It’s finally here.

After more than a year’s worth of paperwork, several bottles of antacids, and a lot of sleepless nights, we’ve made it to the end– which will also be our new beginning. Most likely, Alexander is on a train from Yuncheng City with his caregivers this morning.  We were assigned an afternoon placement, so that means that he’s probably en route today.

Believe it or not, there’s another family here from the US adopting from Taiyuan with the same placement day as us, but they have an earlier appointment. We ran into them on the street yesterday in front of the hotel– I’m sure it was comical to see a group of Western foreigners all gathered around and greeting each other by name.  Surely, we must all know each other or be related because we are all from the US!

Back to Alexander! This morning after breakfast, Bill is taking us to the bank to exchange our welfare institution donation into RMB. If there’s time, we’ll hit Carrefour or another large department store for last-minute supplies and to load up our baby bag. This afternoon, we head to the Office of Civil Affairs where Alexander will be waiting. We’ll go through a brief interview with officials, and then we’ll take Alexander with us for what is called the “Harmonious Period”– a 24-hour “trial” period that ensures this is the right decision for us. Theoretically it makes sense, but in practice, it will most likely be the least harmonious time in our new family’s life.

For the first time since we’ve arrived in China, I will admit to feeling out of place. In Beijing, there are so many people that it seems as though everyone blends in. In Taiyuan, it’s a different world. We’ve seen maybe 10 Westerners, and pretty much no one speaks English. I’m very grateful to have Bill with us almost constantly, as he’s able to explain to very curious locals who we and what we’re doing– and this is BEFORE we’re carrying around a Chinese child! We were “warned” by our agency that we’ll be seen as unusual and objects of curiosity, but again, theory is different than practice. Staring is socially acceptable here, and it definitely makes you feel a little weird to walk around and have people stare and point at you.

My take-home lesson from this is that it’s important to be a good and gracious visitor. We might very well be the only foreigners that some of these Taiyuanese folks might ever encounter, and our behavior and actions should reflect that. I also wonder about Alexander’s birth parents. Even though we’ll very likely never know who or where they are or the loss they might continue to experience, we will always have a tie to this city as the place where our family began.

Today, we ask for your prayers of support and strength as we welcome the newest Kelly into our family.