1st day in China

Here in China we are 15 hours ahead. We left on Wednesday morning and when we arrived Thursday night it was still only Thursday morning back home. It's like the TV show "Lost." We jumped ahead in time and when we go home we will go back in time. Mind boggling.

We are working to get ourselves on Chinese time, but by the end of the day today, we were dragging. We were all able to get a good night’s sleep and were able to sleep until 6am. We started the day dressing in long underwear and heavy coats because we new we would be outside all day sightseeing.

Breakfast was interesting. There were foods that we normally see on a breakfast buffet like eggs, bacon, toast and fruit, but also Chinese food that I would expect at lunch. There was wonton soup, stir-fried noodles and fried rice. This surprised me, but we can always count on Thatcher eating noodles, so that, along with a lot of watermelon, made for a good breakfast for Thatcher.

Next we boarded a bus with the 11 other families with our agency. Like us, they are all here to get their special needs children. There are families from Alabama, North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia and more. There are 32 people in our group.

Our first stop was Tieneman Square. We walked through the square and took pictures of the soldiers, monuments and surrounding buildings. Local street vendors offered for sale silk purses, colorful chopsticks, furry hats with a communist red star, and official Chairman Mao watches. We stopped at one point and gathered for a group picture and Zhou took a picture with everyone’s camera. We noticed that Chinese tourists were gathering around and taking pictures of us. One college-age kid kept trying to get in the picture and Zhou (all the while laughing) pushed him out. Then, after all of our pictures were taken, Chinese people began getting into the group while their family members took pictures of us. Two girls got into a picture with me, then introduced themselves to Thatcher and got pictures with him. For the rest of the day, wherever we went, it was a common site to see adults and children in our group being stopped by Chinese people for pictures. It was really funny!

After Tieneman Square we walked to the Forbidden City. Built in the early 1400s and home to 14 Chinese Emperors, the Forbidden City is a palace made up of many courtyards and buildings. It was interesting, but we kind of rushed through it. In addition, with so many people there, it was very difficult to keep our group together. Regrouping took up a lot of time.

Next, we took a rickshaw ride threw a residential area. We stopped at someone’s house for lunch. Zhou arranged us to be fed by some locals so that we could see what a traditional middle class family eats and how they live. It was very modest and he explained how this man, who is a soldier, could only afford to rent a small two-room house. It is normal for 3 or 4 generations to live in one room of a house that size and rent one room out to migrant workers. One more thing to make us thankful.

I thought lunch was good. I am not so sure that everybody else thought so. I am pretty adventurous and I found the food not much different from Chinese food we might eat in the U.S. I think if there had been forks, then others might have found the food more enjoyable. As it was, the conversation around the table centered on everyone’s difficulty with chopsticks.

Our next destination was to be a silk factory. But first Zhou needed to stop at the CCAA--the Chinese Adoptions Authority. He needed to make a donation for Special Needs Orphans on behalf of our Agency and he stated that we are the first group that he has ever brought to see the place where all of the adoptions are processed. We didn't go inside, but most of got off the bus while waiting for Zhou to take pictures of this agency that enabled us all to get our adopted children.

At the silk factory we were shown the life of the silkworm and shown how the silk is taken from the cocoon, woven into thread, and weaved into rugs and cloth, or used to make the filling for silk comforters. He told us that first the cocoons were baked in an oven to kill the worm and the worm could be eaten as a source of protein--tastes not like chicken but like peanuts. That's what he said. Anyway, their goods were very high quality, very expensive, but beautiful.

Not yet adjusted to Chinese time, we were fading at the end of the day. We had dinner on our own, and we decided to just get dinner in our hotel.. The hotel’s a la carte menu had Indian food, Italian food and American food as well as Asian cuisines. Norma, Kristi, Thatcher and I all opted for food we were pretty familiar with. I had fried chicken wings and fries, Kristi had a burger, Thatcher had spaghetti (he said the best hotel food he has ever had) and Mimi had a club sandwich. After so many new experiences, I think we all just needed a little bit of comfort food. And Thatcher was so tired that he actually fell asleep at about 7pm while twirling his spaghetti. We all had a good laugh at him.

