[The following is the third of three installments in one family's chronicle of their adoption experience.  For parts one and two, see "A Red Thread, a Red Dress, and a Daughter from China" and "Answered Prayers And a Trip to China".]

Wednesday, February 19, 2003 -- Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province, China

We had been told that we would be able to visit the abandonment places of the babies in our travel group, as well as the orphanage they were raised in. So we boarded our bus and set out for Zhuzhou City, about a two-hour drive from Changsha.

The time just flew as we played with our new daughters on the bus.  Before long, we were in Zhuzhou.  As we drove along a busy, crowded four-lane road, Jophy read street signs.  As I looked in the faces of some many people from my bus window, I couldn't help but think that Emerson's birth family was out there somewhere. As we passed an intersection on Xin Húa Drive, Jophy told the bus driver to stop.  "This is Gúo Wen Gao's abandon place", she said.  "Kinsey family, come with me."  Laurel and I left the bus with Jophy, handing Emerson over to Chrissy.  As we looked across the street, there we saw the branch office of the Bank of China.  We crossed the street and stood on the corner near the bank, taking pictures of the site where she was abandoned.  The pictures will hopefully help her in later years fill in the gaps of her life that she'll have no memory of.  The information we received from the orphanage stated that she had been found on the sidewalk near the bank, so we could only imagine the exact place where she was left.  As I saw how busy the street was, I knew that whoever left her there wanted her to be found quickly.  There was a profound emotional feeling seeing the place where our daughter's known history began.  Since she was found at five days old, nothing is known about her life before being left at this place.  I imagined her birth mother leaving her there and hiding somewhere nearby to make sure she was noticed and picked up.  I felt a sad and empty feeling of loss for both for Emerson and her birth mother.  When we boarded the bus later, all we wanted to do is just hold Emerson and hug her.

The Dulaneys felt the same way when we found the tax assessor's office where Nikki had been found, also in Zhuzhou City.  We traveled a good way into the countryside in order to find Helena's abandonment site, but after several wrong turns and sketchy directions, Karla decided to forego seeing the actual site.  We then set out for the orphanage.

As we entered the busy city again, we soon turned onto a side street, which led us to the tall white buildings of the Zhuzhou Children's Social Welfare Institute.  A group of happy children ran up to meet the bus, waving and laughing.  As we got off the bus, Nikki became very excited and all the children surrounded her, remembering her as one of their friends.  Nikki smiled proudly with her friends as we took pictures.

We were taken to a reception room where we met with the orphanage director, Ms. Zhang, and the assistant director, Mr. Wu.  Ms. Liu, the teacher we had met at the hotel, also came in.  We were able to ask more questions about the children's schedules and the orphanage, and to give our gifts to the director and assistant director.  Part of the adoption process involves giving small gifts of thanks to the notary and orphanage workers, so we gave them our gifts with many smiles and expressions of thanks to them.

As we sat in the reception room, Laurel and I asked Jophy to ask the assistant director about the note that had been found with Emerson.  As she asked him in Chinese, he turned and picked up a piece of paper from a nearby table and handed it to Jophy.  Jophy glanced at the wrinkled piece of paper, reading its Chinese letters.  Tears began to well in her eyes and she told us that she would translate it for us later.  She was clearly overcome with emotion.  As we looked at the paper, we noticed it had a lot more writing on it than just her birth date.  We were so anxious to see what the note said, since it obviously stirred up so much emotion in Jophy.

We left the reception room and went to visit the toddler rooms and infant rooms where our girls had lived for most of their lives.  The orphanage was clean, bright, and decorated with a few brightly colored decorations in each room.  Nikki proudly showed us the bed where she had slept, and then we went to the infant room. We met some of the nannies in the room, and all of them were so excited to see Nikki, Emerson, and Helena again.  We were all amazed and grateful that the girls didn't seem to mind being back there.  In the infant room, we had arrived during "music time".  The four or five nannies were playing with the babies while an electronic keyboard in a corner of the room belted out some snappy tunes.  There were about fifteen babies in the infant room, all under one year old.  Some were in high chairs, some in walkers, some crawling around on the play mat on the floor.  My heart just ached as we walked in the room.  All of the babies seemed so serious.  As our babies had been, each was dressed in several layers of clothing, covered by some sort of snowsuit.  However, all of their pants were split at the crotch for easy diaper changing.  Each one was wearing a cloth diaper, tied around their waist with a cord. 

