meet? -in the lobby of our hotel. Will we meet the nannies? – Yes. Legal arrangements? – Yes. Civil affairs @ 14:00, notary @ 17:00 hr.. Fees were discussed, protocol, etc…We pull into this the hotel expecting mediocre accommodations in ‘la ville d’adoption’ the Nanjing Hilton International Hotel is incredible! 5 stars hotel, service at your fingertips, no luggage problems here!

 .<----The Nanjing Hilton Inertnational Hotel
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         .Monday October 19th 1998

The Nannies are walking in the hotel lobby with the babies..,(Gao Kang in the blue one...)---->
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Today is the BIG day. We only slept a few hours last night. We are very anxious. We don't know if she is gonna be all right, will she like us? Will she be in good health? So many questions are coming to our heads and the only thing that we can do now is wait till 11:00 am. Louise was preparing the first Nursoy bottles in the bedside table and I was pacing in the bedroom when I decided to go and install my video equipment in the hotel lobby, directing my video camera towards the hotel’s revolving door.
  <---Kang and her Nannie
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I was ready to catch every moment of the arrival of the ‘baby mobile’. I paced in the lobby for an hour as the bus got stock in traffic on his way from Gaoyou. Louise was sitting at a table writing her thoughts and drinking Coca-Cola. After many false alarms at the door at finally 11:59 when we couldn't take it anymore, We saw the ‘baby mobile’ pulled in the hotel parking lot…It was suddenly so overwhelming, the emotion was so intense. Ching, Wang Hong (the director of the orphanage), his accountant and the 5 nannies carrying their precious charges in their arms, all impeccably dressed and groomed, walked-in the hotel lobby. And here she was. Kang looked exactly like in the picture, wearing her blue ”orphanage” sweater. We now know this was her look while she observes and contemplate anxiously. She was sweet, and looked worried, and she was wondering what was going on with all the camera flashes and the crowed standing with videos and still cameras, sapping pictures, as she was a Hollywood star. The nannies were as overwhelmed as we were. We also took some pictures and the director ordered us to get to our respective rooms so we could get some quit times with our babies… 
                                                                      .                                         .The first minutes with Kang...--->
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The nanny came with us to the room, and gave Kang to Louise in her arms and they both cried. I was snapping pictures and videotaping this moment .Kang cried until her nanny told her that Louise was her mama. Our lives changed forever right there.Suddenly the pleasantries were over. The director ordered the nanny out of the room! We were alone and had only a few minutes to change her to return her orphanage's clothes, and get ourselves on the bus. We have to meet with the Civil Affairs Authority @ 14:00, for the first round of signatures and legal arrangements, oaths, etc.… We had to swear under oath that we would never abandon or mistreat her, answer why we choose China to adopt, that our state of health was excellent, our salaries, the cost of adoption, gave our thumb print, and pay the officials. We had a banquet lunch (like we could eat).
..<---Louise and Kang united
 
We discovered then that Kang liked throwing everything on the floor, and that she loved rice. The restaurant served us about 10 different plates of Chinese food on a round table equipped with a round lazy susan, so that we could turn around the plate and taste every dish It turns out that all alone our trip, the restaurants looked all the same, but the food was always good and different throughout our visit.
  At the notary signing papers--->
Then it was time to go to the notary. Certainly the most important legal visit of our trip. We were gonna become the legal adoptive parents of  Kang as per Chinese and international laws. There is a 2 hours bus ride to Yangzhou, and we were on for another hectic bus ride but this time with the babies in our arms. No seat belts, no car seats for the babies. The road to Yangzhou was bumpy and the driver was going fast and drove like a maniac, using his horn every 10 seconds all along the ride…this drive was indescribable. The chaos, the speed, the pedestrians crossing in front of the bus, the trucks... The session at the notary went well. Zhou Changgen (the notary) was very welcoming, and we were there from 17:00 hr. to 20:30 hr..

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We fed the babies in his office (like we would see this in Montreal). Again we had to answer many questions that the officials asked, had to swear before the Chinese Flag that we would never abandon or mistreat her, signed the Adoptive Notarial Certificate. Kang became officially our baby at that moment and legally nothing in the world could separate us from her. She became Catherine Mei-Kang Anfossi.  Our guide Ching, with Zhou Changgen (the notary), getting ready to sing the adoption papers We left Yangzhou to return to our hotel in Nanjing. Of course we hit a traffic jam on the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. We somehow survived the bus ride, stopped for a quick bite, Kang cried through the whole ride. But in the small towns, on the narrow streets, she enjoyed looking out the window. We were completely exhausted by the time we got home. Still she was bathed, bottle fed, and settled to sleep by daddy. This exhausted trio slept from midnight till 6:00 hr. with a crying spell at around 4:00 hr.. Actually mommy and daddy never slept after 4:00 hr., but who cares?!

Tuesday October 20th 1998

Tuesday morning, we called Carolyn (Louise`s sister) in Montreal to let the family know that we have Kang and that everything was going fine. This was our first morning and it took 3 hours to get ready for breakfast. At 12:00 hr., Wang Hong, (the orphanage director) and the nannies came back. Final documents, orphanage donation payment, gifts, and finally the chance to ask questions about Kang. We felt like we were on a “need to know basis” . It was hard to get info from the director and the nannies were not allowed to talk. Of course Ching had to translate all the dialogue since none of the Chinese people could speak English. We still could find out that Kang liked rice, rice cereal, apples, porridge, pork soup, fish soup, rice water, that she naps in the afternoon, she plays in the morning, she is toilet trained (at 10 months!!) and that she sleeps from 10 to 6. There is no information on her bio parents, or where she was found, but she has always been healthy and that she gets colds in the winter. The final test was when we saw the nannies in the hotel lobby on our way out. They all went crazy when they saw her.  Her nanny cried, but Kang wouldn't let her new mommy go. She wouldn't go to her nanny's arms. They were bound for life!
 

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                                                                                                                      . © Jean-Francois Anfossi, March 5th , 1999.