A Welcome to America
by Andy McDonald

When my wife and I recently returned from a trip to the People’s Republic of China, we received a memorable welcome home. We handed the customs officer our declaration form, which noted that we had returned to the United States with some assorted souvenirs. The officer was a stern looking woman with short red hair. She eyed the declaration form then leaned over the counter to see our nine-month-old daughter peering back up at her from a stroller. Without so much as cracking a smile, the officer called to her co-worker across the aisle. “Hey Chuck,” she said. “Check out their souvenir.”

Carlyn's arrival in Detroit from Beijing, China, via Tokyo. The pilot of the Northwest Airlines 747 was among the first to welcome her to America.

Our so-called souvenir was our newly adopted daughter, Carlyn Xian, who was then passed happily from the arms of one customs officer after another. They cradled her, talked to her, and generally made a fuss over her as they welcomed her to her new country. It occurred to me that they seemed so happy to meet Carlyn, Osama bin Laden himself could have sneaked in behind us while the customs officers would have scarcely noticed. They proved me wrong by searching my bags and confiscating a musical cigarette lighter bearing the image of Chairman Mao.

Despite losing the cigarette lighter for the cause of the war on terror, I’ll always have fond memories of our encounter with the American officials. Our girl had made it, leaving behind a potentially difficult life in the People’s Republic of China to come to the Land of Opportunity. One of my ancestors came to America on the Mayflower, but my daughter’s Mayflower was a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747. She flew business class, which, I’m guessing was a considerable step up from the way my Irish ancestors and my wife’s Norwegian ancestors came to America. Carlyn’s journey around the world began at the gate of an orphanage in Fuling, a city in the Sichuan Province. At the age of one month, Carlyn was left in a basket, her only possession the blue suit she was wearing.

The abandonment of baby girls is illegal in China, but the culture’s preference for boys, combined with China’s official policy that most families are only allowed one child per family compels some parents to give up their daughters. The life of a girl in China can be difficult as it is, but the life of an orphan girl, a cast-off, can be even less promising. That was one of the reasons my wife and I chose to adopt from China.

When we toured the country, many Chinese people seemed very curious about how a couple of white folks managed to end up with a Chinese girl. We showed them a card written in English and Chinese that explained that she was adopted with assistance from A Helping Hand, a Christian agency in Lexington that facilitates the adoption of orphaned babies from China, Guatemala, Cambodia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The Chinese we encountered, some of whom spoke just a little English, said the same thing again and again: She will have a good life in America. I pray that is true.

Judging by the reception she received upon her arrival, Carlyn is already off to a good start. She began the day in the Eastern Hemisphere, where she was once seemingly unwanted, a ward of the Chinese government. By the modern miracle of jet travel, she arrived in the Western Hemisphere on the very same day, where U.S. customs officers greeted her like a new member of their extended American family. Some of the officers were of Italian descent, some Polish. Other officers had ancestors who hailed from African or Latin countries. But all of them seemed to be saying the same thing with their friendly pats and grins as they passed our daughter around: “You’re one of us now. Welcome to one of the most wonderful and least exclusive clubs in the world; Welcome to America.”

Written by Andy McDonald - BereaOnline.com Contributing Editor