Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of My Niece Olivia, by Marcia Chan

Shaoyang, Hunan, China

November 23, 2003.
A ten-day old baby girl bundled in a yellow blanket was found in front of the emergency room of the local hospital. She was taken to the nearest orphanage, the Shaoyang Children’s Welfare Institution (Click here to see pictures). She was just one of eight abandoned babies found on that day, according to the Hunan Daily News. Pictures with accompanying short descriptions stated when and where they had been found – the train station, the library, the local park. Some babies had notes attached with their names and birthdates, others, nothing.
There was no note or name with this baby girl, so when she was taken to the Shaoyang Municipal Welfare Institution, she was named, Shao Yang-ji. Here, little “Ji-ji” as she was nicknamed, lived her first 14 months. She was fed powdered milk with rice cereal, rice porridge, and had an occasional steamed egg. For half a year, she had a caretaker who played with her for 30 minutes, twice a week. Like the other 40 or more babies in the orphanage, she spent most of her time in her crib, her cries for nurturing and attention, unheeded.

Sacramento, California, USA

January, 2004.
Adrienne finally completed her application and submitted all the necessary paperwork to Hawaii International Child, the adoption agency in Honolulu she’d been working with for the past six months. Now she would have to wait perhaps a year before she would actually be adopting a baby girl from China. The agency promised that she would definitely be able to adopt a baby, it was just a matter of time. Her application would have to go through the usual adoption bureaucracy. The agency would have to do a home study – checking to see if she had a suitable and loving home situation, making sure she was financially stable, had a good job, and was fit to be a parent. Adrienne was adopting as a single mom and an older parent. This was not unusual in the US, but not that common either.

May, 2004
Adrienne got the good news that her application had been submitted to Beijing, China and she would be getting a baby girl in six months! In Beijing, her application, along with hundreds of others, would be randomly matched by computer to Chinese babies available for international adoption.

November, 2004
Adrienne received an email and pictures from Hawaii International Child: “Congratulations! Here’s a picture of your adoptive daughter. Her name is Shao Yang-ji, from Shaoyang, Hunan. She was born on November 13, 2003, weighs 16 pounds, likes to eat crackers and apples, can say “da-da, can crawl, and is afraid of strangers. Sometime in the next three months, you will be traveling to China to pick her up.”
A dream of many years was about to come true. Is it really, finally happening, thought Adrienne? Adrienne began making preparations for the trip – buying baby clothes, diapers, baby formula, and talking with friends, family and other adoptive parents for advice. She painted the baby’s new room yellow and green, borrowed a crib, a high chair, and welcomed hand-me-down clothes and other baby items. Everything would be ready to welcome baby Olivia Carolyn Chan to her new home.

January 21, 2005
The travel date was finally set. On January 21, 2005, at 1pm in the afternoon, Adrienne and her sister, together with six other families began the journey that would change their lives forever. They flew 15 hours, from Honolulu to Shanghai, China. The next day they flew further south to Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province. They were greeted warmly by their facilitator, Cici (Zhang Lijun), who would be accompanying the group throughout their two-week stay in China and assisting them in the adoption process.

Marcia’s Journal, Changsha, China

Sunday, January 22, 2005, Changsha, Hunan
I’m exhausted and sleep-deprived. So tired from traveling for two days straight with only a few hours sleep- from Honolulu to Tokyo to Shanghai, then to Changsha. We lost a day crossing the International Date Line. I’m glad we’re just resting today. We have a wonderful group – seven families in all, including myself and Adrienne. There are 14 parents, 2 grandmas, 3 toddlers and one 8-year old boy. Everyone is friendly and supportive, talking and joking, just like family. Hawaii people ARE fun to travel with. We’re staying at a 5-star resort hotel in the middle of town. My goodness, China has certainly changed over the years. The hotel is very impressive and luxurious- maybe even a bit over done, like Las Vegas. But I have to say, we all love the beautiful Chinese-Western buffet breakfast that is served everyday. Well, I’d better go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow is THE BIG DAY. Everyone is excited and anxious to get their babies.

