There was an explanation, and it was autonomic. It was neuroendocrine activation. Jeremy was thinking thalamus, amygdala, hypothalamus. He was thinking noncritical system go down. It is all very sensible, the body. Efficient. Delay digestion. There is danger.
But it was not danger. It was just a room of middle-aged people, expectant and holding pamphlets. There were so many pamphlets here in China.
love is a two-way street.
questions are good.
when strangers become forever families.
During the adoption orientation at the hotel, all the couples sat in a circle, talking about their current and future families. Dan and Amy from Texas. Steve and Betsy from Arkansas. Jen and David from San Francisco. They were thick, kind people, and they called children blessings. They talked about God, what God had done for them, and it was always family.
That afternoon, they went to the Great Wall as a group. They went to the Forbidden City. All Jeremy could see were the cameras. The cameras in phones. Everywhere there was sound, and nowhere was there a signal. The signal was simple.
We are here for him.
And so they followed the two tour guides, Chinese-Americans who’d been adopted by the agency themselves. They smiled at people. His eyes were wide and unseeing. There was a study of rats. Evidence of activity in the prefrontal cortex long after the physical response to danger. The stimulus might never be rubbed completely out.
The tour guides were clapping their hands. They were telling the group to clap their hands if they were listening.