Planes, Trains & Automobiles

After 7 flights, 5 hotels, unknown miles, and many different modes of transportation...we have arrived safe and sound back in good ole Moses Lake. Thanks be to God.

Our last 2 days at the Hong Kong Disney proved to be a wonderful time for our family. It was a perfect ending to what was, in many ways, the perfect trip. The main thing was the Ming seemed to have the time of his life. I believe Caryn mentioned in an earlier blog that when she told Ming that we were going to Disneyland, he actually teared up. My sense of it was that our time there was everything he hoped it would be. The rides, the shows, and just the energy of it all. And we capped it all off with a late night swim before the piano shaped pool closed down at 10pm.

Caryn and I then stayed up way too late getting everything packed back in our bags for a very long day of travel. I think we got 3-4 hours of sleep before the 4:45am alarm jolted us back into the land of the living. We were down in the lobby by 5:45am for our taxi ride to the airport. And thus began our "Two Friday" day. The first Friday was the 14 or 15 hours of air travel that took us from Hong Kong to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Seattle. We landed in Seattle at 9am, less than an hour after we took off from Hong Kong (taking into account crossing the international date line). It's a good thing we had our time travel glasses on!



Touching down in Seattle began our "2nd Friday"...and it also was essentially the moment that Ming became a U.S. citizen (made official when customs stamped his passport and cleared him for entry). The weather in Seattle couldn't have been more perfect...80 and sunny. It truly was a wonderful welcome back to the States. We were all worn a bit slick, but not too bad considering the journey. Customs took a bit longer than we anticipated, but the great news was that by 11am, we were claiming all of our luggage, and being greeted by the Bailey family who brought our car back to the airport for us...complete with some nice fruit and delicious chocolate chip cookies (thanks so much!).

We still had a 3 hour drive up and over Snoqualmie Pass, and down into the Columbia Basin. But not before the joy of $4.40 gasoline, and some Starbucks. The drive...and in fact ALL of our travel...was smooth and completely uneventful. You really can't ask for more than that. We rolled into a pleasant and wonderfully sunny Moses Lake around 3pm this afternoon.

The rest of the day has been: 1) fighting off sleep, 2) showing Ming his new home, 3) fighting off more sleep, 4) enjoying a delicious meal compliments of the Alcorns, 5) getting our PJ's washed, 6) allowing the kids to play off some pent-up energy (they got some sleep on the flights...Mom and I didn't get a wink), and 7) just now getting them all tucked down for the night with Ming in the bed that has been waiting for him since last September 15.

As a family, we thank God for his watch-care over us.

We also thank all of you for following our journey, and holding us up in your thoughts and prayers. We have been completely blessed, and are acutely aware of your support. This concludes one chapter, and begins another. We can't promise a nightly blog as we've maintained these past 2 weeks, but we'll update regularly...so please check back often. Ming is a very brave young man...more brave than any of us realize. He has faced all of these massive changes head on and full of courage. We have no doubt that will only continue. Please pray that he gets a handle on the english language in a God-accelerated manner. And pray for our family as we now work him smoothly (we hope) into the operating systems of our family.

And one more thing before we finally put our heads on our pillow after being up somewhere around 32 hours...if God is tweeking at your heart regarding adoption, please at least be willing to pray about it. There are so many children in this world that are longing for a loving home. Ming is one of millions. He and Jamae are two that God intended for our family. Might He be intending one for yours? We are the first to admit that it is a HUGE leap of faith. But that's precisely the life that our Master has called us to. We follow an unpredictable carpenter. And what a ride it is.

Where All Your Dreams Come True!

We are in the place where magic happens - Disneyland!

After an uneventful flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong this morning, we arrived at our hotel, The Disneyland Hollywood Hotel. We checked in and then went directly to the park.


As soon as we got there, it started to rain. The above picture was taken just before the rain started. Jody & I immediatly bought Mickey rain slickers so we could stay dry. Jay, Jesse, and Madison thought that was pretty nerdy of us, but Ming, Mitchell and Jamae wanted to look as stylish as us, so they put on slickers too. Hey, at least we were dry. We walked on to Main Street and the whole family went ooh, aahh! No, not really, but I always feel that excited feeling when I walk onto Main Street. Jesse and Jay weren't looking for the magic, just their freedom. After arranging a designated time to meet up again, they headed for space mountain and we headed for Dumbo the flying elephant, which is what Jamae has been talking about for days. On our way, we stopped and went on Cinderella's Carasoul.



