The Brown Envelope from Guangzhou is no Girl from Ipanema, but it has been a couple of months since our documents were received by the China Center for Adoption Affairs, and so we were excited to get a bit more “official business” paperwork from China yesterday.
Among China adopters, this is a very familiar milestone: the famed Brown Envelope from Guangzhou contains warnings about expiration dates on some of the other documents we’ve submitted (we’re OK for now), instructions for scheduling the immigrant visa interview while in China, and very cool looking documents in both Chinese and English petitioning to “Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative,” register aliens as US citizens and obtain proper medical documentation and vaccinations before entering the US, and so forth.
The cover letter from the American Consulate in China is dated July 26, so I assume it was carried via migratory bird pathways from Guangzhou up through Mongolia, across the Bering Straits, down through Alaska, into Seattle, the Bay area, with a detour into Texas and then up the Mississippi, leaping the Lakes and then hard east through the Berkshires with a final swoop to Wrentham via the Emerald Necklace. Which would explain the slight delay of three months.
Or looking at it another way, during the time this letter has been “in the mail,” our baby has made quite a bit of progress — according to my mail from babycenter.com:
Is your baby strong enough to hold up his head now to see what’s going on? Better joint flexibility allows many three-month-olds to wave and kick more forcefully, too, and to open their fingers and bring their hands together.
Chances are your little charmer is still bestowing smiles on everyone he meets this month, but he’s getting pickier about the company he keeps. In large groups or with people he doesn’t know very well, he may need some time to get comfortable.
The temporal lobe in your baby’s brain : which handles hearing, language, and smell : is bustling with activity this month. Make the most of it by talking to your baby, playing music, and reading out loud.
Oh, and if I were like the other moms, I’d have returned to work this month, and would currently be struggling with guilt. But hey, Daddy’s really beginning to feel connected!
Wow, talk about knowing your customer. Freaky.