“Mr. and Mrs. Lo Kee”

At least in China’s eyes, we are at last a family. We journeyed to Jiaozuo city today, a two hour drive from Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province.

Hours after arrival, we traveled to the Notary, who would put the city seal on our adoption certificate. The director of Jiaozuo Social Welfare Institute was there, as she had been in Zhengzhou. On the way in, a woman clung to our guide, barraging her with talk. Not wanting to invite risk, I kept walking in and up the stairs, just ahead of our guide. The woman finally left, and our guide turned, laughing, towards us to identify her as a journalist. In the building’s basement was an emergency China Red Cross donation center for earthquake relief. If we’d make a donation, they would take our photo for the next day’s newspaper.

We agreed for several reasons, not least of which was peacemaking. The notarization ran long; there was a mistake in the translation, and money had to be taken to the bank for counting. We pressed our red-inked fingertips over our signatures and then drank hot water in paper cups and took photos with officials. Our gifts to the officials were not warmly received, but our presence afterwards in the Red Cross office was.

We walked in and made our donation, pausing over the clear acrylic collection box with our money suspended midway through the slot, each of us with a hand visible on the bills as they spread fanlike to reveal their sum. Cameras clicked from every corner of the room, and then in a special ceremony, we were presented with a card of thanks by a gin-scented representative who made a small red-faced speech. More cameras clicked, and the journalist re-emerged to tell our guide that the newspaper was not available to the general public, only state officials, but she would get us a copy for YoYo.