Beijing Road

Today we followed what seems to be working out as our routine: get up, go down for breakfast, go on an outing, take the kids back to the hotel for some quiet time and a couple school lessons (math and reading), then dinner, and back to the hotel for bed for the kids.

Our outing today was to Beijing Road. It is a more modern shopping district with department stores and small shops. One department store we were in had nine floors, and included a small supermarket. My mom ran out of deoderant and has discovered that apparently China is an untapped market for deodorant (all P&G employees take notice, now you just have to convince them that they need it. No arguement here!) We have smelled some funky people (especially on the city bus we took today!), but not as many as you would think without much deodorant usage going on. Mom said in Malaysia the funk of the people overpowered the funk of the fish market! The good news is, she did have a choice between 2 deodorant products in that small supermarket and made a purchase. This is, of course, after visiting 3 markets that did not carry any deodorant at all. Another observation, Mom's favorite hair conditioner that was discontinued in the USA was available in this store. She is considering how much she can take back with her.

We ate meat on a stick for lunch today. We bypassed the chicken stomach and other assorted entrails on a stick as well as whole squid on a stick in favor of unidentified meat balls, crab balls, chicken legs (on a stick, who knew you needed a stick to serve chicken legs?), lamb, and feed corn on a stick. Apparently they do not know the difference between feed corn and sweet corn. Greg and Justin who both love sweet corn on the cob took one bite. Greg said he had no idea corn could have that texture. Most of it did taste good, and no one left the table hungry.

Beijing Road has glassed over reminent of brick roads dating dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) They have dug down further and have sections that date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) too. These are under the current road, which is closed to all but foot traffic.
Very interesting to see.

For dinner, we ate at a great little restaurant with the best sweet and sour chicken I have ever had. Who knew that is what it was supposed to taste like? We also had pan fried goose, roasted pork Macau style (layers of fat, very strange, but the meat had good flavor), beef in a pot with ginger and whole garlic cloves (delicious) and Chinese broccoli. No one there spoke any English, so there was a whole lot of pointing going on. It's a good thing there is English and Chinese on the menus as well as pictures.

The kids are holding up very well. Justin shuts down part way though dinner each night. He eats, then is done and a zombie until we carry him back to the hotel. Kailey keeps plugging right along. They are game to try things and are willing to taste just about anything. We are impressed. Justin bounces down the street, which could be part of why he is done by 6:30. My mom describes him as a perpetual motion machine using four times the amount of required energy to complete the given task. I repeat, whatever school teacher who would have had him this year should write me a letter and thank me for homeschooling him. Who would want that bundle of energy to attempt to contain in a desk?

We are working on figuring out how to get to Elijah ZuBin's finding place. It appears to be about 4 hours away in a small village north of here. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to work it out.

Just so you know, the plan is for Mom and Dad to leave on the 11th with Kailey and Justin as planned. This means we will only have to convert 3 of the 7 tickets instead of all of them. It will also save some money at the end on hotel and food.

Tomorrow I believe we are going to the jade and pearl market. Kailey is very excited. She was given some money to spend and has decided that she really likes jewelry. I'll update soon!

The Issues and Where We Stand Now

We received confirmed appointments for leaving today. They currently have us scheduled for our exit interview on November 20, our swearing in ceremony on November 21, and departure on November 22 or so. This puts us traveling on the day before Thanksgiving. We are so disappointed in how late the appointments are scheduled. We and the other couple who is already here are contacting various members of congress to ask for help in changing these appointments yet again. The other family's senator is Norm Coleman of Minnesota who is a big supporter of adoption and holds a reception each year for adoptive families. Ours is Representative John Boehner, who is the Majority Leader of the House. We are praying that they will be able to make some exceptions and allowances to get us in sooner.

Here are the big issues:
1. We receive Elijah ZuBin on November 7. We will sign gardianship papers at this point and he is in our custody from then on.
2. We have a Civil Affairs office visit on November 8 with the Chinese government. This works towards making the adoption final and getting his passport.
3. It takes 5 business days to get the passport. We should receive it on November 15.
4. November 16 is full at the US Consulate, so we cannot get an appointment on that day at this time.
5. The swearing in ceremony happens the next day at 4 pm. They apparently do not do these on Fridays.

