Gotya Day

Today was a long dreary day.  It rained all day and was so foggy that from our 26th floor hotel room you could not see much.   Our time to meet Hannah was set for around 4 pm.

 The rainy view.  The pools below do light shows like Beligio twice each night.  Hopefully it will clear up one night so we can go down and watch.

as the day went on fog got thicker.

We started the day with a nice breakfast as a family of 4.  We spent some time visiting with Esther from our adoption agency.  We have worked with her a lot over the past 8 months but had not met her until yesterday.    She spent a while with us in the room visiting.   Joshua went down to the play area on 3rd floor for a while to burn off energy.   By afternoon we were all going stir crazy.  We pushed the agency to get the driver on over here and let us head to the Civil Affairs building where we would meet Hannah.

We arrived at the same building where we made Laura's adoption official nearly 15 years ago. 

shots of us waiting to meet her.

We arrived around 3:45 and set up video cameras etc. and within a few minutes in walked this precious little girl walked in looking so scared.   She was quickly introduced to Mama (Robin) while I got video rolling to capture the event.   As soon as I walked over and talked to her she reached our for Baba (daddy) and came into my arms to let me hold her within a few minutes.

Our first moments together.

photos with orphanage officials.

she is waiving at the camera.

Robin, Hannah and I next to Esther from our agency.

She loved it when I flipped her and flew around

We had group photos with orphanage officials.

Robin had a lit of questions for the staff to try to learn as much as we could about her.  While this was going on she sat with daddy.  She loves my video equipment and kept trying to grab camera equipment.  She seems to have a thing for electronics.

Soon it was time to go, as we left Esther wanted to say hello to a man she knows that runs adoptions for this province.  We were taken into a conference room and it was the same room where we signed the documents for Laura's adoption all those years ago and the man we met was the same man that interviewed us back in 2004.  He will likely interview us again tomorrow.

We headed back to the hotel and Shirley our guide came up to the room to work on documents for the meetings tomorrow.   Hannah (JO Chung) quickly adapted to the room  and began playing with brother and sister.   She likes to color.

Doing paperwork with Shirley

We went up to dinner in the Executive Lounge where another adoptive family from the US was with their new child.  She ate a good dinner but was a little mischievous.  She got mad at daddy when I had to tell her Boo Ya (NO Sternly) She turned her back to me and let mama help her and started to connect with Robin more.  After dinner back to the room to play.   I found that she loves to be tickled.  She laughed so loudly.

Finally time for bath and bed.  She loved taking a bath and getting her hair brushed.  Daddy had to lay down with her to get her to stay in bed but finally she went to sleep. We shall see how she does tonight.

Pray for her as she adapts to this new life.

This and That (Jiga Jiga, Niga, Niga)

We have heard the phrase Jiga Jiga and Niga, Niga a lot while here.  I asked what it means and was told "that that or this this" 

So this is just a catch up from the trip more for my benefit than anyone else.

Friday was a rainy day on the Great Wall.   Some beautiful views and clearing of the smog from the rain.  Summer Palace was great.

Saturday was a busy day with the square, Forbidden City etc.  Having a great guide is an essential.  He knew how to avoid the long lines and how to avoid crowds.  Jeremy did a great job and got us around nicely.

Sunday was not what we expected.  The Hutong was a flop.  Too many people, too many cars, government issues.  The home we visited had no one home.  The Hutong delays made us a bit rushed at the airport.  Again having a guide that will hustle was a blessing.  Jeremy ran through the airport to help get the receipt for our excess baggage and make sure we got to security.

Security in the Beijing airport stinks.  They took every single item out of my camera / computer bag, wanted to examine every battery, they even looked at flash drives.   Then the fun of repacking everything at the end of the xray belt.   We than ran to our gate and got there just in time to board.

Food on Chinese airlines is interesting to say the least.   We got a fermented egg (looked like a chocolate Easter egg but sure did not taste like it. The main course was some type of pork wrap (not too good) and as a side Kim-chi (NO WAY).  Glad we had a good lunch.

Sunday night they tried to put all of us in a very small hotel room.   We managed to get that worked out and today we have a very spacious room.  Good thing because all we have done is sit in the room all day and watch it rain.    Yes it was raining when we arrived in Nanchang and has not stopped.  The plan for today is to wait until Hannah gets to this town so we can meet her.  Can not get anyone to commit to a firm time other than after 4 pm local time.   VPN issues make working impossible so we are just killing time.  Oh yes and every TV channel is in Mandarin.   So TV is not much fun either. 

