China
Guatemala
Russia
Vietnam
Brazil
India
Ethiopia
"Come on Grandma," I yelled, grasping my grandmother's hand and pulling hard so that she could catch up. I ran through the airport looking around vigorously. "Where are they?" I said. I swung open a door that said WAITING GATE 5, and there they were........
I got ahead of myself. If you're wondering who "they" are, they're my mom and dad holding my new baby sister. "We" were in the Nashville airport, around 3:00 PM July 9, 2000.
My mom and dad went to China to finish our adoption and to pick up my sister at Changsha. They had just arrived from a two week journey. As you can tell I was pretty anxious to see them.
When I opened that door and saw my baby sister for the very first time of my life, I was overwhelmed with particular emotions. Some of them didn’t make sense. At first I full of joy as if hot chocolate was bubbling up inside me. Right after came nervousness. What if she refused to let me hold her? Then relief filled my heart once again, to see my family all together at last, like it was meant to be.
With these emotions I heard my mom's voice shrieking from the sight of Brandon, and the phase "Oh you must have grown a least two inches since I saw you last!" drift my way. I could hear Grandma talking in a language only Amy could ever understand. Then came a sound you wouldn’t know if it was joyous or sorrowful. It was if someone was crying. Then these words followed after: "We're all a family at last." I don't know whose mouth these touching words came from, but I understood what they meant, and they touched deep down in my heart and will stay there forever.
After these touching words, I felt the soft gentle fur of a teddy bear in my hand. As I raised it you could hear the giggling of a baby who wanted to play peek-a-boo with her new toy. The sound of her laughter filled an empty place in my heart a place no parent, sibling, or friend could ever fill.
You could tell I would love her no matter which toy of mine she would break in the future or which nights she woke me from my slumber with her whining and pathetic cry.
The time in that airport seemed eternal, like I could live forever in that moment. Even though Amy isn't my sister by blood she is and will always be from my heart.
Emily
One of my favorite memories is when my family got my baby sister, Amy. We adopted her from China. When we got her, she was not like an American baby. She was small and weak and couldn't sit up by herself. She was nine months old when my mom and dad went to get her. They were in China for seventeen days while my brother and sister and I stayed at home with my grandma and grandpa. We played games like Monopoly with my grandparents while we waited for Mom and Dad and Amy to come home. It seemed like a long time to wait.
Waiting to hear about Amy and seeing her picture for the first time took even longer. Adoption takes about nine months to a year. When I saw her picture for the first time, I was excited and so was my whole family. Mom and Dad got copies of her picture so we could take them to school and show our friends and family. After we got her picture, I thought we would get her soon, but my mom and dad said we had to wait another two months. I was angry because I wanted to see my baby sister.
Finally, two months passed. My sister and older brother and my grandma and grandpa and I headed in the car to Nashville airport to pick up my parents and my sister! I was so happy to see my little baby sister. She didn't seem excited to see me. She was tired from the trip. We got in the cars and put Amy in her car seat and I sat next to her. That didn't last long because my sister Emily fought me for the seat. Guess who won? My sister sat near Amy. I sat near the window. Amy fell asleep on the way home.
Everyone was excited to see her when we got home. When we got home, we put my sister to bed. Now it was time for the gifts. I got a chop, which is like a name stamp, with my name in Chinese and English. And I got a necklace with a big horsefly in it. My dad picked out the necklace. My parents bought silk dresses for Amy and Emily. They are beautiful. I helped out a lot with Amy. I changed her messy diapers and played with her.
She couldn't do much, but she smiled when she saw me. She liked to see me or Mom. We gave her a bath and she liked the water. We took her picture a lot. When she got a little stronger, she started to flip over. She liked bananas and sweet potatoes and rice. She was thirteen pounds when she came home. Now she has been home five months. She has changed a whole lot. She knows how to crawl and is starting to walk. She eats Cheerios by herself. She can hold her own bottle. Emily and I like to help her practice walking. She walks to me, then back to Emily. She wouldn't eat regular American food before, but she does now. Her favorite foods are cheese, French fries, and bananas. Amy now weighs nineteen pounds. That is a lot of weight for five months.
I love her very much because she is my sister. She doesn't look like me because she is Asian, but she is still my sister. We both have brown hair and brown eyes. Her hair sticks up in the air just like mine did when I was a baby. Amy needed someone to care for her, like me. She needed a family to care for her. I've learned that every baby deserves a loving, caring home and family.
Brandon
