China- a Country of Contradiction

Monday, July 4th

On this day as we remember our nation’s independence, the contrast between the USA and China seems so glaring. I am in the middle of a country where I can’t even make my own blog entries because Blogger is censored here. So is Facebook. And so are many of the sites that I have been trying to get regular information from when doing Google searches. It’s a bizarre feeling to “not be allowed” to read or write something.

China is such a mix of the old and the new. Actually, old does not even describe China. Perhaps I should say ancient instead. There is ancient writing, ancient buildings, ancient traditions, ancient customs, and ancient ways of doing things. Yet, there is also an undertone of newness that makes you feel like China is experiencing some technological undertaking that we don’t understand. And they are flashing words and commercials across the screen in microseconds that when you blink, it is over.

The roads are so strange to me because one lane will be filled with the fanciest BMWs, overcrowded buses, crazy taxi-drivers, motor scooters equipped with umbrellas for sun protection and rusty old bicycles pedaling wares for deliveries to local shops. And none of these motorists or bicyclists are following any set of rules. Maybe it’s their way of dealing with a country that has so many rules that have to be followed. They comply with all of the government’s requests but they draw the line at following rules on the highway.

The White Swan Hotel where we are currently staying is a luxury hotel and considered one of the best hotels in the world. They will be closing for renovation in September and making their rooms even larger. My guide was saying that it is actually unfortunate because when they are finished the prices will be even higher and basically unaffordable for adoptive families. Early in the morning when we go to breakfast, I sit in this elaborate dining room of a massive hotel that has over 800 rooms and watch a boat family glide by the windows. There are many, but you can only see them early in the morning. They are so poor that I don’t even have words to describe them. This is their home. They have only one set of clothes that don’t fit well and a rusty old boat that looks like it will fall apart in the next storm. They swim and use a big stick and a net to try to catch fish in the dirty water of the Pearl River.

Perhaps it is because I am here to specifically do an adoption that I feel like my feet are standing on two different types of ground. It’s very unsettling. On one hand, the nannies who cared for Cameron at Starfish Foster Home pay about $6 a month for rent in their building. On the other hand, I paid $5.15 for 8 oz of Evian water in the bar at the hotel because it was cold and I was too hot to deal with a lukewarm drink at that moment.

The woman who founded Cameron’s foster home talked of a sign that she heard about in an orphanage or government building with a China flag next to the words that can be translated “we don’t want them, but we don’t want you to have them either.” It’s very true in Shaanxi Province where Cameron was born and adopted out of. The orphanage was filled with about 95% children with special needs. I know that there are as many abandonment stories as there are people, but it’s pretty hard to not make assumptions about why children were abandoned when 95% of the children from an orphanage that is responsible for over 800 children all have special needs.

Cameron was left to die in the orphanage. That was actually their plan for him. If it wasn’t for Amanda (the founder of Starfish Foster Home) and Chrissy (a very special volunteer and the one who named him Cameron), he would not have lived. They had to fight to allow him to come to Starfish Foster Home. And I felt like I was in a battle to adopt him. It has been so frustrating to deal with. I certainly wasn’t expecting a ticker tape parade when I arrived to pick up Cameron and bring him home, but I also wasn’t expecting there to be so much opposition as I go through this grueling adoption process in China that actually began several years and many thousands of dollars ago.

I can feel the tension and see the weariness all around me in the hotel. Everyone just wants the process to be finished so they can hop on a plane to get back to the US. We had to go back to the clinic for immigrants today to have Cameron’s TB test read. It was negative. Thank God! I really don’t think I could have dealt with anything extra like x-rays and more medical appointments here. I saw many families crammed into the hot waiting room waiting for their physicals, and I was so relieved to be 2 days past ours.

Tomorrow is a free day for us, so I am planning an adventure. Stay tuned…