We are all ready to get out of this hotel and meet Hannah.  We are ready to get going.  But for now we wait.

Hopefully my next update will have photos of Hannah with us.  Stay tuned.

Sunday in Beijing

Today was our final day in Beijing.    We started a little later this morning.   As usual we had our wonderful breakfast buffet that is included with the room.   We have enjoyed an Asian soup each day, some crapes, eggs any way you want them, smoked salmon, french toast etc.

Our tours today started at Jiang Shan Park.  I have seen this park from a distance but never been able to go there.  This park looks down on the South gate of the Forbidden city.  It is about 50 meters higher than the Forbidden city so we climbed a number of stairs.

When we arrived we saw a lady doing Calligraphy with water on the ground, this is such an art and it just evaporates away.

We hiked up the hill all the way hearing all this singing. We soon learned that various groups of people gather in the park to sing.  Today they were mostly singing patriotic songs it was so cool to see and hear.

We then walked back down to see a group doing jump rope in the park.

From here we headed to the Hutong (Narrow Alley).  This is an old section of Beijing where in the past life was still a lot like the old days.   This visit was a disappointment, the traffic was so bad, the crowds on the street were terrible.  We had a traffic jam of rickshaws, the ride took so long and was so boring.   As part of this you normally visit a home in the village.  We went to the home but they were not expecting us due to some scheduling issues so we saw the living room and heard about life there.  We got to talk to some birds.   In the past I have been a huge fan of this area but would not go back based on today.

This put us a bit behind schedule so we were not able to grab lunch where we had planned but had some fast food dumplings that were great.

Then off to the airport.   Our guide Jeremy was running through the airport getting us taken care of.  We got concerned about making our flight and Jeremy cut lines and got us to the front.  Security was a pain as usual for Beijing.  They took every item out of my computer / camera bag, this was a royal pain!  I have to say that the Beijing airport is by far my least favorite airport of all time.  They always tear my camera bag apart.

We ran toward our gate and got there just in time to board our flight.

So now we are in Nanchang where we will meet Hannah.    We had issues on the hotel but that will be taken care of tomorrow. The room was rather small and not fit for 5 of us to share.  They are upgrading us in the morning (Than you Esther)

We meet Hannah at 4pm China time Monday so about 3 am at home.

Stay tuned for photos of us with her tomorrow.

Day 2 Beijing

Today was Saturday in Beijing.  We visited Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, had a wonderful lunch and then the Temple of Heaven and finally the Chinese Acrobat show.

On the way there we drove past the broken rainbow as Laura called it when we were here in 2007.  Took this photo for her.

Wow the crowds in Tienanmen square was beyond anything we have ever seen.  People were standing in line for hours to just pass by the tomb of Chairman Mao.   Our guide knew all the right lines to be in and where to stand to avoid crowds.

 There were a lot of people here today.

 This is the line into the building, it wrapped around the building and into the square.  Estimated 2 hour wait time to see the tomb.

 Looking across at the Forbidden City

Freaky that Chairman Mao's eyes follow you where ever you go.

Then over to The Forbidden City where the huge crowds still gathered.  We walked through and saw the key sites and worked our way South to North and out the back and along the moat.

 On of the bridges inside. There are 4 courtyards before the inner and 4 after.  The Emperor was well protected.

 This gives an idea of the size of buildings.

 Just a few of the crowd in the courtyard.

 Some of the beautiful art work on the buildings. Imagine how old this is but so intricate.

 This is one of my favorite pieces.  Legend has it that ice roads were made so this could be slid here into place years ago.

 Joshua had fun.  He learned to take photos today too.

 This is in the rear courtyard

The moat around the Forbidden city.  Beautiful view from the North side.

Our guide took us to a nice local restaurant for a traditional lunch.  So many wonderful flavors.  Joshua loved the green beans and finished them up.

We then went to the Temple of Heaven which is beautiful to see.   Again it was crowded but we got around nicely.

The final tour of the day was the Chinese Acrobat show.  Robin and I have been several times before but really enjoyed the show today.

 The special affects have gotten much better over the years.

This guy was amazing on top of the stack of chairs.

Lady spinning umbrella's on her feet.

 Guy on a rope walk standing on his hands on an object.  He was amazing.

The ladies on the bikes are always neat.   The finally was 8 motor cycles in the dome of death at the same time. 

We went out for a short walk this evening in search of some fast / cheap food.  There is not much left in this part of town.   We finally managed to find a Domino's Pizza.  The store had a mix of English and Mandarin signage but did have good pictures on the menu.  We managed to place our order and enjoyed a good takeout dinner.

