A Double Blessing!

Today was a day that we have waited for and anticipated for a long time - for two very special reasons. Today Alisa met Ming for the first time and we were able to meet Alisa & Scott's sweet daughter, Adeline.

For two years now, Alisa has prayed fervently for MIng. She first saw his picture on America World's website about the same time that I did. God put Ming on Alisa's heart in an intense way- so intense that she could not stop praying for a forever family to be found for him until she found one for him. Imagine our surprise when we realized that God intended our family to be Ming's forever family and that Alisa had been praying for our family all along. Alisa has continued to pray for Ming the nine month that it took to process our paperwork. While we were in China, Alisa was admitted to the hospital for pregnancy related problems and was not able to meet Ming when we brought him home from China. How fun it was for her to meet him today.

On Monday, Alisa delivered Adeline Charlotte at 34 weeks! We have been praying for Adeline since December when her mommy and daddy told us about her upcoming birth - of course we were expecting to meet her in late Aug/early Sept. It was a long 7 months for Alisa and we were so excited to hear about her arrival on Monday. We were so thankful to visit with Alisa & Scott today and to be able to meet Adeline. She is absolutely beautiful! We continue to pray for her as she adjusts to this world and grows stronger each day - hopefully to come home soon.

Adeline Charlotte Shaw


Alisa with Ella & Elijah


Ella watching Ming play his DS

After we spent time with the Shaw family, we took the kids to the Riverside State Park. We discovered this park in May when we went to Spokane for Celebrate Life Day! I love all the sights, sounds, and smells this park offers. The smell of the pine trees, sound of the rushing water from the river, and the beautiful suspension bridge over the water. We picnicked here in May, but today we went back to hike. It was a fun, relaxing way to end a day full of blessings.

A beautiful park


All smiles!


Mitchell enjoying the bridge


The winner!


Beautiful sisters


A relaxing day

Amazing!

We can't believe that we have been home two weeks already. We spent the first week trying to get back on Washington time. That is never fun! It's amazing that the body doesn't always want to sleep when you tell it to and wants to sleep when it shouldn't. Thankfully we had only one night when Jamae and Mitchell decided at 2:00 am that they didn't want to sleep anymore and should be up for the day. We had many nappers that first week, especially Ming. I think he was physically and emotionally exhausted. Thankfully that is all behind us.

This week has been full of summer fun. We have been swimming which is a favorite of MIng. It was fun to watch his face as he experienced our Surf & Slide Water Park for the first time. He loved the water slides, the lazy river, and even tried the flowrider. We told you he was brave. He got in line with Jody and Mitchell, but after watching a few people surf, Jody said that Ming wasn't so sure he wanted to try it. After some urging by Jody, he jumped on and did great! I was really proud of him. He's working very hard on his swimming because he wants to go off the diving board and go on the drop water slide. I'm thinking that will be next summers adventure. Ming was very excited to see that Jay was a lifeguard, although he didn't believe that really was Jay sitting on the chair until Jay raised up his sunglasses.

Yesterday was Jody's day off. Ming grasped quickly the concept that 6 days Father works, but on Thursday no work! Yeah! We went disc golfing. Ming told us that he played frisbee in China, but never disc golf. He was really good. He has a great throw. I'm getting the impression that he is a natural athlete. He can also ride a bike. Our first day home he jumped on a bike and was off. No need to teach him how ride. I'm not sure when he learned or how often he has been able to ride a bike, but he sure knows how to ride. He's full of surprises.

We really enjoyed attending church on Sunday for the first time with Ming - something we had thought about alot the 9 months we were waiting to bring him home. Of course our thoughts always centered around how Ming would react to attending church with us, not knowing if he would even know what a church was. Now we know that Ming attended church in China. Besides saying to me as we walked into the service, "No- English!", he handled the service great. Jody showed a slide show of our time in China and Ming seemed to enjoy seeing himself on screen. I think it was good for him to see the whole trip together like that, hopefully getting a better understanding of how thankful we are that he is now part of our family. Jody and I were also blown away that Ming was singing the songs - we believe in English. We have to believe that he was reading the words to the songs off the screen. We were amazed.

We allowed Ming to call his children's home in China soon after we got home, so he could let them all know that he is safe. This is the third time that he has called them - the first time was the day after he left Living Hope and the second time was the morning we were leaving China for Hong Kong. I think he wanted to say goodbye. This time he was very excited to call. I can imagine that he misses them very much. We could tell that he talked to many different people and used the word for amazing alot. We can only hope that he was telling them over and over how amazing is his new life and family.

The language continues to be a huge barrier. We so wish we could sit down and have conversations with Ming, but that will come. From what we can tell, he is adjusting great. The last 4 weeks have been amazingly smooth. We are so thankful for the easy adjustment to Ming becoming a Bowser. He is working hard on his english. Here is a picture of Jamae teaching him through one of her computer games.


The patient & adorable teacher


Thanks for your continued prayers. We are so excited to be in this journey!

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.

A Quick Post On The Way Out

We just arrived in our hotel after a LONG day at Disneyland. The weather is beautiful tonight and we have decided to go for a quick swim before it closes at 10:00. Our internet window also expires in 40 minutes at 10:00, so to please the kids we've decided to blog about our day at Disney when we get home. We knew you'd understand.

