Chinese Adoption: Min Meng Lu - After the Adoption

Once my aunt Jane and Lu left China, things started getting better since she wasn’t seeing so many familiar Chinese faces. The plane ride home was very long, but they managed to get through it alright. That whole side of the family drove up to Chicago to meet them when their plane arrived. My sister and I couldn’t sleep the night before knowing that we would finally get to see our new cousin for the first time after three years of waiting. Lu was very shy with everyone at first and clung to my aunt. You couldn’t look at her for too long, or laugh at what she did because she would get mad and cry. She hated attention and we often had to hide our laughter. Once we got back, Lu was comfortable with my aunt but she always wanted to be with men or me. She loved my grandpa and my dad, and she loved me because I looked around the same age as her foster sister.

Lu picked up on English pretty fast, but we still used Chinese words with her sometimes. She was fully potty trained when my aunt got her, but because of all the stress and communication problems, it started to go downhill. There were other issues that occurred once they got home, the biggest one being night terrors. Lu would wake up almost every night screaming and crying and yelling things in Chinese. It was scary and sad to watch her have a night terror, but the child doesn’t remember having it at all. Night terrors are cause by psychological trauma which she experienced being taken away from her foster family in China. Another thing that we found odd was that Lu wanted nothing to do with Chinese people; it was almost like she was mad at them. We would go to a Chinese restaurant and she wouldn’t even look at them, and she would turn her head away if they tried to talk to her. One lady asked her in Chinese “Do you speak Chinese?” and she surprisingly answered “Yes, but I don’t want to” in Chinese. Sometimes she would be talking and say something in Chinese and freeze. She would put her head down and get really shy, because she didn’t want to speak Chinese but it slipped out sometimes (Harrell, Interview).

Today Alayna Lyn Meng Lu Harrell (her American name) is eight years old and in 3rd grade. She is smart, full of energy, and very loving. She doesn’t remember anything about being in China, even though she did when she was younger. She loves hearing stories about how she acted when she was little so we often tell her.

I've posted a link to the Chinese Children Adoption International website. They have a really good time line that shows you the adoption process and how long everything takes. Click here!