Amy & Alice Rose

ear Gongzhan,

Happy New York Chinese New Year!

We are sorry to have missed the Chinese New Year celebrations this last weekend. They sounded fantastic and we would have loved to have wished you – as well as Samson – "Xin Nian Kuai Le!" in person.

And of course, I would also have liked to thank you in person for your help in piecing together our trip to Fuling over the Christmas break. I'm hoping you'll accept my badly belated but heartfelt electronic thank-you, at least until I see you again.

About The Trip

Our trip back to China was very good. We spent a week in the fog and bustle of Chongqing and a week in the stately ease of Chengdu. Our day trip to Fuling fell at the mid-point of our trip. Joanna Zhou arranged for a terrific translator to come with us (Mark Wu) and a car and driver to bring us there and back.

You know the drive: foggy well-worked farm after foggy well-worked farm until the topography shifts steeply at the edge of the Yangtze. And then the completely in-process new waterfront where Fuling now meets the river. And then the Social Institute.

We probably only spent twenty minutes there. We greeted the Director,Yang Pei Shu, and had some oranges in the new boardroom. And we were able to say hello to the nurse who had looked after Alice Rose as a baby, a woman I remembered from our first visit. We saw the model of the new facility they will be moving in to. We chatted about Alice Rose being in school. We went into their new wing, which had been in construction when we visited in 2002. We also went into a nursery where Alice Rose was able to see and giggle with some babies who had already been placed. She was able to see the kind of crib she had slept in. And then we left. For Alice Rose's age it didn't seem like the visit needed to be any longer.

We spent the balance of a nice day out sniffing around Fuling: having hot-pot (very, very good), walking a bit in a nature preserve outside of town, visiting an ancient Taoist complex and watching kids coming home from school. Just a taste.

Postcard to a Friend

When we got back to Chongqing we sat down to write a postcard to Marina, one of Alice Rose’s schoolmates. Marina happens to have also come from Fuling. If you can imagine this, we had met we met and made the connection in New York City on a west side playground.

As we began to write the postcard, I asked Alice Rose what she wanted to tell Marina about Fuling. She said: "Say it was hard to be steady there." It had been a long day and, whether it was the winter fog or the mission, it had had a serious feel to it. And there was a lot to process.

I'm sorry this is getting so long but I wanted to pass on this story from our time in China.

As you might imagine, Alice Rose and I, being a western mother and a Chinese-looking daughter, attracted a lot of attention on our trip. We got a lot of questions. Is her father Chinese? How old is she? How old was she when she left China? Why doesn't she speak Chinese? Did you pay for her? Where is her family? And on and on....

All of this was in conversation in Chinese with me. Alice Rose knew she was being talked about, which she didn't like one bit, but couldn't follow the details or any real content of what was being said. Anyway, this was a regular part of our days and interactions with people.

The first week we were in China Alice Rose didn't touch her chopsticks and also didn't attempt any Chinese, not even with me. I somehow connected this with her reaction to all the attention. By the end of our trip, once we were in Chengdu with friends of friends, she would try out words with me at night and taught herself how to use chopsticks.

Our Connection

On our last full day in China we took a day trip from Shanghai to Suzhou to walk in the gardens. On the way back on the train a woman across the aisle ran me through the usual litany of questions and couldn't take her eyes off of Alice Rose. This wasn’t done in a threatening way, she just seemed amazed by her. After a while, after her questions stopped and there was silence for a while, Alice Rose started the following conversation:

Her: "Momma you know we're twins."
Me: "How do you figure that, my girl?"
Her: "We're twins 'cause our hands are the same."
Me: "Show me where they're the same"

Alice Rose took my hand. She zeroed in on my knuckles, specifically the tracery creases around them. “See,” she said, “these lines are the same."

Somehow she had taken all the questioning of our relationship over the course of the trip, filtered it, and was countering it with what she understood to be a physical fact: our connection.

Bringing It Home

We came back from China with many things. We came back with Alice Rose's lovely and masterful elision on the train, our images of the landscape and places, the tastes on our tongues and the words forming in our mouths. We came back with a sense of how far we had travelled to become a family, both in distance and time. We even came back, in the most day-to-day way, with a vocabulary of experiences that are now part of Alice Rose's play, as she imagines getting on an airplane – China Air – to go to China to adopt her favorite doll...

Thank you,

Amy and Alice Rose

Amy & Alice Rose

by Amy Lelyveld

Editor's Note

The writer, a Gladney mom, adopted her daughter Alice Rose in 2002. Gongzhan Wu, Gladney's China program director, recently helped arrange a return visit for Amy and Alice Rose. This is Amy's account of that journey as related in an e-mail to Mr. Wu.

