safe in Wuhan

Sunday night, 1148pm. We are at the White Rose Hotel in Wuhan, the capital of the province of Hubei, the home province of Emily (and for that matter, Allie). Monday morning at 9am we are going to the Civil Affairs Bureau (CAB) building. The CAB is the Chinese government agency which oversees adoptions. This is where we make a donation to the orphanage and get baby Emily. Emily was born on July 20th 2006 and was left on the doorstep of Tuanfeng County Welfare Institute (orphanage)in the province of Hubei when she was one day old. Think of Hubei as Michigan and Wuhan as Lansing, only with millions more people. Emily was given a medical exam and vaccinated in the orphanage. At three days old, she was placed with a foster family, where she has been ever since. Each foster family works closely with a local orphanage and provide a monthly report on the baby's progress, including a medical checkup. Emily is very healthy and robust. As we understand it, the foster family has already handed Emily back to the orphanage director so we can adopt her -- the foster family will not be present at the CAB, which is probably good because it would hurt them to see Emily handed over to us. I know they hurt anyway. Emily will be driven by the orphanage director and some nannies to the CAB as her orphanage is not far from our hotel in Wuhan, where we will receive her Monday June 4th at 9am (9pm Sunday night EDT). Right now it is midnight and Allie is watching Pooh's Grand Adventure. We are wired and over-tired. Tomorrow is the grand adventure for all of us, for our new family. We are so excited!! The digital camera is powered up and we are ready to go. More to come on Monday. Love, M, J, A