Thursday evening we headed to Hong Kong.  We had planned on taking the train, but our guide felt that hiring a van with another family who was traveling the same night would be better.

So, we all piled into the van and headed out.  We had been told that although Hong Kong was only an hour away distance wise, but with traffic it would be a 3-4 hour ride.  Traffic was bumper to bumper the whole way.  Our driver must have been fresh off the Nascar circuit because he was  gunning it, braking on a dime, weaving, and narrowly evading other motor vehicles.   Three hours of jerking motions left Samuel and I pretty motion sick.  We downed Dramamine and passed out on Jim.

We had to exit the van at one point to go through customs (even though Hong Kong is a part of China).  So out we got to wait in line and to be checked, photographed, and scanned.  We all piled in the van and then were stopped at another customs station.  Suddenly, a surgically masked and police uniformed lady slides open the van door and points a yellow gun at each of us and "shoots" it.  Apparently, she was taking our temperatures.  It was so  random that we laughed for the next several miles.

We were so happy to get to our hotel where we pretty much just checked in and crashed into bed.   The next morning we were up early to see the sun rise, Skype the kiddies, and head for the airport.  When we were packing up to leave, Samuel just looked at us incredulously.  We speak very little Chinese, but I think he said something about being adopted by gypsies.  The poor little guy had been dragged all across China.

The Hong Kong airport was really nice.  Our flight had several other adoptive families on it.  They sat us all at the back section of the plane which was really nice.  It was a 14 hour flight, and that is just hard on little ones, never mind little ones who have known their families for less than 2 weeks.  All of the children did so well.
Samuel was great.   We were blessed to sit in front of the Pedicini family who were bringing home their 10th and 11th children.  They have adopted from 3 countries too, and it was so fun to talk to them.

We landed in Detroit and headed to customs to get out little fellow through Immigration.  They ended up roping all of the adoptive families into an area and then processed everyone else while we watched.  We were all so tired and loopy that we just spent the hour talking and goofing around.  We met some really great people.

After Immigration we hopped onto the escalator and Samuel rode up as an American citizen.  Yippee!!!!

We then headed to our plane towards home.  It was so exciting and wonderful to be headed towards our people..We crossed into town and saw the sun set.  It was so  amazing that we had seen the sun rise in Hong Kong that morning, and then saw it set in Florida that evening..  It  was SO wonderful to see the kids.  They made us such a nice dinner and coming home party.  They adore Samuel and he loves playing with them.  He is so happy.

At one point Emma Rose just burst out..."He is my brother and he is home FOREVER!!!!"

I think that sums p all of our hearts perfectly.  It is pure joy having this little one we have longed for and for  prayed for home and in our fold.

This adoption, is like all adoptions and births, a miracle.  God has graciously answered our prayers and has given us this sweet son as a gift.   We are humbled and awed.  Thank you for your prayers.  There were moments in the past 2 weeks while we were gone that things came up and I was astounded by the peace the Holy Spirit flooded my soul with.  We could feel your prayers sustaining us.  We can once again testify that God's Word is true..He was with us the past to weeks on the other end of the world, and He will be there in each and every tomorrow as we seek to raise this little one, and our other children for His Glory.  He is faithful.

and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen ~Matthew 28:20 (b)

Day 13 to 14

Day 13 to 14 is rolled together since when we leave in the light of the morning, we will arrive in the daylight as well, even though there are 18 or so hours of travel on the return.  Hong Kong is likely one of the nicest parts of China.  The little bit that we saw of it showed it to be more modern and the people spoke English.  We stayed at the Marriott on the ocean at the airport, which may sound really fancy, but was nice and had the purpose of us crashing for the night so we can get up and take off again in the morning.  Now we are preparing for the transition of leaving at 11 am but it is now really 11 pm to us.  The flight back was much smoother and quicker than coming to China.  The little guy did pretty good overall, and getting into Detroit was painless; except for customs.  It is funny that we fear the foreign countries more than anything but they were the easiest to work with compared to the US.  We waiting in a line for 15 minutes just to be told we needed to go to the special “blue line.”  That equated to another 15-20 minute wait to finally get through to the luggage.   It did not matter; at least things were now done.   The final stamp was put on the papers and now Samuel is officially a US citizen.  No time to care because we now go thru security again to get the connecting flight to home.   It was also a relief that we could drink the water if we wanted to.  After a fairly quick flight to home, it is now hitting us with the time difference.  We were told not to fall asleep until our regular bedtime so it took everything just to stay awake.  

