Kien's Adoption Ceremony

We stayed at the orphanage until around 2:30pm. Then we got back in the van (the caregivers took the babies separately), and we drove to the location of the "Giving and Receiving Ceremony" (as it's called in Vietnam - or the "G&R"). The short van ride was the one chance we had to eat a snack for lunch, but I just couldn't eat after that huge emotional experience at the orphanage and before the one to come at the G&R. Little did we know that we would be there for almost 3 hours!! We didn't leave to return to Hanoi until 5:15pm.

I have debated many times whether to reveal this piece of information, and I've decided to just mention it without going into much detail. And although I'm sharing this much now, it's something that I would rather not discuss beyond my mentioning it here. In this particular province, it is legal for parents to relinquish their parental rights and place a child in an orphanage within this province. (In others, it is not legal. Therefore, babies are abandoned, like happens in China.) But in this province, after the birth parents have relinquished their rights and placed their child in an orphanage, they are STILL required to attend the Giving and Receiving Ceremony!! So yes, the birth mother and/or father were there for all the children. Most often, children are relinquished due to a combination of circumstances, including poverty, being unmarried, or exceeding the legal limit of having only 2 children (or they'd be penalized in some way). There are so many comments I could make about the situation, what happened, how I felt about it beforehand, and how I feel about it afterwards. But I really want to keep most of this private, largely for the sake of our son.

Each family went through an interview in a private room, and we were first (without knowing what to expect ahead of time!). This took quite awhile to do for each of the four families. Then the ceremony itself finally occurred, where we were presented with the adoption certificate (in the photo above). It was hard to know what type of emotion to show, due to the mixed parties in attendance. Jumping up and down with joy seemed far from appropriate.

Then during each family's turn, after receiving the certificate, we had to sign a large book and then several other documents. My hand didn't even want to work to be able to sign my name correctly! And then it was over!

I was holding Kien as his caregiver left the room and said good-bye to him, and he cried! It was like he seemed to know that she was really leaving. But fortunately, the crying was short-lived. And she left us with a bottle.

She also left us with a stinky baby, who got his first diaper change on a bench in the hallway! ;) We were surprised to discover that the babies actually had diapers on for the event. hooray! And then we changed him into the cute little clothes that we brought along. :)

And that was it!! Kien is now a Faulkner!!! :) (However, his name won't be official until we do a name change back in the US.) I don't think I could even begin to describe the emotions of the day. But we had our little boy!!! :) :)