by Emma Fujuan Roberts-Vaurio 崇福娟, adopted from China to the USA
While in Wuhan, I visited the hotel my parents stayed at when they came to China in ‘97 to adopt me and the hotel where I met them for the first time in my life 
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The hotel’s English name is the Lake View Garden Hotel in Wuhan. Walking up to the hotel I was taken away by the beauty of it. Through its embellishments of red with gold dragons decorating the outside, the serene lake view, and the stunning lobby which highlights Chinese art such as wood carvings and furniture, stone statues, and Chinese paintings, I could understand why they were guided to stay here.
While sitting in the lobby, I FaceTimed my parents to show them where I was in real time, helping to jog their memories of moments that changed the essence of our lives forever. During our call, my dad said the lobby looked virtually the same as he remembered from when they were there in ‘97. It was in this hotel my parents met me for the first time and I them, the first time my dad gave my mom her first Mothers Day flower, and the first time my mom made me laugh by tearing up tissues and throwing them in the air because as a baby I thought it was funny.
It was also in this hotel where I would spend my last days in China before being taken to America, moments that signified the beginning of the physical separation from my cultural roots and the beginning of the loss of my first language as I was moved into a new family and country. It is in this hotel that holds moments of the beginning of a different life, a life where I am raised in America and not China.
Despite the complexity this hotel holds for me, I am happy I had the opportunity to visit in person for the first time in twenty-seven years this past weekend 
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It feels as if I am slowly filling the gaps of my earliest beginnings by reclaiming the memories of my past in an effort to make peace with them so that I may continue to move forward 
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You can follow Emma at Insta: @emmarobertsv_