Monday, January 23, 2005
At 10:00 this morning, all seven families (20 bodies) in our group met Cici in the hotel lobby and left by mini-bus to the Changsha Civil Affairs Office to pick up our babies. It was about 40 degrees outside. As our bus entered the parking lot, we could see through fogged up windows several other buses and taxis lined up in front of us. Look! People are getting out of the taxis! They’re holding babies! Oh! Are those our babies? Babies bundled in bright orange and yellow outfits against the cold were being carried into the building. Everyone’s excitement and anticipation grew.
As we got off the bus, happy new parents, babies in arms, were leaving the building. We jostled our way into the building, and waited to go up to the 3rd floor. More smiling parents holding babies flooded out of the two elevators, and other anxious parents like us were crowding in to take their place. Then, when we got off the elevator on the 3rd floor, there were even MORE new parents with babies and waiting for babies, talking excitedly in the waiting room. Some were speaking Spanish, some English. It turns out that there was a group of adoptive parents from Barcelona, Spain, a group from Toronto, Canada, and a group from Boston, Massachusetts in addition to our Hawaii group, that were picking up babies this morning. It was like a madhouse in there!
As soon as we sat down on the wooden benches at one end of the waiting room, Cici, signaled the parents to line up on the other side of the room. She said, “Be sure your baby is the same one as in your picture.” Then Cici proceeded to call out each baby’s name and the parents’ name, as the orphanage officials passed out the babies and checked them off the list: “Shao Yang-ji : Adrienne Chan! Shao yang-ye:Lee Family! Shao yang-he: Ku Family! Shao yang-hai: Higa Family! Shao yang-gui: Fellows Family! . . . . and so on, until all seven babies were “passed out.” It happened so quickly – it was all over in five minutes. Although everyone had cameras and video cameras on hand, we barely had a chance to document that precious moment of getting and holding our babies for the first time… It was more like standing in line at a cafeteria at lunchtime, getting plates of food handed out, rather than the very special moment we had been waiting for for so long. How impersonal it seemed! And so many babies being adopted in one day!. *
After everyone had gotten their babies, we sat back down on the wooden benches. Then the orphanage director, vice director and supervisor of the nannies came over to meet us and answer our questions. We took pictures with them and thanked them for taking care of the babies and bringing them to us safely from Shaoyang.
Amazingly, none of the babies were crying – they must have all been in shock after having risen before dawn and traveled more than three hours by taxi in the rain and cold to meet their new parents. Some were smiling – all had big round eyes. They were all about 12-14 months old, the biggest weighing 22 pounds, the smallest a mere 14 pounds. My sister’s little girl – Ji-ji – was listless, not a smile or a cry – she was sick with a high fever. Our facilitator told us she should go to the hospital and see a doctor right away.
So, after all the parents signed initial adoption papers, everyone except my sister’s baby and one other baby who also had a fever, returned to the hotel. We went to the nearest hospital, where we sat for five long hours, waiting for the babies to get antibiotic treatments. The doctor told us that little Ji-ji had a 102 degree fever, bronchitis and borderline pneumonia and that she had to return to the hospital for the next 2-3 days.

