“You’ve been matched with a little girl!”
 We’ve never heard
sweeter words than those that were spoken to us
on October 3, 2005. That was the day we
received our referral and became parents to Jin
Li Bing, a baby girl living at the Guiping SWI
in a town called Guiping City in Guangxi,
China. We
had begun our process 14 months earlier after
attending an informational meeting in
Minneapolis. The feeling that we were finally
going to be parents seemed so far off and the
paperwork so cumbersome. But we followed our
checklist, celebrating each step along the way,
and our paperwork went off to China on February
25, 2005. Then the real wait began. Waiting
was difficult for us, we wanted our daughter
home with us, we wanted to see her face and know
where she was. Little did we know that when our
paperwork went to China, she was already three
weeks old!
 We
traveled to China in December of 2005 and had
the time of our lives! We spent a few days in
Beijing seeing the Forbidden City, Tiananmen
Square, the Great Wall, and many other fantastic
and historical sites. Then we flew to the
Guangxi province on December 11. We could
hardly believe we were in her province, let
alone that we were going to get to hold her
finally the next afternoon.
Nothing can
describe the feeling of watching your baby move
from across the room and then into your waiting
arms. It was over in a few seconds, but the
memory of hearing her caretakers tell her “Mama,
Baba” (“Mom, Dad”) and then holding her – the
thought of it brings tears to our eyes. Julia
was finally with us!
Julia grieved
heavily the first few days she was with us. She
refused to drink her bottle, would look at us
and start to cry, and yet did not want Mommy to
put her down. Our CHI coordinators were so
caring,, seeming as concerned about her as we
were. They listened to our concerns, offered
suggestions, and when Julia finally drank milk
they celebrated with us. We also bonded with
the other families in our group, spending the
evenings having the girls play in the hallway of
the hotel, and sharing our concerns and
successes and forming lifelong friendships with
these families.
 The
rest of our time in China was amazing. During
our six days in Guangxi, and our five in
Guangzhou CHI took take care of all of the
details, from paperwork and appointments to
little field trips. This allowed us the time to
focus on Julia. We felt like we didn’t have to
think about anything but her. And as first time
parents, we were so thankful! In fact we teased
Anna, one of our coordinators, in the airport in
Beijing that we didn’t know how we were going to
get to our international flight on our own. She
had been there every step of the way to tell us
where to go, what bus to get on, what time to be
somewhere. We were so well cared for in China!
We’ve had Julia
for a year now, it’s amazing how she’s grown and
changed. We love watching her learn new things
every day, love hearing her say Mommy and Daddy,
love being her parents. We feel like we are the
luckiest parents in the world!
 We
hope to adopt another daughter someday, and we
cannot imagine using any other agency than
Children’s Hope. You can trust CHI to take
great care of you here in the US, but they will
take even better care for you in China!
Joe, Janette,
and Julia Melde
South St. Paul, Minnesota
melde4@msn.com
|
Dreams
Can Come True!