The Tembreull Family

”We could always adopt a little girl from China.” Roger said one night about three years ago. We had wanted children but a medical condition was preventing it from happening naturally. We were discussing how far we were willing to pursue medical treatment to have a biological child. Our answer came very easily in the fall of 1998. Our daughter was in China.

International adoption is not difficult, but involves a lot of paperwork, perseverance on your part and, of course, money. We were able to have much of the money saved when it was needed. Surely this was divine intervention! In the end, we did have to take out a small loan to complete the trip. In our eyes, it was a small price to pay for the love of a child.

It took us about 8 months to complete the necessary paperwork for our dossier. Once the dossier went to China in August of 1999 we waited. We knew that our referral of a baby would probably come in March of 2000.

At the end of February, CWA sent word. “You’re next in line. Expect a call soon!” Days turned into weeks. In the entire process these last few weeks were the most difficult for me. Every where we went well-meaning people asked “Any word?” I think it was even more difficult than actually being pregnant and near a due date. I had no real date that I knew I’d have a baby. My “delivery” was totally controlled by the Center of Chinese Adoption Affairs half way around the world.

On April 14th we received news that we had a daughter! Her name was Yu Zhi Yuan. She resided in Xinyu, Jiangxi in foster care, healthy, and was born on August 25, 1999 ­ one day before our dossier was to have arrived in China. We were told her Chinese name translated into something like “strong-willed and determined.” Also in the packet were three photos taken about when she was 6 months old. We would call our new little girl Claire Eleanor.

After months of waiting and preparation, Roger and I met 5 other families plus Ron Paxton from CWA in a waiting area of the San Francisco airport on July 6th, 2000. We would all be traveling together for the next two weeks sharing an experience of a lifetime.

First stop after a flight of 16 hours was Beijing. We met our guide, Andy, after clearing customs. He would be our national guide—one of the best we were told—throughout our stay in China. He took us to our hotel to freshen up before dinner.

Dinner was our first experience with “real” Chinese food. At the restaurant, regular patrons could choose from items in the area near the front. There were giant lobsters, all types of fish and—oh yes—eel. Andy had ordered our dinner. He did this throughout the rest of the trip. Each dish was placed on a large Lazy Susan in the center of the table where we could choose what we’d like. This was also where we first got to use chopsticks. After struggling for a few moments, the server assigned to our table discreetly brought me a fork!

The mass of humanity is difficult to describe. There are people everywhere and most of them are on bicycles. While in Beijing we were taken to see the Summer Palace, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought I’d be standing on the Great Wall of China.

After two days of sightseeing and adjusting to the time zone (China is exactly 12 hrs. ahead of Michigan) we got on a plane for Nanchang—the capital of the province of Jiangxi. When we arrived, Sissi, our local guide, met us. She and Andy would be guiding us through all the official paperwork needed to be done in Nanchang. We were told the babies would be brought to our rooms about 8:30 PM that night.

Roger and I were nervous wrecks by the time a knock came on our room door. I opened it to find Andy, the orphanage director and a helper crouched against the hall wall holding a very, very unhappy baby. She put this screaming child in my arms and they said: “Your baby has a cold. She needs a bottle.” I handed her off to Roger after getting a good look at her face and then attempted to make my first official bottle as a parent. It wasn’t particularly easy as the orphanage director was noting my every move. We still think she was silently thinking that these Americans are totally inept! After a frenzied exchange of translated questions about Claire and her schedule they were off to make the couple next door parents.

Claire quickly fell asleep from exhaustion. We changed her into new diapers and jammies examining her as all new moms and dads do. Yes, she had all her fingers and toes. She was very thin and had several scratches on her arms and legs. Nothing that a bit of care wouldn’t fix.

The next week we did paperwork or sightseeing in the area each morning and had afternoons free. The entire time we were in China the temperatures were in the high 90’s with very high humidity. It was miserable and draining. We were an oddity in Nanchang. A blond American with a Chinese baby was not a common sight. We were often stared at openly and now know what celebrity status feels like. At this time, Claire wasn’t that happy with us either. She seemed to take most things in stride but didn’t appreciate the sightseeing. We often were the couple with the screaming baby in our group! She did take quite a fondness to Cheerios, which helped to save the day many a time.

One day we were taken to the Nanchang Social Welfare Institute. This was a combination orphanage and nursing home. This orphanage was responsible for 400 children ­ 200 of them lived in foster homes and the others lived on site. It was a rare opportunity to visit an orphanage. While it wasn’t the one Claire was from, it gave us an idea of what they are like. It was an emotional visit to see the many children in need of homes. One was as young as 10 days old. Claire didn’t like being back in that kind of setting and cried quite a bit.

Our next stop on our China “tour” was to fly to Guangzhou (formerly Canton) where the US Consulate resides. You might remember seeing this building in May of 1999 on the nightly news. There were protests in front of it when the U.S. accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. After Nanchang, Guangzhou was like arriving back into civilization. As we drove to our very modern 5 star hotel we could see the signs of home—Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, 7-11’s and DIET COKE!!

Spending the three days in Guangzhou was much easier than in Nanchang although we were more than ready to go home. It’s a grueling trip, not to be mistaken for a vacation. We weren’t quite the spectacle here as it is much more of a cosmopolitan city. Our interviews with the officials at the Consulate were easier than anticipated. Claire’s visa was received without problems. Two of the mightiest governments in the whole world said she’s officially ours.

We left for home on July 20th, leaving behind new friends and Claire’s homeland. It’s not an easy thing to take a child out of a place that’s all she knows and bring her to a land so different. But here she’ll have a chance for a wonderful future where many of those children we left behind will not. Here she’ll have family that will absolutely adore her.

In the months that we’ve had her, we’ve had some difficult times adjusting. I imagined she would be so happy to have a mom and dad that all her worries would be over. Wrong! But more and more she is developing into a wonderful child. She’s growing so fast and exploring new things. We still have a way to go but we’re getting there.

In China we were told by the locals “lucky baby” when they saw us with our darling daughter. Roger and I feel we are the lucky ones. Make that blessed. We truly believe God led us to China to find our little Claire.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. Isaiah 43:5

Ann Tembreull