This is our last night here.  We see a few sights tomorrow and then fly to Hannah's province and we meet her on Monday.   The sight seeing will be mostly over and our focus will be on her and her needs.   Stay tuned for more updates.  We appreciate you following along with our journey.

Pray for her to bond with us and for her emotions as she goes through this change in her life.

Hello from the Great Wall of China

Today was our first full day in China.   We went to the Great Wall of China and rode a chair lift up the mountain onto the wall.  We had hoped to ride a sled down but it was raining and that was closed.  You will note umbrellas in the photos and on videos can hear it raining.

On the ride back to town we stopped at a local restaurant and had a wonderful traditional Chinese lunch. 

This afternoon we saw the Summer Palace and experienced Beijing Rush hour on a Friday.

We managed to avoid the worst of the rain and had a great day.

Here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure.

The two kids had a great day and learned a lot about their birth country.  Our guide Jeremy is great about asking them questions and quizzing them.

on the Great Wall in the rain.

Tomorrow is another busy day of seeing the sights.   Sunday we tour a bit and then head to Hannah's province.    Some time mid morning on Monday (Sunday Night back home) we will meet Hannah and from then on she will be with us.   Pray for that to go well.   More to come soon.

The sky lift that we rode up and down the mountain on.

This was a great view of the wall where we had just been walking.

The kids with two warriors. 

A temple across the lake  

This is a beautiful area at Summer Palace.

Final Week to Hannah

Well we are in the final countdown.  In just 1 week we will be in Hannah Joy's province and preparing to meet her.

Next week will be interesting.  Pray that she adjust quickly and grieves as needed and then bonds to us.   We pray for her to adjust quickly but only God knows.

Today in our life group we were talking about pruning.  It hit me Hannah is about to be pruned as are we.  She will have to give up the only life she has known and does not understand the good life that is waiting on her here.   She has a family that will love her.  A nice home and a room of her own waiting on her.  She will have plenty to eat, she will receive a good education and good daily care.  She is gaining a large family of siblings that will love her.   She has a church that will love her.   But right now she just does not understand that.  To her it will probably feel like someone is kidnapping her and pulling her from the only life she has known.   It will be painful but the pain will lead to better things.

She needs to walk through the grief and she needs to bond.  How much time will this take?  Hopefully not too long.

We will be updating the blog during our journey and will post some pictures here as we go through the process. 

Pray for us as we travel this week.  We will have 2 of the kids with us.  Pray that we stay healthy.  Pray that flights are on time.  Pray for gotya day when we will meet Hannah.   Pray for her to accept us.

We truly appreciate your prayers as we go through this process.  Stay tuned for all the updates as we meet Hannah in the coming days.

Final Countdown

Wow hard to believe we are in the final countdown to travel.   We are busy packing and preparing.  Practicing Mandarin in our spare time, wow what a hard language to learn.

Last Sunday was Fathers Day.  On that day I had the privileged of baptizing Shaun. Additionally we received some great photos and videos of Hannah, what a special day.

Stay tuned to the blog for more details and updates from the trip.

Here are some videos and photos of our beautiful soon to be daughter Hannah Joy.   Wont be long now.

And Now!

Well it appears that everything is in place for our upcoming travel to get Hannah.  It has been frustrating beyond measure. 

We have never come so close to saying uncle and walking away from an adoption.   Cost are unbelievably high and our agency has been a pain lots of hidden fees and just generally hard to work with.  However at the end of the day something that I said during our second adoption kept coming back to haunt me.

When we were considering adopting Shiyan we had major concerns about her condition and wondered if we were properly equipped to handle it.  One day we were talking and praying and I said "To not accept this child would be no different than having an abortion"  So we decided to move forward.  That evening we called a friend to talk about her medical condition and that friend said that at lunch that day they were talking and said "to not accept a child like this would be much like having an abortion".  So we knew this was a word from God for us.

For us aborting one of our biological kids was never an option or even a thought so when this came into play with the adoption it really hit us.  So when this adoption got tough these words kept running through my mind and we decided to keep moving forward.

One other thing is that for past adoptions we have not done any fund raising or grant applications but this time we considered it.  A couple of months ago a local church reached out to us and asked us to apply for their grant through Lifesong for Orphans.We applied and this week learned that we have been given a $3000 matching grant.    We will be posting in the coming days about how you can become involved in this if you feel led to contribute.  This will at least help offset the cost of plane tickets for our upcoming trip.  Thanks for prayerfully considering this.

