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One of the things with this international adoption lark – the actual process, rather than the raising-of-beloved-monsters comes afterward – is that an awful lot always seems to depend on luck. Where do babies come from? They come from all over – America, Vietnam, China – and the rules governing the transaction (because, among many other things, it is a transaction) are never exactly fixed. SARS can break out (did for us while waiting for Daughter). Rules can suddenly change. Trade shows can make certain cities practically off limits for non-businesspeople (as happened during our trip to meet son ((son!)), leaving us in Foshan rather than Guangzhou).
One often feels at the whim of vast, unsympathetic forces – a victim of luck. I suspect this is probably true for all parents everywhere, though, once they sit and think through the strange and miraculous process of creating and rearing new human beings. And some babies are very lucky indeed. Lulu Byrne was born at 8:08 a.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month after eight hours of labor – the eighth baby delivered by Chinese-born midwife Bea Fung that day – and tipped the scales at 8 pounds! Eight, of course, is a lucky number in China (and babies are lucky anywhere), so new parents Mel and Peter have plenty to celebrate.
Luck always seems very prominent in people’s stories about adoping from (or being adopted in) China – the Magic Stapler in the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs’ Matching Room, the strange coincidences that stack up around names and families and places.
And there was a fair amount of luck – of the random, bad kind – involved with why China put the One-Child Policy in place to begin with. You have to be registered to read that, but you should – it’s free registration, and a fine, simple overview of how these kids wound up in Social Welfare Institutions to begin with. In some ways, you can say that babies come from famine, although that’s not really right.
That’s just where the system came from. Where the regulations came from. Luckily, the new, tighter adoption regulations have been well-received! Or so they say.