After riding all the rides in Fantasyland, we met up with Jesse and Jay and headed for Tomorrowland. Ming abolutley loved Space Mountain! He had the biggest grin on his face when he came off. We then went to the Buzz Lightyear ride. That was quite a hit because Ming has watched Toy Story this week. Here are some pictures of the kids with Buzz Lightyear.



This afternoon, just as we were about to watch the High School Muscial Show, the skies opened up and it poured! Being from dry Moses Lake, we have not seen a rain storm like that in a long time. Jody and I were glad we had our slickers.

Tonight, just as the park was closing, we saw a wonderful fireworks show above Cinderell's Castle. It was breathtaking, although we had to see it through a sea of umbrella's. Even though it was barely sprinkling by this time, I think every Chinese person watching the show had their umbrella up. It was hard for the younger ones to see the show through the umbrellas. Tomorrow night we are going to plan to get there earlier to get a closer view.

Despite the rain, we had a blast. We have been told that rain is very common here at this time of year everyday, so we will hope for the best tomorrow but not allow the rain to dampen our spirits - after all we are where dreams come true!

Another Day in China

Things are quiet in the room now as I write this post. Jody, Mitchell, and Jamae are asleep. Madison, Jay, and Jesse are watching a show on the television about spoiled Chinese children and Ming is watching one of his DVD's in chinese that we bought for him.

We are surprised how it is cooler here. Since we have traveled south, I thought it would be hotter, but the heat is actually bearable. Unfortunately, our hotel here in Guangzhou is downtown, so there is not any nice parks to walk around in. When we leave the hotel, it is just congested downtown. Jay and Jesse have enjoyed exploring the little shops around here looking for inexpensive video games.

We have all adjusted to the time here, so now getting the kids to bed and getting them up has been harder. We opted for a suite instead of two rooms (they don't have connecting rooms here) . The suite has one full bath and one half bath, so getting 8 through one shower has been a challenge. Thankfully the next two mornings we don't need to be anywhere early.

I've included a few pictures from our shopping today and the promised swimming cap pictures. Enjoy the pictures!

Kung Fu Shung Mow

We started our day having breakfast on the very top of our hotel, the Asia International, in a revolving restaurant. Not a bad way to eat breakfast. The views out the window were amazing or Tie Bang La as Ming would say. The best thing about breakfast was that they had maple syrup! We did not find syrup in Fuzhou.

We spent the morning getting Ming's visa picture taken and having his physical done that the USA requires. He had the same doctor that Jamae had back in 2004 when we were here.


We then got the bad news that since Ming is over 10 and does not have a vaccination card, the United States requires he have certain vaccinations before he can enter the US. I tried my best to talk them out of it, but you can't change the law. Ming ended up getting 3 shots and 1 oral vaccination. It was not fun for him at all, but at least he will have to get fewer shots when we get him home.

We then went over to the local Carrefour for a little shopping. For you Moses Lakers reading this, that is the China's version of Target. I figure if I can't shop there at home, I might as well shop there at China. The best thing was that there was a Starbucks. Yeah! First Starbucks we have had this trip. I (Caryn) got the best Dark Chocolate Frappachino. We were also able to get Ming many Disney and Pixar DVD's in Chinese. That was one of my goals on this trip.

We went back to the hotel this afternoon to swim and found out that our hotel just redid their pool and is now requiring swim caps for all who swim. At first we resisted the thought and then realized 'when in China do as the Chinese'. We broke down and bought swim caps. Everyone looked very cute. :) I'll have to take a picture tomorrow and post it.

The day ended great as on our way to McDonalds for dinner, we came across someone selling DVD's on the street. We ended up buying a number of movies including, Kung Fu Panda or Kung Fu Shung Mow as we say in China. It was fun to end the day watching the movie in our room.


Thanks for your continued prayers and comments. We feel the prayers and enjoy the comments.
Ming is doing great. He has transitioned well from leaving Fuzhou and being in Guangzhou. I feel like he understands almost everything we say, although he doesn't speak much English back to us. He has learned that basics like "Time to go!" and "Jamae is a baby". I know many of you asked us before we left if he knew any English. We didn't know the answer than. Now we do. Ming had a few years of English classes in school, so he has been exposed to it. I compare it to having 2 years of Spanish in school in the states and then going to Mexico and trying to talk with the natives. Most of us probably wouldn't do very good. What we learned in the classroom would be hard to remember if we were immersed in the spanish language.
He is doing great though and doesn't seem frustrated by the language barrier. I can't wait for you all to meet him. You are going to love him!
We'll write more later.