More updates to come.

Closer to some peace

Well we are getting closer.  We have decided to move forward provided our agency comes through with some updated documents.   We hope to have that in the next day or two.

This morning I went back and read some of my own blog posts from late last year and early this year.   Amazing how your own words have a way of putting things in perspective.  That is one reason I like to blog.   Also the words from Shiyan's adoption continue to run through my head.  I will talk more about this later.

We will update you with more in the coming days.  In the mean time pray for everything to come together.  Pray for Hannah to be prepared for us and for all the change that will happen.  Pray for her to adapt to English quickly and for us to be able to communicate with her as she adapts. Pray for all the financial aspects of the adoption to come together.

Thanks for your prayers.

Here are a few more recent photos of Hannah for you to see. 

Frustration and Decisions!

So every adoption has it's days of frustration and this one has been no exception.  I will have to say that in may ways this adoption has been the most frustrating we have ever done.

A lot of it is the agency that will for now remain unnamed.  On the good side the lady we work with most of the time has been great, she is available day or night, she has made the paperwork very easy and removed a lot of barriers there.   But on the other side the agency itself is a pain to deal with, their documentation and contracts are the worst I have ever seen.  There have been multiple times that we have said "NO WAY" and refused to sign documents until they corrected them.  I cant believe that others just sign these when they are blatantly wrong.   I want documentation to be correct and expect the agency to be on top of these things.  I want to be able to trust them but I just don't.  In my professional life I have to judge people and situations quickly and my gut just does not trust this agency it has not from early in the process and likely never will.  This is my 6th adoption and fourth agency and I have never felt like this toward an agency.     Were it not for our primary contact being so helpful and the fact that we know she is a believer I would have stopped the adoption very early in the process.

Then on the negative side of the lady we are working with, she is stubborn and set in her ways.    If it is not the way she does it then it is wrong.  Debating with her is difficult like running in circles.  We have had to push back to get the Beijing tours which they normally don't do.  Flying back from Hong Kong was a major deal that they did not like.  Travel arrangements have been a nightmare.  That is mostly done now with exception of the in country part (thus the latest frustrations).  I have literally spent hours on the phone with this person that I have yet to meet.  I feel like we have become friends during this process.  If we go forward we will get to meet her in just a few short weeks.

There have been so many times in the adoption where I just wanted to throw up my hands and walk away.    I am here again now.  We are within a month of meeting our daughter and I am so frustrated that I just want to give up.    It seems like the agreements and contracts with this agency just never end and the fees just keep going up.   The cost of this adoption with be over twice what we paid on the first one and is up 60% from our adoption just 4 years ago.    Estimates of in country cost are way higher than we expected.   We are traveling during peak tour season so hotels are higher,(thankful for Marriott points to offset some of this)  air fare is higher, little things like getting a van and driver are outrageous, the cost just keep growing. 

We know that God can and will provide but in the heat of the battle it is hard to keep your eyes on this.   For the first time in our adoptions we looked into grants but only met the criteria for one.  We are still waiting to hear back from that one but it will be a matching grant and this late in the process that wont help much if we even get it.   

I am just tired.  Tired of paperwork, tired of fighting with adoption agencies, tired of the pouring out of money to get a child home, tired of spending most of my free time working on something adoption related.  I am just tired.

Now the big question do we go forward or give up.  I think I know the answer but am praying that God will clearly show me that we are on the right track.   I am ready for this one to be over. 

But then the real challenge begins with helping a 6 year old adjust to a new life in a new place with a language she does not know with people she does not know.   Are we up for this?  Are we the right family for her?  Is this place best for her?

Putting my thoughts down here helps. It helps to vent, it helps to document how I feel it helps to let others take a peak under the curtain that is the life of an adoptive parent.

Early in this adoption a dear friend lead us to a bible verse that on the surface has nothing to do with adoption but for me it did.  Acts 8: 26 to 40 the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch.  In versus 30 and 31 Philip asked "do you know what you are reading?"   and the man responds "How can I unless someone explains it to me"   that really impacted me as we know we have a chance to explain the gospel to another child.   

The above combined with words I spoke during our second adoption (more on that another day) dig deep into my heart and force me to press on with things that frustrate me and scare me. 

Pray for us as we make final decisions and arrangements to get Hannah home. Pray for us to make the right choices for everyone involved.  For us to have patience as we with people and circumstances that frustrate us.  Pray for God to be at the center of this adoption and all that we do and for God to be honored in whatever the outcome of this is.

We do covet your prayers right now and trust that all will work out.