It was another exciting day. We will not get our daughter until probably Monday afternoon and we are anxious. Luckily, we will be very busy until then--tomorrow we have a big day as well. We will see the Great Wall, do some shopping and see an acrobatic show. It has been very busy so far, but we are really enjoying experiencing something so different from what we know.

Lastly, thank you all for your supportive postings and the prayers. It means so much to us. If you read this and see no pictures, check back. We are having technical difficulties but I'll get them worked out soon. Thanks again.

No sushi. And No Ninjas!

After three airplane flights and more than 24 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Beijing last night Thursday). We landed at 9:20 pm local time and finally settled down into our hotel room at about midnight. It was a long day, but luckily pretty uneventful. No delays and Thatcher was as good as you could ask a five-year-old to be on such a long day. We gave him a present--a Nintendo DS for the trip and he was very happy.

It is a small world. During my life I have had some really crazy coincidences. Or maybe something else. Although we are going through different agencies, another couple from our area were also on all three of our flights. We were recently introduced to Marty and Tiffany Kent by Ben and Wendy Lee and had dinner with them a couple of months ago. Kristi and Tiffany started communicating via face book and as it turns out, they will be in Guangzhou the same time we will be. It was good to get a chance to visit with them and spend our layovers in both Dallas and Tokyo with them. It was really encouraging to talk to another couple going through the same situation.

Speaking of Tokyo…for the most part, the airport was what I expected. It was very modern, clean and commercial. There were duty-free stores for everything you can imagine. However, the most important thing that I was after was in short supply---namely food. There was no food court, and only a very few restaurants. Thatcher and I had Cajun French Fries (I swear they had Tony Cacherie’s on them) and Chinese vegetable noodle soup. There was some sushi, but it looked pretty tame…like a California roll or similiar. I was really looking forward to sushi in Japan. My two favorite Japanese things are sushi and ninjas. I did not really think I would see ninjas, but I was sure I would be able to try good sushi there, but no luck on either.

At the end of the day, “Uncle Zhou” (pronounced Joe) was waiting for us at the airport. He got us checked into our hotel, instructed us on tipping (not much, if any) and told us to try and get some sleep, as we were going to have a big day the next day. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Downtown Beijing and the rooms are very small, but the hotel overall is very nice. We got to our rooms and we all were asleep as soon as our heads touched the pillows. We have a big day on Friday.

How we got here...

For those of you that do not know, Kristi, Thatcher and I have been working on and praying about getting Amelia Belle for about three years. It has been three years filled with many ups and downs, lots of excitement and disappointments and some setbacks along the way as well. As we are getting ready to leave, I wanted to document briefly how we got to where we are now in this post.

In early 2006, when we were living in Delaware, Kristi and I started thinking about and praying about an adoption. From the start, Kristi felt pulled to China. She felt very strongly about the situation of the little girls in China and it did not take much convincing to pull me in that direction as well. We (and by we I mean Kristi) started looking at agencies and getting information from them. We (and I mean we this time) began looking through the information, reading and watching DVDs from agencies and we settled on two. We were praying about both…one a Christian organization and the other a secular organization…and both looked like possibilities. About this time, I went away to a sales meeting. At the meeting one of my training colleagues introduced me to one of his former colleagues who had already adopted one child internationally and was about to adopt another. While she had adopted her first from Russia and was adopting her second from Guatemala, her agency was one of the two we were considering. After she shared her wonderful experience with me, it convinced me that European Adoption Consultants, Inc. was the right place for us to start. Thank you, Mimi Hayden!
We began the process with an application to EACI, anticipating an 18-month wait We were accepted and soon began our home study. EACI is not licensed to do home studies in Delaware, so we used an agency called Adoptions from the Heart. We went through several classes and interviews and despite their best efforts to slow things down, we were able to finish our home study in a little less than 6 months--a process that a year later in Louisiana took us less than 6 weeks.

