Reliving Gotcha Day in Nanchang

Monday, April 3, 2006, 9:12 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

NANCHANG, China - Some call it organized chaos.
Holt International Children’s Service calls it Gotcha Day.
I call it incredible, moving, emotional and draining.
But Pam and I survived it. And now we will spend the next two weeks completing paperwork to legally adopt Camryn Ai Hua Cassreino from China and then prepare her for the trip back to the United States and Mississippi. That starts on Tuesday.
Until then, I thought I’d share the following 10 photographs to give you a sense of what happened today, when it happened and how it happened. I hope you can understand what we experienced; it won't be the same, but I hope it gives you an idea.



PHOTO 1
Pam stands outside the Nanchang airport shortly after we arrive and before we boarded the tour bus for the Gloria Hotel downtown. The flight arrived from Beijing at about 12:30 p.m., or thereabouts. The flight aboard Eastern China was smooth. The airline even served lunch on the two-hour flight: steamed rice and fish. I don’t like fish so I skipped the meal. Pam ate hers.







PHOTO 2
At about 4 p.m. Monday, all Holt families gathered in a hallway at the hotel and waited for the child handoff. As soon as a name was called the family headed for the door and received their baby. The scene left babies in tears, obviously confused about what was happening. In this picture, an orphaage worker holds our child, Camryn, moments before he hands her off to us.








PHOTO 3
An obviously confused Camryn, wth a solid grip on a sweet cracker, went to me with no problem - save for a few tears and complete bewilderment.












PHOTO 4
Pam took Camryn, and that’s when she started really crying. Pam didn't startle her. The folks at Holt warned us that the babies tended, for whatever reason, to go immediately with the men before bonding with the moms.










PHOTO 5
Camryn ovbviously turned on the waterworks full speed. The poor thing. She was so confused and emotionally distraught.













PHOTO 6
Pam tries to console Camryn, but it didn’t work.















PHOTO 7
I tried my hand again, but that didn’t work. Notice that she still has that heavyweight grip on her cracker. She never gave that thing up for at least two hours.











PHOTO 8
Dad and mom pose with an hysterical Camryn and her impossible-to-remove-from-her-hand cracker. You know, Camryn never ate the thing. She held onto it for dear life. She was not about to let some stranger rip it from her hand. By the time she let go hours later, the sweat from her hand left the cracker a soggy mess.








PHOTO 9
By the time this photo was snapped, Camryn was zonked. I left Pam at about 7:30 p.m., went down to the lobby and dined at a Chinese buffet that had everything from duck a’la orange to prime rib and braised octopus (complete with tentacles). The dessert table had cheesecake and cookies. Good food reasonably priced. I ate dinner, returned to the room and then let Pam eat while I watched Camryn.







PHOTO 10
Camryn is still zonked out in the baby crib the hotel was kind enough to provide. I guess the hotel decided to invest in the cribs for adopted families. Another group of parents is expected to arrive on Tuesday and others are still in town. Americans aren't the only folks who adopt Chinese babies. Many adopted families (not necessarily from Holt) are also from European countries.






Photos and text copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.