Cassreinos arrive in Nanchang

Monday, April 3, 2006, 2:50 p.m.
Less than 1 hour and 45 minutes until we get Cao Ai Hua

By Terry R. Cassreino

NANCHANG, China - The humidity.
We felt the change in the weather as soon as we left the airport in Nanchang. And after six days in the relatively dry air of Beijing, Pam and I welcome the change in weather from a dry, crisp chill that wreaked havoc with our sinuses to the warm humid climate of Nanchang.
As you can see, we arrived and we made it to our room on the 11th floor of the Gloria Plaza Hotel overlooking a river and a small city of about 4 million. While that's significantly larger than Hattiesburg or New Orleans, we can already tell the difference.
Inside the room is a king-size bed and a baby bed for Ai Hua. We also have, obviously, an Internet hook-up and a television that tunes into several Chinese stations along with a couple of English language ones.
The room isn't as big as the one we had in Beijing, but it'll do.
Now, for the main attraction: Cao Ai Hua. We will meet other families with Holt International Children's Services in the hotel lobby at 4 p.m. for the baby handoff, better known as Gotcha Day. We will take video and snap photos; I hope to post photos as soon as possible.
I'm not too nervous. Well, I guess I am a little. So is Pam. I don't know what to expect and neither does Pam. We have a fairly good idea the baby will cry and be upset, possibly for much of the night. And we think she'll bond to one of us almost immediately.
As for the rest of the night and week, Holt has scheduled a few outings to visit local attractions. And Holt also has dedicated a lot of time for document paperwork we'll need to complete to make the adoption legal in China and process the baby's Chinese passport.
The baby will leave with us as a Chinese resident; as soon as our plane touches the ground in Detroit on Friday, April 14, she will be an American citizen. We'll also go through an American adoption, with help and guidance from Catholic Charities.
A few observations on the way in to Nanchang:

• We passed by several high-rise apartment buildings. Some people obviously don't have air conditioning, because many windows were open.
• They also may not have a dryer (or they are like me and enjoy drying their clothes in the air) because row after row of high rise buildings had clothes hanging on lines just outside windows. Some exteriors were covered completely in clothes drying after a wash.
• Despite having about 4 million people, the Nanchang airport was relativerly small. I would say the airport compares favorably in size to the Jackson-Evers International Airport in Jackson, Miss., where we began our adoption trip on March 27.

Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.