bringing home Laine

Now, at least, we were headed home. And in spite of our worst fears, Laine did pretty great, especially when you consider it from her point of view as a 15-month-old locked up in a loud metal tube with a bunch of strangers for half a day.

One more hoop jumped through: Today we visited the US Consulate to apply for Laine’s exit visa so we can all finally get the bleep outta here and come home.

Guangzhou! And probably the nicest hotel I will ever stay in. We spent day one getting Laine cleared by the health authorities to leave the country. She’d been running a fever so we were a little tense about it, but of course she passed because, y’know, God.

Since we had to be in the country for two weeks, our adoption agency planned some fun, touristy excursions so we could soak up the culture and not go stark raving mad cooped up in a hotel room with a screaming baby.

We got in a cab and drove into the outskirts of Kunming to a place our guide Susan called “Yilu Village.” I say “the outskirts,” but we were still in the shadow of about half a dozen high-rise apartment buildings.

Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 The next day we drove across town (did I mention Kunming was about the size of New York City?) to visit the orphanage where Laine had lived since she was two months old. Many times we had been told by people in the know that the Kunming orphanage … Read more

Previously: Part 1, Part 2 Turns out that “Gotcha Day” is really just an extended test drive. Apparently — and amazingly — some people will reach this point in the process and decide to back out. The Chinese child welfare authorities go to great lengths to prevent episodes of buyer’s remorse — where parents, after … Read more