Alice Rose, New Year's Day 2006

Alice Rose in Fuling



About the Initiative Humanitarian Programs Cultural Resources Post-Adoption Services Adopting From China Family Stories About the Gladney Fund Press Links	ear Gongzhan, Happy New York Chinese New Year! We are sorry to have missed the Chinese New Year celebrations this last weekend. They sounded fantastic and we would have loved to have wished you – as well as Samson – "Xin Nian Kuai Le!" in person. And of course, I would also have liked to thank you in person for your help in piecing together our trip to Fuling over the Christmas break. I'm hoping you'll accept my badly belated but heartfelt electronic thank-you, at least until I see you again. About The Trip Our trip back to China was very good. We spent a week in the fog and bustle of Chongqing and a week in the stately ease of Chengdu. Our day trip to Fuling fell at the mid-point of our trip. Joanna Zhou arranged for a terrific translator to come with us (Mark Wu) and a car and driver to bring us there and back. You know the drive: foggy well-worked farm after foggy well-worked farm until the topography shifts steeply at the edge of the Yangtze. And then the completely in-process new waterfront where Fuling now meets the river. And then the Social Institute. We probably only spent twenty minutes there. We greeted the Director,Yang Pei Shu, and had some oranges in the new boardroom. And we were able to say hello to the nurse who had looked after Alice Rose as a baby, a woman I remembered from our first visit. We saw the model of the new facility they will be moving in to. We chatted about Alice Rose being in school. We went into their new wing, which had been in construction when we visited in 2002. We also went into a nursery where Alice Rose was able to see and giggle with some babies who had already been placed. She was able to see the kind of crib she had slept in. And then we left. For Alice Rose's age it didn't seem like the visit needed to be any longer. We spent the balance of a nice day out sniffing around Fuling: having hot-pot (very, very good), walking a bit in a nature preserve outside of town, visiting an ancient Taoist complex and watching kids coming home from school. Just a taste. Postcard to a Friend When we got back to Chongqing we sat down to write a postcard to Marina, one of Alice Rose’s schoolmates. Marina happens to have also come from Fuling. If you can imagine this, we had met we met and made the connection in New York City on a west side playground. As we began to write the postcard, I asked Alice Rose what she wanted to tell Marina about Fuling. She said: "Say it was hard to be steady there." It had been a long day and, whether it was the winter fog or the mission, it had had a serious feel to it. And there was a lot to process. I'm sorry this is getting so long but I wanted to pass on this story from our time in China. As you might imagine, Alice Rose and I, being a western mother and a Chinese-looking daughter, attracted a lot of attention on our trip. We got a lot of questions. Is her father Chinese? How old is she? How old was she when she left China? Why doesn't she speak Chinese? Did you pay for her? Where is her family? And on and on.... All of this was in conversation in Chinese with me. Alice Rose knew she was being talked about, which she didn't like one bit, but couldn't follow the details or any real content of what was being said. Anyway, this was a regular part of our days and interactions with people. The first week we were in China Alice Rose didn't touch her chopsticks and also didn't attempt any Chinese, not even with me. I somehow connected this with her reaction to all the attention. By the end of our trip, once we were in Chengdu with friends of friends, she would try out words with me at night and taught herself how to use chopsticks. Our Connection On our last full day in China we took a day trip from Shanghai to Suzhou to walk in the gardens. On the way back on the train a woman across the aisle ran me through the usual litany of questions and couldn't take her eyes off of Alice Rose. This wasn’t done in a threatening way, she just seemed amazed by her. After a while, after her questions stopped and there was silence for a while, Alice Rose started the following conversation: Her: "Momma you know we're twins." Me: "How do you figure that, my girl?" Her: "We're twins 'cause our hands are the same." Me: "Show me where they're the same" Alice Rose took my hand. She zeroed in on my knuckles, specifically the tracery creases around them. “See,” she said, “these lines are the same." Somehow she had taken all the questioning of our relationship over the course of the trip, filtered it, and was countering it with what she understood to be a physical fact: our connection. Bringing It Home We came back from China with many things. We came back with Alice Rose's lovely and masterful elision on the train, our images of the landscape and places, the tastes on our tongues and the words forming in our mouths. We came back with a sense of how far we had travelled to become a family, both in distance and time. We even came back, in the most day-to-day way, with a vocabulary of experiences that are now part of Alice Rose's play, as she imagines getting on an airplane – China Air – to go to China to adopt her favorite doll... Thank you, Amy and Alice Rose Amy & Alice Rose by Amy Lelyveld Editor's Note The writer, a Gladney mom, adopted her daughter Alice Rose in 2002. Gongzhan Wu, Gladney's China program director, recently helped arrange a return visit for Amy and Alice Rose. This is Amy's account of that journey as related in an e-mail to Mr. Wu. Alice Rose, New Year's Day 2006 Alice Rose in Fuling

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