Our flight leaves very early in the morning and many long hours later we will arrive in Seattle! We'd love your prayers on our trip home.

See you in America!

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!

Don't Hurt Me For Your Pretty

We're not exactly sure what this means, but found it to be one of the most interesting signs that we've run across so far. It was along the path in a park that we walked through this morning. We think it was telling us to keep off the grass...but something is clearly being confused in translation. Moments like these make international travel a real hoot.

The park that I mentioned above was the same park that our family spent some time walking through three and a half years ago when we were here in Guangzhou adopting Jamae. On that trip, we stayed in the China Hotel, which is on the north side of the park. This time we are in the Asia International, which overlooks the same park from the south side. We decided to venture out through the park...inspite of the fact that the heat and humidity was once again nearing the unbearable range. As you can see from this picture, Mitchell was beyond the point of even faking a smile for the camera...

Sometimes saying "cheese" is just too much to ask.

It was "fun", though, to return to the exact same spot that we took our favorite family picture with Jamae in January of 2005. That was bowserfam7...here is the updated version of bowserfam8...


This afternoon we took our trip to the U.S. Consulate for the final hurdle in the adoption process. Our guide explained to Ming how important this appointment was, and he seemed to be bouncing off the walls with joy. It was cool to see. There was no remorse or "looking back" in his spirit. It was full steam ahead...let's git 'er done! Even when the official explained in english for us to raise our right hand, Ming seemed to fully understand the situation and immediately raised his high in the air. That's enough to make a parent proud!

We wish we could include some pictures of all of this, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures. Given that we had to pass through metal detectors, we just left the camera in the bus. There were several observations, though, that you might find interesting...
•The "gathering area" was packed full of adopting families. I'm going to estimate that there were at least fifty families. It
was almost all baby girls. That was Jamae 42 months ago.
•We were told that we would probably have to wait at least an hour...but we were in and out in around a half an hour. I just
think we timed it really well.
•Ming was the only boy that we could see being adopted that was over, say, 2 years old. And there were only 2 other
non-infants that we could see, both girls. One of the girls was Hong Hui (pronounced "way"), who was in our group of
three families. She turned 13 in May, so is around 4 months older than Ming.

Speaking of our group of three families, we thought you might enjoy knowing who the other two are. One is the Hammond family from Dayton, Tennessee. They are here to adopt an infant girl named Lia.

You can follow their story at: http://www.famham6.blogspot.com/

The other family is the Dodd family from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in Texas. They are here adopting 13 year old Hong Hui.

You can follow their story at: http://www.doddsfamily.net/

Something that is pretty cool about our little group of three families is that we were all here three years ago adopting little girls. And here we are back again. Here's a picture of all of us, along with Rosa our guide. We took it this afternoon before the Dodd's left for the airport...they are in the air as I write this on their way home


We're in the midst of packing up to leave Guanzhou in the morning. We have to leave the hotel at 6:30am, and our flight leaves for Hong Kong at 9:30am. It's just a 40 minute flight, so we hope to be to our hotel at Disney sometime before noon...and into the park by early afternoon. We should have some fun pictures to show you tomorrow night. Thanks so very much for checking in, and please continue to hold us up in your prayers.

Another Hurdle Passed

Each day brings us closer to bringing Ming home. This morning we had to make sure that we had someone in the room and available to answer the phone. Our guide, Rosa, spent the morning at the U.S. Consulate. This is a very critical appointment. This is when Ming's new country, the United States of America, looks over all of his paperwork...makes sure that all the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted...makes sure that everything is in perfect order...and issues him a visa to enter the U.S. as a new citizen. Rosa delivers all of this on our behalf, and simply asks that we stay by the phone in case she has any questions, or runs into any obstacles. And praise be to God, the phone never rang. No problems whatsoever. Another hurdle passed. Now all that is left is to go to the Consulate ourselves tomorrow for the swearing in ceremony. We raise our right hand, and swear to always love Ming, always care for him, and never abandon him. That we can and will do.

And in case you were wondering precisely where it was we were waiting this morning, it was on the 34th floor of the Asia International Hotel, right in the heart of Guanzhou. Here's the view...


It gets a little mind numbing when you consider the vast size of this city. It is one high rise apartment building after another for mile after mile after mile. And here we are because of our love for one little boy named Ming in this sea of people. It's pretty amazing. And even more so when we consider that God loves each and every one of us that much...and went to unthinkable measures to come to this earth and adopt us into His forever family.

The rest of our day was filled with a little more sightseeing, shopping and eating.

First we visited the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum.


We then went back out onto what is called "the island" for a little more shopping. Ming and I bought matching "Beijing 2008 Olympic Hats" which we are showing off in front of the famed White Swan Hotel.


We then went out to dinner at a place called "The Banana Leaf"...which is a place we ate at when we were here 3.5 years ago adopting Jamae...



Ming seems to be enjoying the water!

And we polished off the day with an ice cream cone with our friend Ronald McDonald...


It's always best enjoyed when you let it drip down off the tip of your chin!

That's all for today. Tomorrow we make Ming's citizenship official...and then it's off to Hong Kong the day after. Thanks for checking in on us...and we'll update again tomorrow night before falling exhaustedly into bed.

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!