We (Andrea, Brent, and Timnah) boarded a plane bound for Beijing on Wednesday, February 13 to adopt our son, River, from China. Our first night in Beijing corresponded to the fifth night of the Chinese New Year celebration, so we went to sleep only to be re-awoken by an impressive bombardment of fireworks. More fireworks we will likely never see again. We did had a few days of sightseeing in Beijing to catch our breath before heading to Wuhan, the provincial capitol of Hubei, River's home province. While in Beijing we toured the Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Summer Palace.
We arrived in Wuhan late on the 17th (Andrea's birthday). Mid-morning on Monday the 18th, we met River in person for the first time. We had already fallen in love with River just from the few digital pictures and scraps of information we had been given by our adoption agency, but here he was! Unfortunately, River's affections for us were a little less immediate, but we all managed our first twenty-four hours together without too many tears being shed. On the 19th, we signed all of the official papers at the adoption center, sealed with fingerprints from the two of us and a footprint from River, legally binding the three of us together.
We spent a few more days in Wuhan waiting for the papers to be notarized. In the interim, we toured to Yellow Crane Tower and the Provincial Museum of Hubei. Our last stop was Guangzhou, home to the only US Consulate in China that issues immigrant visas. In reality we spent more nights in Guangzhou than we did in either Beijing or Wuhan, but by the time we arrived in Guangzhou we were really starting to enjoy our time with River, so of course the days we're a blur. We got River's health check-up at the US clinic (including a TB blood test - yikes!), we toured the Yuantai gardens, visited Shamian Island, toured the Chen Clan Temple (which is now a folk art museum), and visited the Guangzhou Zoo. On the 27th of February, we had our immigrant visa for River in-hand, and it was time to come home!
Out last Chinese wake-up call came at 5 AM on the 28th of February (which would have been 3 PM on the 27th in our home Central Standard Time). We flew from Guangzhou to Beijing re-checked are bags and got on another plane. We then flew from Beijing to Detroit. In Detroit, we deplaned and went through customs, whereupon River became a US Citizen! We then re-checked our bags again and boarded a plane for home. We stepped off of our last plane for the day at about 8 PM of the 28th CST. In other words, it had been 29-hours since our wake-up call, with very little rest in between.
At the airport we were greeted by a large crowd of friends who were there to help us welcome River home. It was here, too, that River had his first real meeting with his brother, Elias, and sisters, Nahum and Aravis.
It has now been a week and a few days since our return to Franklin, and everything is going extremely well. River is very loved by his siblings, and is fitting in beautifully with his new family.
