China 15

By Leah and Lily

It all began in the year of 1995 when 11 excited couples boarded a plane and headed for China. 23 hours of talking, waiting, sleeping, and eating. When they finally arrived in China they grabbed their luggage and went to their hotel rooms. They had a few days to shop, walk, look around, and take pictures of the beautiful surroundings. The next day they boarded a bus and toured the different towns and cultures.

Their tour guide's name was Mike and a lot of the couples are still in touch with him. The Great Wall of China was a big part of the day. They walked along the wall for long hours at a time. That afternoon the couples got exciting news that they could meet their babies earlier than planned. A few days passed and the families were getting anxious to meet their babies.

A few days passed and the new parents ere learning new things about their babies, themselves, and just taking it one step at a time. The next day the parents and the babies went to an orphanage just to see what it was like for the babies (even though it wasn't the orphanage their babies came from). The new families stayed in China for about 2 more weeks and walked around and got to see the way the Chinese live their everyday lives. After two long weeks, the families got to go home.

When the plane was taking off, some of the babies cried because they either had an earache or they just didn't like the noise of the plane. A lot of the babies slept the whole time and some were awake all night. Lots of family and friends were waiting eagerly to meet all the new babies. Camera crews and journalists were there also. Some of the babies got on TV, some got in the newspaper, and some were on both.

This was the day that all the babies would meet their sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, relatives, and friends. Ever since this day, we have gotten together every year to celebrate this wonderful time in our lives. We all have our big China Reunion in April and another little get together in the summer. A lot of people can say that they've had friends as long ago as when they were in kindergarten, and maybe some since they were in pre-school, but we can say that each of us has 10 good friends ever since we were babies and I think that's a really special thing to say. Pretty much all of us consider each other family, but two out of the 11 of us really are.

Leah and Lily have found out that they are cousins. Lily's mother and Leah's father are second cousins so that makes Leah and Lily third cousins. So even though we all call each other Chinese cousins, two of us can say we really are!

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