Receiving the TWINS!!

We left London, Ontario on Jan.18, 2001 at 6 am. and connected in Vancouver with the rest of Group 109 (Children’s Bridge). My sister, Margo came with us. The trip to China had several flight delays but we arrived safely in Beijing on Sat. Jan.19 around 4pm. & got to our hotel by about 6:45.

The hotel was excellent & we slept well. On Sun.Jan.20 we flew early to Changsha, Hunan & had a couple hours to settle in our rooms there.The babies were brought to our group at the hotel. There were 11 families in our group, 5 babies from Changsha, 5 from Yueyang & our twins fromYongzhou. The ones from Changsha arrived around 3:30pm and we were able to take pictures for them.

It was an incredible feeling to watch these families forming in an instant before our very eyes. None of their babies cried - itwas amazing. An hour later we heard someone say, "The twins are here". TheDirector from their orphanage & another Nanny brought the girls over to us and we were surrounded by all the families in our group with their cameras.

They handed Christalina to my husband & then Angelina to me. Christalina didn'tcry but Angelina sobbed. I couldn't stop crying either - it was just so emotional. We sat down with the Nanny & our travel guide translated a lot of information for us. We had taken with us a list of questions to ask but the nanny had already filled out a complete form of questions for us & brought it with her. They also gave us the disposable camera, which we had sent over ahead of time. We were fortunate that they used it. Some of the others in the group got their cameras returned to them unused.

By this time the girls were both distressed and finally they suggested we take the twins up to our room, which we did. It didn't take them long to settle after that. They were dressed in yellow knitted pants, green knitted sweaters & little shirts & socks. We were pleased to be able to keep their little clothes. We had taken a huge hockey bag full of clothes and blankets for the Orphanage so didn’t feel badly that we kept the clothes.

The first few nights it was difficult to get the girls to sleep because they cried unless we stood up & rocked them. We spent many hours walking the halls so that the crying baby wouldn't wake up the sleeping one. Luckily, my sister had a separate room & we were able to go back & forth to it as well. Thank goodness Margo went with us. She was an incredible help & an absolute lifesaver...

On Mon. Jan.21 in the morning we all went to the official's office to do the paperwork & to deliver the orphanage donations to the orphanage directors. It was very busy but everything went smoothly. That afternoon, back at the hotel I was holding Christalina while Christos held Angelina & I was boiling water to sterilize their bottles & make their formulas (in our makeshift bathroom/kitchen). I managed to catch the cord of the electric kettle with my foot & pulled the kettle off the bathroom counter. The full kettle of freshly boiled water spilled on my left foot & I sustained 2nd degree burns for the remainder of the trip.

There was a clinic in the hotel, where I went every morning to have my foot treated. I didn't leave the hotels except to fly back to Beijing & then home again. My sister & my husband each took in a couple of the pre-planned tours, but mostly we spent the time with the twins in our hotel rooms.

Our travel-guide, Ma Rui, was wonderful & very compassionate. She went with us & did all the necessary translating for everyone in the group. Several of the babies in the group were sick, including Christalina. On theThurs. Jan.24 Christos & Margo had to take her to the hospital in Changsha for I.V. treatment. She had pneumonia & wasn't eating or drinking enough. What an ordeal - Christos had to hold her for 4 1/2 hours while Margo had to hold the IV bag up. They didn’t have a bed for her or an IV pole. Christalina cried hard for the first 1 1/2 hours & then finally fell asleep. They came back to the hotel at 10:30pm exhausted.

They had to repeat the procedure again on the Friday but went earlier in the day. I stayed at the hotel withAngelina both times because I wasn't supposed to be on my foot (although the only time I managed to stay off it was when I slept at night). On Sat.Jan.26 we flew back to Beijing & our travel guide took us, along with several other families, to a hospital to have the babies checked out & to have my foot treated. Thankfully the doctor said Christalina was enough improved that we could just continue her medication ourselves.

On the Monday the babies all had their medicals, at the clinic, which went well. By that time we were counting the days until we could come home. Every one in the group was very supportive & all the people we met were most kind & gracious but we really just wanted to be at home.

My foot was still swollen twice its size & I couldn't wear a shoe at all. (In fact it wasn't until Feb.16 that Iwas finally able to put on a loose boot & a week later that I wore a shoe again.) We definitely saw a different side of China than many, and we treasure the experience. But most of all we were so happy with the girls.
We left Beijing on Thurs.Jan.31 & after another 2 hour delay finally took flight for Vancouver. It was a long 13 hours & by the time we arrived inVancouver our connection time to Toronto was past, which really didn't matter since the flight had been cancelled anyway due to bad weather conditions. So we were put on stand-by and waited a few hours in the airport.

Meanwhile the rest of our group boarded a different plane because their destination was Toronto. But they ended up with a 2-hour delay on the plane before they even took off. Ironically we all landed in Toronto at the same time. Of course by now it was long past the time of our connecting flight to London, Ontario where we live. In fact it was 1:30 in the morning& there were no more flights & it was snowing & raining.

We finally managed to get a RobertQ travel bus to bring us home along with another lady & her baby & a few other people.
We got home around 4:30 a.m. absolutely exhausted but extremely happy & grateful to be home safely at last.