christofu.net

The Dossier goes to China & so do I

Our dossier was sent to China in August of last year. The SARS crisis was fresh in everyone's mind. Several groups had their travel plans delayed. However, the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) committed to keep the paperwork moving to minimize any adoption delays (in hindsight, very sucessfully, I might add).

In October, I took this nutty business trip that had me circumnavigating the globe. I hit Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, Switzerland & the UK all in 2 weeks. I was in Beijing over the weekend (done intentionally as I love the city). The weather was not cooperating and it rained the entire time. Christi rang me during the day, which was odd since that meant it was the middle of the night there. She asked me if I was sitting down (at that point, I lay down on the bed). She then spoke something that resembled Mandarin (I have Chinese dictionaries at home). After the third attempt, she gave up and told me that she was pregnant.

Now a couple of things to mention here. First, even if Christi's Mandarin was perfect, I would have never understood her as, until then, I never had a need to understand the phrase, I'm pregnant (thank goodness). Next point: since we had started the adoption paperwork, we were not trying to have a natural child. Our "plan" was to adopt, wait a year or so, and then try. I'm not sure what comes to mind first, "The immaculate conception" or "Folks, birth control really isn't 100% effective."

So let me paint this picture again. I'm in Beijing, it's pouring rain, I have the beginnings of a cold with 1.5 weeks of travel to go, it's nighttime in the US so I cannot call anyone to share the news. I was absolutely elated and absolutely freaked out both at the same time. While I was surprised at the news, I wasn't shocked. Fate has a way of keeping life interesting & wonderful. This news certainly counted as both.

I got off the phone with Christi, and started to think, and Think, and THINK and THINK! Christi & I had put on our adoption dossier that we would be open and willing to adopt twins. Hmmmm. Come to think of it, Christi has twins in her family. Zero to four kids in under a year? Now that would be interesting.

Posted by christofu at March 9, 2004 09:51 AM