This Is It! She's Ours!

Yesterday (December 18th) our day started at 5:30 am. We got up and got ready, ate breakfast, then our guide and driver met us in the lobby to take us back to the Civil Affairs office to make our adoption official. It was a very special time for us. We were interviewed very briefly - they wanted to know if we still wanted to adopt Jiang Ting, why we wanted to adopt in China, we had to promise to never mistreat or abandon her, tell our health status, how much we make annually, and state our birth dates. Very simple for such an incredible thing. The day before I had requested that we travel to see Jiang Ting's orphanage. Our guide set everything up and so we were able to travel 2 hours by bus to get there. First we met with the Director and Assistant Director. Two very nice gentlemen. They bought us lunch which was very good. The boys were impressing them with their limited Chinese language. The Director told them they are welcome to come back to China anytime. From there we went to the orphanage. I brought a gift that a mother from North Carolina sent me to give to her daughter who waits to be adopted who happens to be Jiang Ting's best friend in the orphanage. What an honor and a privilege to to do this. The family will be coming to China to bring Jiang Hui home around February. I cannot wait, I want to make a trip to North Carolina and have the girls be reunited with their new families! Once we got to the orphanage we were escorted into a room where we met with the orphanage Doctor and the Deputy Director. Jiang Ting was able to give them some candles that I had made for gifts. She was so proud! You could tell that the doctor loved her so very much. She asked us if we had any questions about Jiang Ting's health. We asked a few and got very good answers. They said that she hasn't even had a cold! The Director gave us a DVD as a gift that has footage of the orphanage and the staff - a very nice blessing. From there we toured her sleeping quarters, where they played, and where they studied. We brought 3 bags of candy for her to hand out to her friends so the last two stops were in rooms with children that had many care providers. She gave out handfuls of the candy. Then we finally got to meet her best friend, Jiang Hui. The Director got her out of school just so we could see her. We took many pictures and videos. Then I was able to present her the precious gift her family sent her and I had our guide translate to her that it was a gift from her Momma and she loves her, and cannot wait to come and bring her home. She looked at me and in English said "thank you". It was so precious. The children were very well cared for and there are many nannies to help with all of them. We also met the orphanage teacher. She was very special to Jiang Ting and the teacher loved her with the love of a mother. We also received the wonderful incredible news that we were approved to tour her school. So after a last farewell to her friends we headed to her school which the orphanage teacher accompanied us. Jiang Ting sat on her lap on the way there. At the school we were able to get all her school transcripts, artwork that she now has a momma to give to, meet her MANY friends, teachers, and principal. We were told that the last few days she has been preoccupied waiting for her family to come and get her - this was so nice to hear. Jayde, Sage, and Isaiah were admired by all the children and they wanted to shake all of our hands. Jiang Ting's friends gave her the thumbs up for her new family (which means very lucky) and we were just swarmed by children. She was being taught at a special needs school and all of her classmates are deaf. It was so wonderful to see her signing and communicating with her friends and when people would ask about us she would point Mike and I out and say "Mama and Baba". She didn't seem sad although her friends did and when it was time to leave I was in tears. It was so hard to see her friends say goodbye to her for the last time. But she just kept smiling and waved goodbye. Many children were yelling goodbye in Chinese. Our guide said that was very special and emotional and it was the first time he had the honor to bring a family to see the child's school. But the hardest part was when we had to bring back her orphanage teacher to the Jiangyin Children's Welfare Institute. Oh my, it brings tears to my eyes all over again to remember how hard it was for this young lady to let Jiang Ting go. She stood on the bus just staring at her with tears coming down so sadly saying goodbye. I absolutely bawled. I looked at Jiang Ting to see if she had tears but she was giving her an encouraging smile as if to say "it's okay, don't worry about me, I will be happy. I won't forget you and I love you very much". Oh, how the whole thing tore me apart. When we left I got out a tissue and she just looked at me wondering why I was crying. I could only smile at her and wipe away my tears. What a beautiful child we have been blessed with. Well of course nothing could top what we have just been through so after our drive back to the hotel we came in and rested. One thing she LOVES to do is play on the computer. A girl after Daddy's own heart!

