In my last post I began to tell the story I wrote while waiting to travel to China for our "Gotcha Day" with Malissa. Here is the rest of the Many Red Threads story...
By the time we got to the big city of Nanning (nah-neeng), I was exhausted. I wanted to close my eyes in sleep, but the newness of everything kept me awake. Along with the other babies and their nannies, my nanny carried me to a large room in the Civil Affairs building full of people with flashing cameras. She walked to a tall couple, handed me to the man and woman, and said lovingly, "Baba, Mama" (Daddy, Mommy).
My new mother and father held me tenderly and cried tears of joy. I was not a stranger to them because they had several pictures of me sent to them a few months before coming to China. Mama whispered, "Wo ai ne," (I love you) in my ear and Baba gave me a kiss on top of my head. My deep brown eyes looked curiously into Mama's blue eyes. I had never seen eyes that color before. I cried because I did not know yet Mama and Baba were attached to one of the many Red Threads tied to me. Baba softly said, "Bie ku" (Don't cry).
They took me to our hotel room. They fed a bottle to me, gave me a warm soothing bath, dressed me in soft pajamas, and sang quiet songs to me while holding me closely. I soon fell asleep feeling comfortable and safe.
A few days later we rode in a bus to another city in China called Guangzhou (gwahng-joe) to finish the necessary paperwork so I could become a United States citizen. Before I could become an American citizen I had to have a physical exam to make sure I was healthy, and Mama and Baba had to promise the government workers in the American Consulate they would always love and take care of me.
Later that week we flew together in a big jet to America. When we finally landed in Kalamazoo, Michigan we walked off the plane, and I met my two big brothers. They passed me around lovingly with smiles in their eyes. They called me "Meimei" (little sister) as they smelled my soft black hair, tickled the bottoms of my feet, and played Peek-a-Boo with me while riding in the car to our home.
As time went on my family and I did everything together. We swam in lakes and oceans, walked in the woods and mountains, played Hide-and-Seek and golf, celebrated birthdays and holidays, and cuddled quietly while reading books. I learned how to talk like them, to walk, to eat on my own, and to make other people smile by me just smiling at them.
My family also taught me about China and told the story often of their journey to me. Before they even knew who I was they felt the tug of the Red Thread between us. They knew they had to come get me. They filled out dozens of forms, were interviewed many times by a social worker, had physical exams to make sure they were healthy, were even fingerprinted, and they waited a year and a half for the Red Thread to shorten. They told me about the joyous day they saw my picture for the first time and the long plane ride to China. I slowly began to learn that the Red Thread attached to my family would never break and remain strong forever.
When I was old enough to go to school, my parents drove with me to meet my new teacher and classmates. Some of the other children cried when the parents left, but I didn't. Even though, I had never met the teacher and children before, they were not strangers to me. I could feel the many Red Threads that were pulling me toward them. Since the Red Threads of my past had drawn me close to those who loved me, I knew the Red Threads of my future would pull me towards those whom I would grow to love.
Today I can feel many Red Threads attached to me. Some of them are attached to people of my past such as my birth mother and nannies. Some are attached to people from the present such as Mama, Baba, and my brothers. But some of them are attached to people of my future that I haven't even met yet. I wonder who those people are and when the Red Threads will untangle and shorten so I can meet them, too.
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