Kids were all in one piece when we got there and everyone was happy to see Renee and Samuel.  I was the parsley on the plate, but oh well.  Darell and Noel must have been good at what they did since no one had any bandages or casts on any body parts.  We could not have done this trip without their willingness to step in and watch someone else’s crazy 12 kids.  I know they need a well deserved rest.   There were many days in China where we were just so out of it, confused by the language barrier, and lost in a big city.  We could tell there were many people praying for us since the days when we were weak, confused, and tired, we could tell that God was with us.  Thank you all who prayed for us since it was the one thing I knew that would get us through this entire trip.  Who would have ever thought that we would be doing all of this kid stuff.  God’s plans are much bigger and much better than ours.   Thank you Lord for all you have done and all you are doing.  I will stop saying I am done having kids since I have been wrong every time so far.  I will trust You still that You will do what You want us to and we will simply follow You.

Day 12

Day 12

This is one of the last big days, next to leaving, which is the Embassy.  All of the months and months of paperwork, fingerprints, notarizations, money, and red tape have finally come down to this day.  Without the US visa, all this work is done in vain.  Once we get the visa on Thursday, we get to go to Hong Kong to stay the night and then leave Friday morning.  We actually leave Friday night US time so we will fly in light all the time vs. flying in darkness the entire 15 or so hour flight.  Kind of fitting to fly home in the light as this place is in darkness spiritually.  We have come across some Christians here though.  It is not any more important that the Christians are Chinese people more than anyone who is from the US; it is just nice running into fellow believers.  It is a rarity to know a Chinese Christian.  One surprise encounter is running into a pastor named David Platt who wrote a book called Radical.  Ironically he is adopting a kid at the same time we are and we ran into him at the embassy.  We are also on the same flight home from Hong Kong so it will be interesting if we get to chat again.  After reading that book it was one of the factors that God used to lead us to adopt again.  Funny how God worked that one out.

I did not have any idea that Hong Kong was such a big city and a world-wide destination.  Even though I do not have any intention of coming back (unless God wants us to of course), once we leave this place it is going to be see ya, avoire, adios, arivaderce, and whatever Chinese is for lator gator.

I may not have the chance to post but once more before we leave but I will do my best.  

Day 11

OK, I kind of cheated on Day 10…That day was similar to this day in that we explored the market places again.  Since we do not have anything to do until Wednesday, we have to kill time.  There are the scorpions, turtles, cats, and dogs.  I don’t know which animal is for what, but I think they could be combinations of pets and dinner.   Have also seen animal horns, tiger claws, miscellaneous animal body parts, etc.  We also took a cab to an electronics market which had hundreds of places that all sold the same things.  Some were fake items, and others you could find ok deals if you wanted to.   We walked back to the hotel which is about 3 miles.  It was an adventure just doing that and crossing the streets.  Since Renee’s first incident of being almost run down by the man on the bike, she has gotten a little better, but not by much.  You have to play chicken with the cars, and it seems that the chickens win when you do it right.

We had to eat at safe places like KFC, Pizza Hut, and Pappa Johns since we knew what we should expect.  No real surprises here, but we are definitely over the oily food that everyone has.  The smell of oily fried meat is getting real old.  We again toughed out the main outdoor market and bought a few small things and it is interesting to see how things worked.  Most places expect you to bargain but I am not trying to get something for one dollar instead of paying two.  This day was similar to yesterday so there is more to see in the pictures than I could say.  There are just so many people….

This sweet and happy boy is another BIG step closer to coming home!  Today we had our appointment with the Embassy.  We raised our right hands and took the oath, so when his little feet hit the ground in Detroit he will be a US citizen!  So very exciting.   Tomorrow we travel to Hong Kong and will fly out on Friday.  We can not wait.  We miss the kids at home so badly.  They are going to love this little guy and he is going to love them.