Jiang Ting and her best friend Jiang Hui

Group picture with the nannies

Jiang Ting's orphanage teacher

Jiang Ting's class mates at the deaf school
Jiang Ting and her teachers, with the school principal on the far right

School kids come to meet Jiang Ting's new family and to say good-bye
We have decided to name our little girl Katherine Ting Gelhar. It's now on all her official documents. She is so quick to understand and so very unique. She is such a beautiful girl with one brown eye (like mine) and one blue eye (like Mike's). She has already taught us so much and here I thought we would be teaching her!


Today (December 19th) our Guide, John, and our driver took us to see some sights in Nanjing. First we went to a museum that made beautiful handmade weavings of silk. This brocade style weaving is a very ancient style of weaving and can not be duplicated in quality by modern machines. The weavers shown below will work 8 to 10 hours a day to produce about 6 centimeters of designed fabric at a time. Nanjing is home to this style of weaving which is still world famous to this day. Since Jiang Ting is from the Nanjing province, we bought a small wall hanging with the symbol of Nanjing done in this very special fashion.

Brocade two person weaving loom

Finished brocade weaving with flower design

After that we headed to the Nanjing City Wall. The wall is 600 years old and is the longest city wall in the world. That was very beautiful. We saw a Buddhist temple that was quite beautiful too. And of course spent more money there. [comment from Mike...the Nanjing City Wall has a section that is run down and is under renovation to be rebuilt. A master artist has partnered with this project to help raise money by selling his artwork.] We bought a ball that was made of crystal that an artist hand painted from the inside. They drill a hole and make a small circle inside and then use a special brush made of mouse whiskers to paint from the inside out. The Master was there today painting. We purchased a ball and he signed our last name in it. It will be a wonderful keepsake. [comment from Mike...OK, so we bought a crystal ball...but that doesn't mean we will be doing any fortune telling!] Although, they kept trying to get us to upgrade the ball to a bigger one and when we said no they tried to get us to buy two little ones for a "special price" because they were student crystal balls. Again and again we had to say no. I'm glad we made the purchase though. Our Guide is very good at helping us to spend our money!

Our family at the Nanjing City Wall

Pretty Jiang Ting at the Nanjing City Wall

Crystal spheres, hand painted from the inside

The master artist enscribing our family name, Gelhar, on our crystal
Jiang Ting has been wanting to chat to her friends on the computer in our hotel room but we have been unsuccessful at getting the Chinese to interpret for her. We told her that today we would go looking for software to install on our computers at home so she can talk. She knew that we were going today and she was so excited. When we got to the computer store Mike had his tongue hanging out. It was the biggest computer store we have ever seen. They had everything. So much it made me dizzy. I know Mike wants to go back so he can browse. It would take hours, maybe even days to do so. I'm getting used to the stares from the Chinese people. First they look at Jiang Ting and then they look at all of us. At the store today two ladies were asking about our family to our guide. They said "she's a Chinese person" pointing at Ting. There were others that would just give us a thumbs up and say that we had a very nice looking family. So many of the people in China are so nice. The roads are another story all together. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the madness and the pedestrians do not have the right of way here. It's more like get out of the way! Even their walk sign for crossing has a little guy running when it gets close to the light changing. It's pretty hilarious - but very serious. We had to cross the street today to get to the computer store. That was probably the most thrill seeking thing I have ever done. I kept a nervous look out to make sure all the kids were close and we hurried when we should and stopped and got out of the way when we should. There is also bikes and motor scooters you need to look out for. I told John, "I could never drive in China" and he just replied "oh no, you could NEVER drive in China" - enough said!

After the computer store we made it to Pizza Hut (finally some American food!) to have pizza delivered to our hotel and finally got our coffee from Starbucks - a little piece of heaven in China for Mike and I. Mike bought the kids some hot chocolate and it was Jiang Ting's first time trying it. She sucked that down so fast I couldn't believe it. One thing, she is used to very hot temps. for her liquids. She boils water in our hotel room and drinks it right away. I have to try and encourage her to wait a little bit. But if it cools down too much she won't touch it.

Mike and Shelly feeling at home with a cup of Starbucks in Nanjing, China

Jiang Ting experiencing Starbucks for the first time (a little hot chocolate)

Oh, one thing I forgot to add is on the way back from her orphanage visit yesterday we passed a vehicle that was carrying many cars like we see in the States. She was amazed. She turned and asked me if we had a car at home. I said "yes, a very big one" and her eyes lit up so much and she laughed and clapped her hands, then when I told her we had two vehicles she gave a cry of excitement and gave me a huge hug! She is going to love living in America!