We are asking them to make several exceptions for us. The government is not good at making exceptions. Our problems right now are not with the Chinese bureaucracy, although that is where they started. Initially, the way we understand it, the Guangdong province got a new director for adoptions. He changed part of the process making it take longer. Then he decided there were too many appointments each day and things needed to slow down. That moved our original appointment from the 30th to the 31st. This did not allow time to get the passport before the visa could be issued. Veterans' Day on the 10th made this impossible, thus cancelling all of our appointments before we left. This is why all this has been so complicated.

God is an on time God and is in control. We work very hard to remind ourselves of this many, many times daily.

My Father's Hand

Greg here.
I am trying to be attuned to hearing the Lord while here. I must say, it is very very difficult. There is so much busyness and hub-bub that it is hard to find time away. Even walking around (which we have done more of in the past few days than I have in the past year) is too hard to concentrate. There are just so many people and so many things going on. However, yesterday afternoon, I had a great moment of understanding our dear Father better.

Most of you know that Kailey tends towards the cautious and often fearful. She is doing and experiencing things that, well , I am just doing for the first time as well. Her comfort zone is not being streched; it is being exploded.

During our first few days, she really hung close. She almost always was holding an adult's hand and often had her body pressed up against ours. She has relaxed over our trip as her zone has expanded. She now is walking most places with no physical contact with us.

There was a moment yesterday where we were walking along and, I can't really explain how, but the environment changed. It was subtle, not tangible, and quite possibly Kailey and I were the only ones to notice. My internal security perked up right at the moment hers did. Certainly no one else in our group said anything, but Kailey and I definitely sensed something the others didn't. The moment was brief, perhaps just a minute long but it was there. And here is where I drew closer to God. It was not because of anything I did or any prayer I offered. In fact, I was too busy scanning my other internal sensors to lift anything to the Lord. But at that moment, Kailey responded just as subtly. She quietly slipped her hand into mine. That was it. No big fanfare and not even a word. She reached up, and slid the palm of her hand into the palm of my hand. And she was safe. Simply because she had her daddy's hand, nothing could harm her. Life lessons about her daddy's fragility will come later. For about a minute in her day, at a time when she really needed a loving touch, a secure touch, she reached for me.

Wow! I was so grateful to my Father for making me aware of these events that I almost started crying right there while walking down the street. How special for me to be used to protect one of His little ones.

I then thought of my Father's hand. He is always right there for me. There are times when I need him so badly that I press right up to him. While there are never times when I don't need Him at all, there are times when I am secure not being pressed right up to Him. However, when I become scared or need His touch, I can reach my hand quietly and place it right in His. And when I am there, nothing can come against me. I am safe. I am protected. I am loved. In that moment with Kailey, if something would have gone wrong, I would have laid my life down for my girl. I would not even have thought twice. My Lord laid His life down for me when something went wrong. I owe all to Him.

The Market Place

One note before I get started: we cannot actually go to the blog, so we cannot read any of the comments there. The first day we were in Hong Kong, we were able to access everything, but after that the page will not come up. We do not know if the problem was in China or in the computer. So, if you want to comment, please email us directly so we can see them.

Such the adventures today! As I said last night, Justin fell asleep at the restaurant at 6:30. We carried him back to the hotel and tucked him in. He slept until 8:30! Breakfast was western food in the hotel restaurant. We get two free meals per room and only have to pay for the kids. Not a bad deal. Greg is of the opinion that as long as he can get a solid western breakfast and get filled up, he will be fine for the day.

The kids and I also had our first experience with eastern toilets. Justin was especially fascinated. They are basically a thin toilet bowl imbedded into the floor with foot rests on either side. You squat to use the facilities. All were successful, you will be pleased to know.

The kids went swimming in the rooftop pool. They found the water to be a bit cold and spent their time floating Kailey’s shoes on a string. The pool will only be open for a couple more days since winter is coming. Hard to picture it with temps in the 80’s.

We met our travel coordinator, Qin Lei (Chin Lay) in the lobby along with another couple, Beth and Brian, who traveled as planned as well. They are adopting a little boy from this province, but another orphanage. It turns out that there are 2 more couples coming to this hotel to adopt from that other orphanage next week.

We went to lunch at a Chinese fast food restaurant. They serve noodle bowls and rice bowls. Very good and rather nutritious (especially compared to fast food in the US.) All 6 of us ate lunch for RMB54. Divide by 8 for American. We will be eating there a lot.

