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PrintWe followed our heart and it led us to China
Karen Szabo describes her family’s experience with international adoption, and the first few weeks they spent with their daughter.
People often ask me what it was like going to China to adopt our daughter. My immediate response is, “Incredible.” And it was — it was the trip of a lifetime if there ever was one.
We loved everything about our trip: We loved how warm and welcoming the Chinese people are; we loved experiencing the big cities and “smaller” towns of only 4.8 million; we were fascinated by the skyline, ancient structures standing alongside modern high-rises.
We visited temples, parks and pavilions and even climbed the Great Wall. We learned so much about China’s incredible history, although I could spend the rest of my life studying China and I would never know or understand it all. And, yes, we loved the food — the second question most people ask.
I always tell families who are adopting internationally that if and when they travel to their child’s country to go with an open mind, as well as open arms. Because when we embraced our daughter, we embraced her Chinese heritage as well.
We knew it was our responsibility to soak up as much information about China as we could so we can share our experiences with our daughter as she grows up. We will plan a heritage trip to China when she’s older, but until then, our memories are her biggest connection to her homeland.
Of course, the highlight of our trip was that moment when they placed our baby in my arms. I wish it had been more of a Hallmark moment, but it was a rush of emotions and activity. Our daughter was crying and extremely upset over the experience. I don’t really remember much about that afternoon other than immediately going into “mommy mode” and trying to soothe my brand-new baby and convince her that everything — everything — was going to be fine.
I also remember the next morning when we were riding in the bus to the adoption office to officially adopt our daughter. My 8-month-old baby, who had cried all afternoon the day before, was sitting peacefully in my lap, looking at me and smiling. I heard a soft noise and realized it was my little girl — singing. She had changed, literally, overnight, and I wondered if the power of love could be that strong.
Over the next two weeks, we visited many sites, enjoyed delicious food and met a lot of people who were — surprisingly — fascinated by our family. At one point, we were surrounded by curious shoppers at the Nanchang Wal-Mart (yes, Wal-Mart) who wanted to know where we were from and why our daughter was Chinese.
I’d assumed they would have become accustomed to Americans walking around with Chinese babies, but that wasn’t always the case. Throughout our trip, many Chinese thanked or blessed us for adopting Piper. We fell in love with China, our daughter’s first home and, now, our second.
Which is one of the most surprising memories I have from our trip – even though I was a world away, I felt like I’d come home. But considering that my daughter was waiting for me there, I guess that’s not so surprising after all.
