Adoption Journals of Wu Min Jian and Zhan Ai Ping

Updated April 6, 2005
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

Zhan Ai Ping, Guangdong Province

OUR DOSSIER FOR our second adoption went to China in September, 2004. This past March, 2005, we received our referral for "Chinese Daughter #2." Her name is Zhan Ai Ping and she is from Guangdong Province, just over the border from Hong Kong. We hope to travel back to the People's Republic of China in May. We will name Ai Ping Rachel Marie. Meanwhile, our first adopted daughter, Rebecca Lee (a.k.a. Wu Min Jian) continues to be an indescribable blessing.

Rebecca Lee June 2004

On October 3, 2004 a feature article I wrote, Orphans No More, appeared on the front page of the Life Section of the Herald News. Accompanied by a number of photos, the article was a condensed version of our first adoption journey, which appears in its entirety in my second book, The View from the Grass Roots - Another Look.

Some of these columns and photos appear below in my first daughter's adoption diary that I started in November 2001.

Rebecca and Chewy during an affectionate moment.

IN MARCH 2001, we began the process called adoption. It was long and arduous, involving a lot of paperwork and even more waiting. Eight months later in November our completed dossier was sent off to the China Center for Adoption. I wrote about the first part of this in a column entitled Love Will Overcome Adoption Frustrations that appeared in the Herald News and the New Jersey Herald in January 2002. (Scroll down for a complete list of all the columns written on various aspects of Minjian's adoption and our trip to China.)

There was nothing for us to do at this point but wait and pray. Often that is the best thing to do when one isn't sure what else to do.

Then, on April 13, unknown to us at the time, somewhere in Guangxi Province in the People's Republic of China a woman who we will never meet gave birth to a little baby girl that she decided she did not want to keep. Two days later this baby ended up on the doorstep of the Wuzhou Social Welfare Institute.

This baby was named Wu Min Jian. On January 23, 2003, 22 months after we began our "paperwork pregnancy" we received our referral including three photos of our daughter. Wu Min Jian is a spitting image of her two brothers James and John. And she is just like her father who also loves music and is fond of  imitating people's mannerisms. This is certainly no coincidence. Surely the Hand of God is evident in His choice for our family. I wrote about the spiritual aspect of adoption in a second column that appeared in The Record on June 20, 2002, Father Awaits Arrival of Baby from China. Little did I know when I wrote that column that our daughter had already been born and was two-months old.

Wu Min Jian D.O.B. April 13, 2002 Guangxi Province, PRC Height: 63.2 cm (2' 1") Weight: 6.45 kg (14.2 lbs.)

Internet message boards are a great way for adoptive couples in a group to communicate with one another. My January 27 column, YAHOO! In More Ways Than One explains how AWAA Group 108 stayed in touch during the long, 14-month wait for their referrals.

FEBRUARY 12

Yesterday we learned that Wu was moved to a foster home. Apparently this is done routinely with children who are about to be adopted as it makes for a smoother transition to home life from the orphanage. We sent the person who is personally caring for Wu a package of goodies for our daughter including a blanket, a panda bear, a Lamaze Play & Grow toy (Tucker the Turtle), a couple of family photos and three disposable cameras to take pictures of her in her surroundings. 

MARCH 26
Well, here we are. It's the eve of our trip to China. There's a war raging in the Middle East and an orange terror alert here in the homeland. A virus has caused pneumonia-like symptoms and killed some travelers in the Guangzhou-Hong Kong region--right where we will be in another week. But why worry? God knew all this when we began our adoption odyssey two years ago. Tomorrow we fly out of Newark to Chicago where we'll change planes for our flight to Beijing. After several days in China's capital, we'll fly to Nanning in Guangxi province. We will receive our daughter on March 31 in the hotel where we'll be staying. After spending a few days in Nanning to take care of local paperwork, we'll fly to Guangzhou for more paperwork at the US Consulate. We fly home on April 9 through Hong Kong.  

APRIL 22
We've been home now for fourteen days with our little daughter, Rebecca Lee. Despite the long journey with the added threat of SARS, everyone is healthy. It was an enjoyable trip but also very stressful. We were constantly on the move from the moment we landed in Beijing. On the first weekend we visited the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace.

From Beijing, which was gray and depressing we flew to Nanning in the southern province of Guangxi where it was humid and in the mid-90s. Here, the landscape took on a completely different character. Everything was green and lush. There were farms and rice paddies and palm trees. The sky was a deep blue. It was as if we had been transported to Puerto Rico or Costa Rica. It was the evening of March 31 when we arrived at the airport in Nanning. We were whisked to our hotel on a bus where we hastily dropped our bags. Then we all got back on the same bus for the short ride to the Adoption Affairs Bureau several blocks away. There we received our daughter along with 16 other families we had traveled with. We stayed in Nanning for several more days waiting for the paperwork to be processed.

While there we visited a Buddhist temple, a farm and a rural school. Four days later on Friday all of our daughter's paperwork had been processed. We were given Minjian's Chinese passport. Legally, she was now our daughter. From Nanning we flew to Guangzhou for our interview at the US Consulate the following Monday. Two days later we flew home. It was a 30-hour trip door to door. Needless to say, we all kissed the threshold as we walked into our house here in New Jersey.

Eight additional columns were written on various aspects of the trip. Links to them appear below. They are included in my recent book, "The View from the Grass Roots - Another Look"

If you enjoyed this column, imagine how much you'll love Rummo's latest book! It's 536 pages of sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant and almost always provocative commentary on American Culture. $19.95 shipping and handling included. Click here for more information.

Red Thread of Destiny Knits Family Together, The Record, June 12

A Letter To My Adopted Daughter's Mother, New Jersey Herald, Apr. 29

Enjoying the Mother of All Winters from 7,000 Miles Away, Herald News, Apr. 13

No Fear of SARS in Guangzhou, Apr 6

Chinese Promise Security from SARS, Herald News, Apr. 6

View of China's Great Wall not so Great, New Jersey Herald, Apr. 22

Marco Polo Never had to Deal with Jet Lag, New Jersey Herald, Apr. 15

Making the Skies Friendly Again, New Jersey Herald, Apr. 13