We went across the canal to the market. Oh, my. We first entered the Qing Ping Market. There were cats, bunnies, chickens, ducks, eels, snakes, scorpions, frogs, shrimp, fish, and turtles, all alive, all waiting to be someone’s dinner. Kailey was not happy to learn that that kitty was meant for the table, not as a pet. There were no dogs, though. We watched a shopkeeper package up eels for sale, sorting them into a large plastic bag, then adding a large chunk of ice, and filling the bag with air. The kids were spellbound to watch the eels be tossed through the air, alive, and squirm around in the plastic bag.

As we continued to wander through the markets, we noticed that the shops ran in themes. Most of the spice and dried medicine stalls were grouped together. There was a street of shoe stores, a street of electronics, a street of live animals, and a street of pets and pet goods (hard to tell from dinner, they were just cleaner!). We did not buy anything today (except a pair of pj’s for Kailey, she was jealous of mine so Greg and Dad took her out special tonight to buy her a pair of silk jammies—only $6.50 US!)

The kids and I were out for a little walk and passed a park behind our hotel. There were Chinese soldiers there doing hand to hand combat exercises and practicing throwing for hand grenades. That was a little alarming. This was contrasted with the bride and groom there having wedding photos taken in the park as well. Such diversity.

Dinner tonight was at a western restaurant. Dad, however, had some sort of Asian soup. Kailey was a little alarmed at the face that was still attached to Dad’s shrimp. She, like me, apparently prefers not to have dinner looking back at her.

We came back to the hotel, put Justin to bed, sent Kailey shopping for jammies with the guys, Mom settled down with a book, and I went to get a massage. The hotel advertises that at the massage parlor in the same building, you can get a massage for RMB198. When I got there, as I went downstairs, I started wondering if it wasn’t a truly full service Chinese massage parlor. There were men lined up at the back and all the women wore these cute little dresses. Hmmmm. At any rate, the massage was great and has really worked to rid me of some of the major knots from the trip.

Well, it is off to bed. Tomorrow is an equally full day. Oh, we did find out that our request to visit the orphanage before we receive Elijah ZuBin was denied. Qin Lei will ask again if we can visit after we receive him next week. She says they will frequently say yes after custody has been transferred. We will also be making arrangements to go visit his finding place. More tomorrow! Hopefully then we will find out our appointment dates and can then make arrangements to come home.

Good night.

Humanity: Experiential and theoretical

Greg here for my first post.
The trip for me has been physically more difficult than for the others. I woke up the morning we were to fly out with a sinus infection. Egads! I haven't had one of those for more than a year. The pressure changes as we took off and landed over and over again wrecked havoc on my sinus problems. One benefit was that the pressure actually seemed to have the effect of blasting out the infection. I basically was blowing my nose and wiping my eyes out the entire trip as both just ran and ran and ran. The down side to all of this is that that it seems fluid got pushed into my inner ear and triggered vertigo. I have been dealing with this off and on since we arrived. It is unsettling, but my spirits are good. I was totally unable to sleep on the plane. I ended up getting only about 3 hours of sleep in the previous 48. That is a large part as to why I have not yet posted. As that crazy dude on Night Court used to say, "But I am feeling muuuuuch better now!"

The mass of humanity is simply unbelievable. There is just no way to describe it. I have never seen so many people. I mean to tell you, people and extremely large buildings just go on and on and on. At the same time, we have witnessed tiny little ramshackle shantys that are barely standing. I pointed out to Kailey that we live on a 1/2 acre lot in a big house and entire familys are living in such impoverished places.

I am also gaining a new perspective on possible thought processes of minorities. You see we got on a plane and after a few hours we were suddenly a minority. But here is the thing. I don't feel like a minority. As I look around, I just see the beautiful tapestry of people created by God. But, I am a minority here. During my quiet time this morning, I reflected on how minorities in the states do not feel any different. They look out of eyes and see other people...just people. However, their experiences by others often communicate that there is something wrong with them just because of how they look. This is just not right. I know this is real basic stuff for all of our friends who find themselves in the minority in the States, but it is a new experience for me.

