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.