Day 5 Gotcha Day Revisited...

OK, we never finished off the story of Anna Mei's Gotcha Day. Looking back now, it seems to be a humorous tale. At the time, there were definitely some stressful moments. So, we left off with meeting Anna Mei, and we then boarded our van, to head to the notary. The plan was quickly changed when the time revealed 4:10 PM and the passport office closes at 5 PM. So we let the caregiver and orphanage director know we would be a bit late to the notary office, and we would meet them there. Our driver soon learned the GPS address for the passport office was incorrect. The phone number our guide had was out of service. We began to drive. Several stops and questions later, we seemed to end up in the same place, but now it was 4:45. Our guide Vanessa had a new plan since she knew not getting the passport meant another trip to Hebei Province (4 1/2 hours each way). She jumped out at a busy intersection and hailed a taxi. The taxi driver took us to the same place! Finally, following the taxi again, we ended up at the passport office at 4:55 PM on the van clock. Vanessa sprinted into the building and came out 10 minutes later carrying a chinese passport. Without this, Anna Mei would not be able to board the plane to Guangzhou with us for the next leg of the trip.

A huge sigh of relief and off to the notary. They knew we were coming so they stayed open late for us (the 4,500 RMB fee was certainly an incentive for them to wait for us). The orphanage women had left by now, and we quietly answered a few questions and received a stack of official forms we would need for the US Consulate to prove the Chinese Government recognized her as ours. Her first diaper change, and her first bottle from mom later, and we were back in that van for the 4 1/2 hour drive back to Beijing. The ride was very difficult since we felt like we were in an Indy race using a big 10 person bus. Everyone tried to sleep but it was the most uncomfortable sleep imaginable. Anna slept on both Mom and Dad, and we tried to focus our eyes inside the car and not on the traffic and horrible driving around us. When it got dark, Anna Mei got pretty scared by the lights on the ceiling of the car. Not much calmed her, until good old cartoons to the rescue. Chris pulled out the ipad with cartoons of Kai Lan. She sat and smacked at it and watched until she settled and finally slept. China does't require everyone to use seat belts and we couldn't get a car seat so we made the best of it. Anna is in our arms when we travel by car so we buckle ourselves and hold her.

We pulled into the Beijing Hotel, stumbled upstairs, and all quickly fell asleep. Thankfully, our guide had called ahead and a crib stood waiting for Anna when we arrived. We were all thankful the long day was behind us and beautiful Anna Mei was in front of us.