Observations on China

We are in Guangzhou now. The train trip was nice. We loaded up all of our luggage (and with our suitcases, carry-ons, and 3 bags of humanitarian aid, there is a ton!) to head to the train station. We had to split between 2 taxis to get there. (Kailey and I counted our different vehicles we have traveled in so far: 3 planes, taxis, a double decker bus, a tram, a ferry boat, and shuttle buses. Quite a good list, wouldn't you say?) We had to go through customs and fill out paperwork to actually enter Mainland China. They wanted to know, in part, if we had bird flu. Hong Kong may have been returned to China 7 years ago, but it still feels different and acts differently.

As we rode, we kept waiting to get to the countryside, but it was never quite there. Hong Kong was sky scrapers as far as the eye could see. Kowloon wasn't any different. The train station was in Kowloon where our hotel was. The buildings never really stopped. They have apartment buildings that are 20-30 stories high all over the place and continue to build more. You can tell the difference between an apartment building and an office building by the laundry. Everyone hangs their laundry outside their windows. Every window of every building is decorated with clothing of all colors. Many of the balconies are covered with plants too. All along the way were factories, apartments, offices, and shacks. There were pockets of good sized gardens that were either community gardens or farmers' fields growning produce. There were squatters' villages with corregated metal shacks on the hillsides. There were fish ponds growing commercial fish. We saw no animals, which I found odd.

There were people riding bikes and motor bikes. I was surprised to frequently see 3 people riding a motor bike at the same time. There were even people wearing the traditional cone shaped straw hats. That surprised me too.

One observation I have made is in the lack of small children out on the street with their families. We have seen lots of kids maybe age 5 and up, all well dressed and cared for, but no kids younger than that, and no babies. That is, until this morning. Mom and I went to buy tickets for the train. We had to walk several blocks in Kowloon to the travel agent to buy them. We arrived promptly at 9, when we were told it opened. The man there told us they sold no tickets until 9:30, so please to have a seat and wait. As we waited (while he did nothing but wander around), I noticed maybe a half dozen couples carrying their bundles of newborn babies upstairs. We do not know for sure, but we think that is where they had to go register their new babies. We saw lots of children Saturday in the late morning as the schools let out. They all wear school uniforms and look so cute.

We arrived safely in Guangzhou. At the train station, Dad had to give up the banana and 2 apples he had purchased in Hong Kong since it is illegal to import fruit, even from Hong Kong. Two baggage handlers took our great load of bags, but also made it clear that they expected to be tipped. They made the international sign for money to Greg (rubbing their fingers and thumb together), and then stopped at the money changing counter and basically told us to change some money to RMB so we could pay them. It sure felt like extortion: if you want your bags back, you better pay us.

Our travel coordinator Leila was waiting for us downstairs. We felt badly, because our original plans were to arrive in Guangzhou at 10 am, but we changed it last Thursday to 2 pm. It would have been difficult for us to get to the train station any sooner. Leila had not gotten the message, though. She had been waiting there since 10. She is a very sweet girl who will helpo us jump through all the hoops to finish this adoption.

She told us that we still do not have an exit interview scheduled, but that we would be receiving Elijah ZuBin on November 7. We will receive his passport on November 13, so hopefully our appointment to exit will be able to be scheduled shortly after that. She is going to put in a request for us to visit his orphanage. This may even be able to happen before we get him, which is actually our preference. We will not be taking him with us on an orphanage visit (to hard and confusing on him), so if we can go before we get him, we do not have to split up the family.

I need to go so I can get some sleep. Justin fell asleep at dinner tonight (6:30 pm here). He had been up since 4 am. I know he was awake at 4 because I was awake with him. I can barely keep my eyes open, so I will go crash.

Please keep praying for those dates!

Planes, Trains, and Autobuses (and a Boat!)

We had a great day today. We got up this morning at 7. The kids thought it was funny that all of their friends would be going to bed soon. My dad took them swimming, then we headed to breakfast. We ate at a western restaurant and had scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and hash browns. We then did a little shopping in a Chinese grocery store. It was amazing to see how many familiar foods they carried. We needed to buy bottled water since we can't drink the water here.

We then caught the shuttle to go to the Star Ferry that would take us to Hong Kong. We are actually staying in Kowloon, a penisula that is across Victoria Bay from Hong Kong. We had great fun on the ferry--a first class ticket on the top deck was only $2.20HK. Divide by 7 for the American amount. Hong Kong is an amazingly busy city, with a big green hill in the middle with almost nothing on it. We took the tram to the top of the hill called Victoria Peak. The view was amazing. There was a 7 story mall with an overlook on the roof. Hong Kong has more sky scrapers than you can imagine. It seems that the entire perimeter of the island is surrounded with sky scrapers. We then rode on the top of a double decker bus through the city to get back to the ferry.