Later, we found out that it was unusually busy that day. It was a Monday, and the week before Chinese New Year’s, so the government wanted to take care of all business before the big holiday. We also learned that there were 100 babies being adopted from
Hunan Province that week and 150 the week before. That was just a small portion of the 10,000 Chinese babies being adopted by Americans this year, up from 5,000 five years ago.
Tuesday, January 23, 2005
First thing this morning, we bundled up Olivia in four layers of clothes and went with our group to the Civil Affairs Office again – this time, to sign more adoption papers, get the babies’ passports, and give our donation to the orphanage.
Again, we went to the 3rd floor. There were fewer people today and the atmosphere was much calmer. We sat on the now familiar wooden benches, and waited our turn to be called into the office. Next! yelled Cici. Camera in hand, I followed Olivia and my sister into the room to document her signing the official adoption papers.
The clerk asked my sister, “Are you happy with your baby?” Adrienne answered, “Yes.” “Sign here. Put your right thumbprint here. Put the baby’s right footprint here….and here.” Just when the clerk was about to say congratulations (or so we thought), the telephone rang. As she was talking on the phone, she gestured to us to go out, and waved the next family in. So, that was it? Just as matter-of-fact and impersonal as yesterday. Not even a word of congratulations.
Before each family stood in the next line, we carefully counted the cash in
our white envelopes - $3,000 US in new bills – as was requested by the Chinese government as our donation to the orphanage. Then, one by one, we entered another small office and handed our envelop over to the clerk. Next! The clerk seemed friendly enough and looked up briefly to acknowledge my presence. I handed her the valuable white envelope. She opened it, carefully counted the new bills twice, nodded her approval, and handed me a stamped receipt. Of course I wanted to remember THIS moment, so I asked her politely, “Do you mind if I take your picture?” She shyly nodded “OK.” Click! And that was it?
She was already counting the next $3000 as I stepped aside and exited the office.

Cici – Our Facilitator

Cici was born and raised in Xian, China. She went to university there, majoring in English. After graduation, she worked for five years as a tour guide for China International Travel Service. Then she began working with Hawaii International Child as an adoption facilitator. Over the past ten years, Cici has facilitated the adoption of more than 300 babies from China, mostly girls and a just a handful of boys. Cici was the most essential person in our trip. We could not have done without her. She was our tour guide, our translator, our advisor, our friend, often playmate, caregiver, and nurse to our babies. Whatever problems our group had, from adoption paperwork, room accommodations, food, language, shopping, and laundry service to babies’ diarrhea, constipation, fevers, colds and coughs, we called on Cici for help. She was like our mother and part of our family.
On the last day of our trip, on the 30-minute bus ride to the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou, Cici taught us some Chinese words and phrases – “bao-bao – precious baby, “gwai-gwai”- good girl, ma-ma, ba-ba, and a Chinese lullaby that we could sing to our babies. Then she told us a heartwarming story about a conversation she had had with one of the adopting couples she had met in one of the groups. They asked her if she was religious or believed in God. She replied, no, she didn’t have any religion. Well, did she believe in miracles? because God makes miracles happen. No, she didn’t believe in God or miracles. But then, she thought about this question a bit more, and reflected on the work that she had been doing over the past ten years, and her experiences with the 300 babies that she had helped to be adopted. She had seen, in every family, with every single baby and every single parent, how quickly the babies bonded with their new parents. It happened within a mere three days to one week. Babies and parents were smiling, happy and laughing (as were we and our babies). These babies were no longer abandoned. They didn’t need to cry out any more for the mothers they didn’t have. Now they had mothers and fathers. They had family. They were being loved and nurtured. And Cici thought, “This is certainly a miracle, is it not?” So many miracles. Do you believe in miracles?

Epilogue﹕One Month Later
Adrienne’s Journal, Maui, Hawaii

February 23, 2005
This is my one month anniversary with little Ji-ji, Olivia. Olivia took her first steps by herself today! She’s laughing a lot and crawling when she wants to get somewhere quickly. What a personality she has – humorous and quick to learn. Mom says she’s like a little clown. She loves being the center of attention and is the source of entertainment for grandma, her uncle, aunties, and cousins. Olivia is such a joy. Of course, she still has her “moments” and crying spells when she’s tired and cranky or doesn’t like something. I’m trying to get her to eat some vegetables and more solid food. She’s definitely plumping up and getting some color. Sunshine, good food, exercise, and attention can do wonders for anyone. It seems like we’ve been together more than just a month. I’ve sure changed a lot of diapers! Poop, eat, sleep, eat, poop, eat, poop, sleep…that’s the baby’s routine and the mother’s routine, too, I guess. When I have a moment, I think back about when I first saw Ji-ji and held her in my arms that morning in Changsha. It was meant to be. She’s my little Olivia!