Gotcha Story

We arrived in Lanzhou around 3:30 PM local time after an hour and a half drive from the airport. The Gansu countryside reminds us very much of New Mexico. The mountains are beautiful and the ground is very very dry. Our guide, Sally, met us at the airport and gave us a lot of interesting information about her province during the ride to Lanzhou. Lanzhou is a small city by Chinese standards (3.2 million). The city is full of high rise buildings and apartments, typical of most Chinese cities.

Now the good part. We met Adam in the hotel at 4:30 PM. As we walked into the room his caretakers showed him the pictures we had sent of us to show him that we were the ones. We gave him a car toy as we introduced ourselves and he played with us joyfully for about a half an hour. He rolled the car to us, we’d roll it back. He’d laugh. He let us hold him. It was a great time. But after a spell, he began to sense that things were different and began to cry. He’d still let us hold him, or hold his hand as we walked with him, but you could definitely tell he was getting scared. After his caretakers had left and we got him to the hotel room, he settled down again and we had a great evening with him. We went out for Chinese food, came back to the hotel and gave him a bath, and played for awhile. He slept great .


This morning we went to the civil affairs office and finalized the adoption! Adam cried a little bit when he was in the presence of his orphanage caretaker, but was OK quickly after they left. We went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and them shopping. Tonight, we are going to KFC. A decision thoroughly endorsed by Jeremy.

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