We ate dinner back at the restaurant we ate at last night. Justin had his same bowl of beef and noodles. Kailey very happily ate sauteed chicken and soy sauce. Greg ate, get this, chicken and tofu. There was a little misunderstanding when reading the menu and communicating with the waiter. He actually enjoyed my spicy chicken, though. Kailey has discovered that she really likes duck.

All in all, a good day. Tomorrow we will take the train to Guangzhou. A new chapter in our adventure.

Please continue to pray for us as we wait for our dates. We won't hear anything until Monday. Such a hard time to wait when you don't know when you will get to leave for home. We continue to trust Him, though.

We Made It Safely

It was a grueling trip--one that almost was delayed, but we decided to push forward and go anyway. Long story short, 15 minutes before we were to leave, we received a call from AGCI saying that all of our appointments in China had been cancelled for unknown reasons. They had not yet been able to reschedule anything, and AGCI did not recommend we fly "blind" with no appointments and not knowing when we could leave China.

Since four out of our six tickets were purchased with frequent flyer miles, we learned that it would cost us up to $15,000 to reticket the trip. We could go ahead and leave, just changing our departure date for less than $1,000. After a frantic afternoon, we decided to go ahead and chance it.

We are now here, but do not know when we will be able to return home. Hopefully we will receive our appointments in the next day or two so we can know what to expect.

The trip was certainly an adventure. We arrived at Port Columbus Thursday morning at the prescribed 2 hours before departure, only to discover the counter did not open until 4:45 am. Love to hurry up and wait. Our first plane was a small commuter jet. We had to cross the tarmac to board. We watched the sun rise over Washington DC.

The second flight was from DC to San Francisco. The kids did great. They got to watch Cars as the in flight movie. They also watched Robots on a portable DVD player while we watched The Lakehouse as the in flight movie.

In San Francisco, we ran to the International Terminal so that we would have time to call AGCI for any updates before we boarded. Tiffany told us that we would not be receiving Elijah ZuBin until November 8. We still do not have all of our appointments scheduled, so we still do not know when we can return. We are praying for the possibility of 11/16, but if that is not available, it will not be until 11/20 or 21. That is for the appointment, not the return date. We would return a day or two after the Exit appointment. We are totally trusting God on this.

The flight from SF to Hong Kong was, well, let's just say I had no idea 14 hours was so long. We had gotten the kids up at 3:30 am Thursday morning to leave. They did not settle into sleep until almost midnight Ohio time. They did great, but they are exhausted. It is rough sleeping on a plane! They showed 4 in-flight movies on that leg!

We are now at the hotel in Hong Kong. Greg went to bed. The rest of us went to get a bite to eat before tucking the kids in. They are all in bed now, but I wanted to be sure to update you all on our adventures!

We will have access to emails, so feel free to email us while we are gone! Please also keep praying that God will be working through all the details to His Glory.
Thank you all. We can feel your prayers supporting us.

Travel Plans

We have our travel plans now and are working out the details for what we want to do and see during our free time.

We are going to drive to Columbus on 10/25 to stay at the Marriott Courtyard by the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:14 am, Thurday morning. We fly to Dulles Airport in Washington DC, then on to San Francisco. We then fly to Hong Kong, arriving at 6:00 pm Friday evening. We will be in Hong Kong Friday night at Saturday night, getting to explore the city a little.

On Sunday 10/29, we will take the high speed train to Guangzhou where we will be met by a guide from All God's Children. We are staying at the Phoenix City Hotel in Guangzhou. http://www.guangzhouhotel.com/phoenixcity.htm

We will actually get custody of Elijah ZuBin on Monday, 10/30. We will be in Guangzhou for the rest of the trip, getting to know our son, finalizing the adoption, and getting his passport and visa. We also hope to visit his orphanage as well as his finding place.

We will return to Hong Kong either Friday 11/10 or Saturday 11/11 to fly home. Our flight leaves Hong Kong at 11:30 am on11/11, lands in Chicago, then finishes in Columbus at 3:30 pm on Saturday 11/11.

The kids are very excited, and we are working on getting the last minute details finished to be ready to go.