Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Baby Snatching Incident

One of the more enjoyable aspects of our trip to China was being able to experience a culture that is significantly different than what we are used to. I think culturally China is changing to be more westernized but it is still quite a culture shock when you leave the hotels and get out and mingle a bit.

I think in order to really enjoy a trip to China you need to be pretty laid back and open minded. You will get stared at by people in China, you will also have people say things to you or about you and you won't understand what they are saying. We would usually just smile and usually would get a smile back. Although even the most open minded and laid back person will sometimes have something happen that they just aren't prepared for. One such incident happened to us in Nanchang.

We were out for lunch with our travel group in a really nice restaurant. I think we has spent the morning getting some paperwork prepared for Grace's passport. After we finished eating Grace was getting a bit fussy so I got up with her and started to walk around as that usually calms her. As I was making my way around the room with her some of the waitresses started coming over and commenting on Grace. Grace is pretty chubby so the comments were usually related to her chubbiness. An older waitress came over and held out her hands to hold Grace. As we are trying to foster bonding and attachment and are trying to be the only ones to comfort Grace I smiled, shook my head no and took a step back. Undeterred the waitress took a step forward and put her hands around Grace to take her from me. I again smiled, took a step back, shook my head and said no. By this point the woman has a pretty good grip on Grace and started pulling. I tightened my grip on her but soon realized that if I didn't let go I was going to hurt Grace. Finally after a few seconds I let the woman take her but stayed right with her. I am sure she saw the look of panic on my face as she started to leave the room and another waitress said something to her and she handed her back to me.

Jen was was watching this all occur from across the room and I think was just as panicked as I was. I think I am lucky that she has allowed me to hold Grace since. In reality we had nothing to worry about, the Chinese just love children and she just wanted to hold Grace for a few minutes. But it did freak us out a little bit having only had Grace for a couple days. Grace seemed to be unfazed by the while incident and we laugh about it now but not something we expected to happen.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We experienced the same thing several times! It was unnerving but you are right, they love the babies!

Anonymous said...

We were continually told that Cady was a "lucky baby, blessed by Buddha" for being adopted. Perhaps the waitress wanted to have some of Buddha's luck.

Were you at all stopped by "clothing police"? (old ladies that look for babies who are under clothed) We were a few times. And fortunately she had three layers on each time. But the socks were not pulled up once, and we were scolded by way of three fingers in the face.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that is crazy! I was getting all frantic just reading this! That would absolutely have made me all kinds of nervous and scared!

Two Pearls said...

Steve - in your previous post, the last photo...is the guy on the left named BS? If so, I worked with him at PF! I think he's one of my LinkedIn connections - I'll send him an email!

Steve and Jen said...

Yep, that's Unky B, Kris and the twins.

Steve and Jen said...

We didn't have any run-ins with the clothing police while in China. Probably because it was so hot the whole time we were there.

Melinda said...

Oh my goodness, I would have been freaking out!!! It is sweet that they love babies so much but even so, I LOVE babies but would never try to grab one out of a strangers hands to hold?! A few smiles, Hi's and funny faces should suffice!! I can only imagine the thoughts that were going through your minds?!
Thank God it was not a real almost baby snatching incident. You had me going for a while...