Beijing Family United Hospital - China part 3

Beijing, China - May 17, 1999.

The evening started out like any other night. Steve and I lazily watched a bit of CNN and went to bed early. The rioting in Beijing, the Chinese response to the “accidental” bombing of their embassy in Yugoslavia by the US military, had settled down by then. Though our first child was due in twelve days, we knew that more than likely he/she would probably be late and hadn't packed our hospital bag yet. Steve’s mom was scheduled to arrive in less than a week for the birth.

Around 2:30 am I made a routine trip to the bathroom only to find that my water had broke. Sixteen long hours later, Michael Thomas Green robustly entered the world.

Michael has always had difficulty convincing his friends that he was born in China. Kids used to think he was making it up because he didn't look Chinese. Now they just think he's trying to get attention. More than once I've written and signed a note, attesting to the fact that indeed, he was born in China.

When we planned the trip to China this spring, we asked the kids where they really wanted to go. Beijing United Family Hospital was on Michael's list of destinations. It was almost as if he needed convincing himself.

Finding the hospital in a city that has grown out, up and increased by three million people since we left in 2000 was no easy task. As we remembered the hospital building, it stood alone on the outskirts of town. Today, it’s dwarfed and shrouded by skyscrapers on all sides, nearly undetectable from the street. It took two trips to finally find it.

You can’t just walk into a hospital, stand in the middle of the lobby for 10 minutes being hugged repeatedly by your eleven year old and NOT arouse suspicion. It certainly didn’t take long for a hospital worker to ask if we “needed any help.” To Michael’s extreme embarrassment, we explained that he had been born in Beijing and always wanted to see the hospital.

Judging by the reaction of the hospital representative this was not a common occurrence. She warmly welcomed Michael, which he took as an invitation to hug HER repeatedly too. And as it always does, no matter what country we are in, Michael's hugs melted away walls and opened doors for him. She offered to give him a tour of the hospital, including a private viewing of a labor/delivery/recovery room identical to the one we were originally in.

More hugs. You would have thought he won the lottery. Seriously.

And that wasn’t all. As we were saying goodbye the representative disappeared for a moment, returning with a stuffed bear. It was a Build-a-Bear style bear: soft, squishy and dressed in white scrubs which bore the Beijing United Family Hospital logo. She gave the bear to Michael, which resulted in…you guessed it: more hugs!

The bear now has a place of honor on his bed, right next to the little stuffed BUFH elephant that the hospital gave us eleven years ago. The other sites we went to…the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Panda Preserve, etc…were exciting and interesting but nowhere near as memorable for Michael as seeing the place where it all began for him.