Around this time, several things happened that threw a kink in things. First, I was hired for a position back in Louisiana. Secondly, the Adoption Authority in China changed the adoption laws, causing more stringent requirements and a MUCH longer wait. Our Dossier was accepted into China, but knowing that our wait could possibly be three or four more years, our agency suggested we consider an interim adoption in Vietnam. This would possibly be a faster process for us. A little reluctantly, we changed our approval with the U.S. government and our home study in hopes of a Vietnamese adoption. But again, setbacks. Because of problems with human trafficking, the U.S. government refused to ratify a treaty with Vietnam. U.S. adoptions from Vietnam were suspended, so we ended up back where we started.

This whole process was exciting and very frustrating at times. There were times that we wanted to give up, but we decided to keep our application in place in China and pray and wait to see what happened. Little did we know God had a little girl in mind for us. During this time, I noticed Kristi on the EACI website looking at and commenting on the special needs children. I did not think much of this, because we had decided on a healthy little girl. HOWEVER, one afternoon in the beginning of October Kristi called me on my way home. She explained to me that she had been discussing EACI’s special needs program with one of our counselors and after research, consideration and prayer we decided to move in this direction. EACI explained to us that we could potentially have a referral in 2-6 weeks and that once a month the adoption authority releases a group of special needs children for adoption. We became very hopeful and prayerful.
That next week we did not receive a referral. We were very disappointed, but our counselors explained that there were no children they felt were a fit for our family. They encouraged us and we stayed hopeful.

At about 12:15 am on October 16 Kristi walked into our bedroom on the phone and I sat straight up in bed. It was the most surreal feeling I have ever felt and I do not think I will ever forget that night. After getting all of the information, Kristi put me on the phone with our counselor. She explained to me that she had a beautiful 19-month-old baby girl named Li Hai-Fang who she thought was a perfect fit for our family. She explained to us the baby’s health situation and we began praying. We had her medical records reviewed the next day by an international adoptions specialist and we decided to move forward…This was our baby. We were told to expect to travel no sooner than May and we prepared ourselves for a long wait.

Fast forward a few months. On January 2nd, we received a call that our paperwork had moved very quickly through the proper channels with the Chinese Adoption Authority and we would be traveling in late February to mid-March. We were happy to get the news, but I did not really believe it. Nevertheless, we did begin preparing ourselves and we now find ourselves getting ready to travel.

One other bit of information I have to share…our friends, my co-workers and family have been amazing with gifts, cards, helping paint, encouragement and prayers. On Sunday before we left two groups of people, our Sunday School Class and our Growth Group gathered around us and took turns praying for us, Thatcher and Amelia Belle. It has been very moving for me. I cannot get over and am constantly amazed at the thoughtfulness and love that people have shown us.
It is now the night before we leave. My mother-in-law has offered to come with us to so that our son Thatcher can experience this amazing time with us. Thatcher will be able to meet his new baby sister from the very beginning!

Mimi and Thatcher are asleep, Kristi is asleep and the house is quiet. We have a very big day ahead of us tomorrow. Three flights and over 20 hours from the time we leave until we reach Beijing. But…we will have a little girl in less than 5 days. To me it is an amazing thought. I have been so busy with work that it has not really hit home with me what is happening…it hasn’t’ been quite real. Now, though, in the quiet, now that we are packed and ready to go I am feeling many different things. All at the same time I am excited, hopeful, a little nervous and overwhelmingly thankful. Please keep us in your prayers. We’ll keep you updated and we would love to hear from you.

--Gene

First Posting

Welcome to our blog! If you are reading this, chances are you know all are part of our story. If not, stay tuned and we'll fill you in.

I set this blog up at the suggestion of a coworker who adopted two girls from China. He strongly encouraged me to do this for a few reasons: a. to document our journey for our family b. to keep our family and friends back home informed as we take our trip to China, and c. as we will be gone for a while (17 days!!!), posts from family and friends at home will keep our family connected and encouraged until our return.

Kristi and I both will be posting, so we will each be sharing our own perspective and trying to capture Thatcher's experience as well--he is very excited. We're not writers, but bear with us and we'll try to make it fun for all.

Our latest news is that today our flights were confirmed and we are leaving Shreveport for Beijing on February 25. Keep us in your prayers and stay tuned.

--Gene