As I got down on the floor to play with one of the babies, I was determined to get a smile out of one of them, and it didn't take long.  Handing a squeaky toy to one shy little girl, I got a smile that made her eyes disappear.  My heart just melted.  I looked over and saw that one of the nannies was holding Emerson and dancing around and playing with her.  It was so strange to imagine her in this room as one of the orphans as I saw her in her American clothes and pigtails.  Just a few short days before, this had been her entire world.

After we had played with the children for a while, we saw the room with their beds, and one of the nannies told us which one was Emerson's and which one was Helena's.  Their cribs were just across from each other, touching at one of the corners.  Amazing.  Only a crib apart in China, and they were going to live only two miles from each other in America.  God's red thread continues to unravel!

As we reluctantly left the orphanage, we all felt so sad for the children we had to leave behind, who didn't have a family. No wonder so many Chinese people kept coming up to us in public and saying "Lucky" as they patted our babies.  We were also sad for our daughters, knowing they would most likely never see these people again.  As we were leaving the infant room, the nanny who had been holding Emerson held her close and just cried.  So did we.  Seeing the love this woman felt for our daughter spoke more than our two languages ever could.  Yes, it was an emotional day.  Seeing the short histories of our little girls was sad in some ways, happy in others.  It was sad that they had been so deprived of individual attention, but we were happy to know that we could change all of that very quickly.  We were also happy and so grateful to have been able to visit the orphanage, since many orphanages don't allow outside visitors.

Back on the bus, we quickly asked Jophy to tell us what the note said that had been left with Emerson.  She said she thought someone young had written it, given how the handwriting looked.  She read the letter to us:

"She was born on February 30, year of the Horse (Chinese calendar), April 12 Western calendar.  The birth parents are useless.  Please allow us to bow down in thanks to the good heart people to adopt her."

Did I mention it had been an emotional day?  If we hadn't cried enough with seeing the abandonment site and the orphanage, this letter was enough to put us over the edge.  The letter just echoed with so much hurt and loss.  We could only imagine what the family situation had been.  Were they too poor to take care of a child?  Did they already have a child?  Were the parents too young?  Too old?  Having seen where she had been left and now reading the note, we knew her family wanted her to have a better life.  It was so incredible to believe that looking into the deep, dark eyes of this beautiful little girl someone could give her up.  I can't even pretend to know all of the reasons Chinese women give up their children.  I do know that most all of them want their daughters to have a better life.  As Emerson slept in my arms on the bus ride back to the hotel, I felt so profoundly sad and happy at the same time.  I wondered about Emerson's birth parents.  Knowing they didn't know what became of her, I thought of how relieved they might be, knowing she was going to have a family, but also how sad they might be to know they couldn't provide that home.  I felt a strange bond with them that day, silently pledging that our common daughter would indeed have a good life, as much as it was in my power to give her.

Today -- Back Home, With Life Resembling Something Close To Normal

Fast forward to the present, and we've been home in Georgia now for about two months.  On April 12, we celebrated Emerson's first birthday with a little party that seemed to both amuse and confuse her.  She was pretty happy when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her, but she cried when we gave her a little cake to eat with her hands, and would have nothing to do with the icing or cake when we tried to feed it to her.  Amazingly enough, she prefers bland and sometimes spicy foods, but not sweets!  Maybe we should have made a cake entirely of Cheerios!

Emerson has adjusted amazingly well to her new American life.  She loves her brothers, and it's hilarious to see them argue over who's going to get to hold her or play with her.  I imagine when she starts barging into their rooms and playing with their toys, that'll stop soon enough! 

She's walking when we hold her hands and guide her around, and gone are the serious, furrowed-brow looks that were so common in China.  She's happy, noisy, and busy most of the day now and always quick to give a smile or try to make you laugh by a face that she makes.  She loves meeting new people, and just charms the socks off anyone who sees her big dark eyes and sweet dimpled smile.

We're grateful to God and all the people at HOPE and in the Atlanta church that helped make adopting Emerson a reality.  During our trip, so many of the Chinese people would see her with us and say "lucky baby".  While I'm grateful for the compliment from our daughter's fellow countrymen, I know in my heart of hearts that we're the lucky ones.