Xuchang- passport app, finding spot, and orphanage visit

Later on the 26th, we got to travel into Mason's city, where he was found abandoned and was taken to the local orphanage, where he stayed for 2 months, before being transfered to Shanghai through the Baobei Foundation.  It took a little over an hour to get there from the capitol city of Zhengzhou.  We had several steps to conquer this afternoon while in his city of Xuchang.

 First of all, we had to go apply for his Chinese passport, so he can leave with us for the States at the end of the adoption trip.  The waiting room was crowded with curious Chinese onlookers, curious about two white people with a Chinese baby.  Fortunately we had a guide with us from our adoption agency to help with the language barrier.  We pretty much followed her, while she filled out the paperwork, and then we signed our names.  One long hour later, we were out of there.

The next stop was to his finding spot, aka, where he was found abandoned.  I will not share all the details here, but he was abandoned in a very public place, away from transportation, so it was safe and busy, where other people would be able to easily see him and make sure he was taken to the local orphanage.  I do want to ask that you don't judge his birth parents.  China is not America.  There are different laws in China, and there are important cultural differences.  His birth parents loved him...of that I'm sure, as I've observed several key elements in his abandonment story.  Please do not say, "Well, how could they just abandon him?", because it's just more complicated than that.  Mason will grow up with us honoring his birth family who gave him life, and who continued to give him life, until they took him to a safe place to be watched over.  I can't imagine the pain and anguish that his birth parents had to endure, and probably still endure, in giving their son, now our son, a chance in life.  I wish they had a way to know that he is now part of a family, with a mom, dad, 2 sisters, and 1 brother, and that he will live in America, in a loving home with good schools and great opportunities.  I hope that they will somehow find comfort that their little boy has been handed over to a family who love him dearly!

The final destination before heading back to Zhengzhou was Mason's orphanage.  He was only there when he was 2-4 months old, so I was extra excited when we got permission from the orphanage director to tour part of their facilities. 

                                          The orphanage, picture taken in a moving vehicle.

                                       A scene from one of the roughly 10 rooms that we saw.

                                                           Cribs, cribs, and more cribs

This is a room similar to the room Mason was in when he was here.  There were 3 incubators lining each side of the room, each holding a preemie.  In the middle, the cribs held small babies.

The nannies were all very sweet and were doing the best they could with the resources provided.  That being said, this experience at the orphanage has been life-changing, and even though I don't feel it appropriate to put my thoughts fully onto this blog (it's one of those you had to be there to understand), I wanted to wrap up each of those babies in a warm blanket and take them home with us.  Apparently this orphanage only had 13 adoptions last year, although it is the end of February, and I believe they've almost reached that number, with 5 new adoptions taking place next week.  We probably saw at least 50 kids there, and there are probably more who we didn't see.  I'm grateful for these nannies for doing the best they can, but I'm also that Mason didn't spend much time in there.  I pray those other sweet children will find families soon!!!

 

It's a BOY!!!

On Tuesday, February 26, we officially became a family of 6 as we were handed our Certificate of Adoption!!!  It was all very simple, and for some reason I thought it would be a more formal affair, perhaps with more paperwork to sign.  The official read of the name of each child, and the family came forward to collect the document.  So there you have it, after many many months of hard work, paperchasing, and stress, Mason Kai Schiller is now officially ours!!!  On that day, there was one less orphan in the world!

Gotcha Day/Family Day

On Monday, it was a BIG day for the adoptive families.  This was the day that they met their new child(ren) for the first time.  We also had to sign a 24 hr guardianship form, stating that we will take care of our child(ren) and not abandon them in the next 24 hours while they process the finalization of the adoption.  Even though we already had our Gotcha Day with Mason, twice, it was still exciting as we watched the other families, one by one, receiving their new darlings!  There were probably around 12 families there, and the groups were from America and Italy.  I expected a lot of screaming and crying (from the children), but it went very smooth and calmly.  We were the first group to arrive (3 families in our specific travel group), so we got to watch each of the families receive their child(ren) as the different orphanage reps arrived.  one family in our group received a sweet little boy who's orphanage was a 3 1/2 hour drive away!

                                   Two future Italians waiting for their families to show up.

                                     Anxious parents waiting for their child(ren) to show up.

                               Our new friends, the K family, with their new son, Zak (child #6)

      Some other new friends, the A family, with their new sons, Griggs and Hagan (child #8 &9)

                                               And of course, the Schillers on Gotcha Day!