Some Random Thoughts

I (Caryn) thought that I would post this morning (while I am awake) some random thoughts about our trip.

*This morning is the first morning since we got here that we all didn't wake up between 4-6. We slept until 8-9, although Jody & Madison did just tell me that they both woke up around 5-6, got up for a while and then went back to bed.
*The funny thing is that because we have been getting up so early, last night we had planned to go to the local park around 6:30 this morning to see the locals. The park is filled with thousands of people exercising, sword fighting, and ball room dancing. We slept through that this morning. I guess we will have to set our alarm tomorrow.
*The breakfast buffet at the hotel is very large and plentiful. The first morning, Ming filled his plate up high with western food and ate it all. I doubt he had ever seen that much food at one time before. The next morning, I showed him where the congee (chinese rice oatmeal) was, thinking he might want that since it is what he is used to eating. He told me he did not want that! I don't blame him at all. That stuff looks awful. I remember when we were in China with Jamae, I took her off of congee the first day because the stuff looks nasty.
* So far we have eaten two chinese dinners. They were excellent. The funny thing is that Madison liked the food (she claims to not like chinese food) and Jamae didn't like the food (she claims to love chinese food. She's chinese after all, as she would say).
*We have also eaten at KFC, Papa John's, and Dico's ( a chinese fast food place). Ming had been to a McDonald's before, but never the others. He liked the food. That is good news since I don't really know how to cook chinese.
*We learned that on special days, like American New Year, the children in his group home would be taken to McDonald's for a special treat.
*So far we all feel good. That has been a blessing.
*To say that Ming loves his Nintendo DS we bought for him would be an understatement. We have a hard time getting him away from it. We do see it as a blessing though. It allows him a way to pull into himself. Being with all english speakers must be very difficult.
*Ming came to us with a backpack filled with school books, a bag with stuffed animals, a bag of clothes, and a box of treasures. We still haven't seen all the treasures yet.
*It is very, very hot and humid here. Being from dry Moses Lake, we are suffering and sweating.
*We have 2 connecting rooms which has been wonderful. When we were here with Jamae, we were not able to get connecting rooms until the end of the trip. We have one room with a queen bed, a roll away and a couch that Jamae is sleeping on. The other room has 2 twin beds and a roll away.
*The beds are HARD! They make me wake up with a backache. I think Ming must think they are very soft, because when we saw his bed yesterday, it is a piece of plywood with a bamboo mat on it.

The family is ready for breakfast. We will write again soon.

News from Burkina Faso & Shopping For China

Here's the update Michael, our high school pastor, sent today:
Today was a good day. We visited an alliance church where they minister to Compassion International children every Thursday. We played with the kids. Our group in total adopted 6 of the children (60 of the 200 who come have not yet been adopted). Some got to meet their child. I adopted one for the youth group, but didn't get to meet her because she went home sick. Her name is Bereniece.
We went to the Bobo market. It was crazy. People all over you there. We had lunch at the Schaeffers' (son of Grace Church pastor in Cleveland, Ohio) and dinner at the Hulls' (missionaries working w/Obergs). We went to visit a group of believers who meet for discipleship on Thursday nights in Sacabe here near Bobo. 11 men came to faith just two weeks ago. They sang a bunch and we were welcomed by the former village chief (he had to give it up b/c of his faith). we met in his courtyard. We're all tired and going out to Sirasso tomorrow (about 3 hour drive - right near border of Mali) to paint their church and will do that tomorrow and Sat. - go to church there on Sunday and come back Monday morning, So, three nights in the bush. Everyone is feeling better here now, but very tired. Thanks for your prayers!

Sounds like all is going well. Thank you for your continued prayers for Jay. We sure are missing him but very glad he is there.
Today I did a mega shopping trip to get all the remaining things on our list for the trip. I had some "fun" trying to buy clothes for Ming. The last measurements we got on him were in September when he was a little shorter than Madison and the same weight as Mitchell. So...I tried to look guess on his size from that information. I ended up buying one size bigger than Mitchell figuring that if the clothes are too small for Ming, they will eventually fit Mitchell. I expect him to be quite thin. We plan on doing most of our clothes shopping for Ming in China and then when we get home, but I want a few things in his suitcase for him to see when he first gets to the hotel room. I had a lot of fun buying him a Nintendo DS lite. I don't know if he has any idea what that is, but 5 minutes with our family and he will quickly learn. So, one more week until we leave! Tomorrow we get our travel itinerary. We'll post it when we get it.