We Have Her! Andrea Zhi Bei is Here!, Day 9, February 13, 2008

We have Andrea Zhi Bei! Our morning started out with an eruption of fireworks going off all around us to ward off any evil spirits lurking about and keep the New Year rolling. We left for the Provincial Adoption Service Center this morning at 9:00 and met with the director of the provincial authority and signed our “Agreement Of Entrusting Guardianship In The Harmonious Period.” This is a 24 hour period before we return to the provincial authority tomorrow to finalize the adoption.

Provincial Adoption Authority Office

Zhi Bei was eventually brought into the office by the orphanage director and the orphanage doctor. They sat across from us at the table while we asked questions about Zhi Bei and they asked a few about us. As we asked about Zhi Bei’s palate condition it became apparent that there were additional repairs made to her palate after our referral indicating only the lip repair! Apparently she had been brought to Beijing for additional surgery. We cannot see any openings in her cleft. She does appear to have some of her upper teeth out of place. All this time it was extremely apparent that Zhi Bei was attached to the director of the orphanage and the director to her. The director held a very reluctant Zhi Bei and tried to reassure her to little avail.

Harbin Child Welfare Institute Orphanage Director

Unfortunately the orphanage did not receive the clothes, bear and pictures of us we sent through Blessed Kids before leaving the states. They did receive the New Years cake we sent via Blessed Kids. The pictures of us probably would have helped with the transition. The real crying began when it was time for the Director and Doctor to leave. This did not sit well at all with Zhi Bei. There was to be no magical bonding moment at the provincial office, only tears. Soon after the orphanage staff left we left as well, poor Zhi Bei sobbing all the way to the van. Ann was able to hold Zhi Bei in the van, and Zhi Bei let her, but she did not make eye contact with either David or Ann, she only stared out the window continuing to sob. Ann’s dad Steve and David took turns wiping away the tears. She did let us do that and did not back away, not that there was any place to back to. She let David touch her tiny hand which was clasped tightly to his seat with his finger, but again she was not about to let go to flinch away from his touch.

We had to stop at the bank on the way back to the hotel to exchange some currency that the hotel would not accept to cover some fees that needed to be paid in RMB tomorrow. The bank would not switch out our hundreds for crisper versions. Guess we will cross that road when we make the orphanage donation tomorrow.

By the time we arrived at the hotel the sobs had mellowed to whimpers… until it was time to exit the van and leave our guide, the last familiar looking face for our poor child. Then the sobbing started up again. We made it up to the hotel room where she sat on the bed slowly calming back down to a whimper. Ann sat on the bed next to her, David on the floor in front of her.

Having heard that she loved music from the orphanage staff we started to introduce her to some of our western music on the computer, serenading the words we could remember. She did not pull back when we touched her, but she made it clear she wanted little to do with us at this point. So she has now been introduced to a broad range of American music including “If I had a Million Dollars” by the Bare Naked Ladies, Guy Clark’s “LA Freeway” and Gary P Nunn’s “London Homesick Blues” off of Jerry Jeff’s Viva Terlinqua and Dwight Yoakum’s rendition of “Guitars and Cadillacs.”

David began trying to interest in her a small blow up beach ball we had brought with us and finally after a couple of hours of her sitting stoically on the bed, she began to emerge. Within ½ hour after that she was ready for play and exploration. We have adjoining rooms with an interior door between the rooms and she has been running back and forth. She has been in both Ann and David’s laps and arms. Mama was appropriately the first word she uttered in front of us. Since then she has been calling David appropriately Ba Ba and Steve Pap Paw which is the way we introduced him. She has been talking up a storm and we just nod along. She does seem to have a bit of a nasal inflection to her pronunciation, but who knows? We fully expect a return of some tears, but at the moment all is well on the 10th floor of the Holiday Inn, in the City of Harbin, Heilonjiang Province, China.



We are off to dinner and our first exploration outside the hotel room. Wish us well…..