Samuel with his favorite character-Xǐ Yáng Yáng 

He loves all the statues on the Island.

He is getting so much stronger every day.  He couldn't hardly climb last week and didn't know how to run.  Today he mastered walking down the slide.

He is such a sweetie!  We are so blessed!

Oh, and as we were leaving the US Embassy today we met David Platt (author of Radical) and his wife on the steps.  They were walking in with their new Chinese daughter Mara Ruth.  He was really nice, and it was a fun blessing to meet him there. A neat little blessing! 

To market, to market, to buy a..a..a..

,Markets, shopping, producing, selling are a big part of the Chinese culture here in Guangzhou.

The markets are specialized.  You have the spice market where you can buy anything from tiger paws, rhino horns, live scorpions (for your soup), dried sea horses, lizards on sticks, snake skins, live snakes, and a gazillion other spices.  There are rows and rows of sellers who all appear to be selling the same thing.  I have no idea how one chooses which spice place is best or how they all make a profit being next to each other selling the same items, but it's how it works.  They all seem to think Jim and I need saffron as they rush out of their stalls to try  and get us to buy it.  I am not sure why, but it tickles me every time.


Then there is the "pet market" where you can buy fish, kittens, puppies, turtles, mice, whatever critter you need.  Once again each stall is selling the same goods for the same prices.  It's very interesting.

The pet markets open up into the main market where you can buy clothes, shoes, purses, anything to do with clothing.  Again, many …many, many, many vendors selling similar goods at similar prices.  This is a huge market with tens of thousands of people shopping.  It's amazing just to sit and watch.

Yesterday, we ventured to the electronics market.  It was in the other direction and we took a cab to get there.  Like the other markets it was very specialized being that there was nothing but electronics.  So many dealers lining blocks, and block of the city streets.  One block was all camera equipment.   The others were a mix of cell phones, ipods, game systems.  Some appeared real and others were really bad knock offs.

There were mobile salesmen who were all selling the same things..literally.  They each had a back massager, an elecrtic thing that pulsates your muscles, a garden hose, and our favorite... a taser.    Yikes.  It was amusing to have one approach about every five minutes or so.  My favorite was when the man tried to sell Jim by pointing out a man who had just bought one and said, "You brother over there just bought one.."  We looked over and saw a middle eastern man holding his purchase.  Too funny.

We decided to skip the cab ride back and just walk back to the island.  It was about a 3.5 mile walk.  I think each day we have walked at least 5 miles a day Jim with our backpack which weighs around 30 lbs. and me with Samuel on my back who is 30 lbs.  It's one of my favorite things about China is that you can walk so many places, though with the crazy driving I still clutch Jim's arm as we cross the roads.

There were people selling goods around the river walk.  Jim was bargaining with a lady and he drew quite a crowd.  The dealers will type the price they want you to pay in a calculator and then you counter it.  Jim would show the crowd his counter for their approval or disapproval of a fair price.

It was a really fun day learning about some of the Chinese ways.  Samuel loves being out and about.  He loves being outside and having so much to see.  We can see him really opening up and gaining strength each day physically and emotionally.

Lions, tigers, and bears...oh my..

The biggest difference between this adoption and our African adoptions is that when we were in Africa we spent our time when we weren't doing official paperwork playing with the kids in the orphanages.  Here we don't have that opportunity and it leaves us with time where we aren't sure what to do.  Our guide scheduled us and two other families from our agency to go to the Safari Park.  It was really a lot of fun, and the best zoo I m sure we will ever go to.

Samuel had a great time and really enjoyed the animals.

After we returned from the Safari park we headed out to the Ling Ping Markets and then we attended a small church service on the Island.  It was all in Mandarin Chinese, but we did pick up that the sermon was on Esau and Jacob.  The music was lovely and the experience was a blessing.  Samuel was so good through it all, Jim and I on the other hand had a hard time staying wake as were were seriously jet lagging and had to keep pinching each other.  

All in all a blessed day.