We made it!!
We had two very good flights. We left Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, flew to Chicago, and had a direct flight from Chicago O'Hare to Beijing (13 hours and 13 minute flight). Andrew did amazingly well the entire way. The movie highlight of the trip was watching "Forever Strong." We all really enjoyed it.
As is usually the case, didn't get enough sleep on the plane and felt like we ate constantly. It is warm--low 80's. We thought that one piece of luggage had been lost, but Andrew found it. Now it is off to buy some bottled water, probably eat some more and then to bed--looking forward to that.
Thanks for the prayer support everyone. Ruth is feeling better than she has for weeks. Keep praying for her, especially that she would deal with the air quality here well.
We're all missing Kirsten already!!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
More Encouraging News
As we get set to head off to China and ultimately Guangzhou to meet and fold Jadon into our family we have been anxious for any information we can get. We heard from the family who are also adopting an 8 year old son from Shenzhen Social Welfare Center that Jadon is indeed a friend of this family's Chinese son. She also discovered that Jadon is involved in all English learning two days a week in the school that Half the Sky Foundation runs. This hopefully means that he will have a fair amount of English and be able to interact with us. It also hopefully means that he is somewhat accustomed to "western" school and will have fewer problems adjusting to school here.
We also discovered that the English name he has gone by at the school is York. We are wondering if this is so that the children will get practice using "r" and "k" sounds since they do not exist in Mandarin. Perhaps he will learn to speak without an accent (other than a Midwest one).
He has expressed some fear of storms (and tornadoes in particular...who isn't afraid of tornadoes?) which seems pretty normal. We were pleased to hear that he is not afraid to express fears. He should fit right in to our family!
We also discovered that the English name he has gone by at the school is York. We are wondering if this is so that the children will get practice using "r" and "k" sounds since they do not exist in Mandarin. Perhaps he will learn to speak without an accent (other than a Midwest one).
He has expressed some fear of storms (and tornadoes in particular...who isn't afraid of tornadoes?) which seems pretty normal. We were pleased to hear that he is not afraid to express fears. He should fit right in to our family!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Travel Meeting
Thursday was a big day. Things become more real every day.
Our agency holds a conference call that includes all the families who will be traveling in a group prior to departure. That call revealed to us that our group consists of 9 families and 30 people. The information shared during this process included our guides, hotels, some specifics about itinerary, and what to expect in the process. We will receive our official itinerary by FedEx today sometime, but they shared with us the general pattern.
Due to pricing and flight availability we will arrive in Beijing a day before most of the remainder of the group. We do know that there is at least one other family who will be arriving early as well. During that day we will be free to do what we would like. Once everyone arrives there is a packed schedule. First day will include visits to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace. It will be interesting to see all these things again without scaffolding since the last time we were there they were in the process of preparing for he olympics. Day 2 will include an international church service (passport required for entrance), the Great Well, and a Beijing Duck Dinner.
Then comes the big day. Early on Day 3 we will fly from Beijing to Guangzhou since Jadon is in an orphanage in Guangdong province. That day the orphanage director will bring Jadon to us and in the eyes of both the US and Chinese governments the adoption is finalized. Many have asked recently why we need to stay in China for so long. Once this occurs the process becomes a preparation for traveling home. We will need to get Jadon a Chinese passport and visa (along with the completion of many other paperwork steps for the adoption materials). Jadon will become officially a US citizen when he first steps foot on US soil. Until then he must travel by his Chinese passport and visa with his Chinese name.
We will post more about the itinerary when that arrives. Please continue to pray for all of us as we make preparations to leave. This weekend is a big one since it is really our only time to pack. In typical fashion, Alan is not sleeping well now since he is thinking about this pretty constantly. Ruth is still fighting some respiratory things--doing much better, but still not out of the woods. Kirsten's leg has good days and bad days. Andrew is very excited and a little nervous about the whole process. I can't even begin to think or know what Jadon is experiencing in this time. In all of it God is good. Pray that we would remain confident in that goodness and trust Him in all the details.
Our agency holds a conference call that includes all the families who will be traveling in a group prior to departure. That call revealed to us that our group consists of 9 families and 30 people. The information shared during this process included our guides, hotels, some specifics about itinerary, and what to expect in the process. We will receive our official itinerary by FedEx today sometime, but they shared with us the general pattern.
Due to pricing and flight availability we will arrive in Beijing a day before most of the remainder of the group. We do know that there is at least one other family who will be arriving early as well. During that day we will be free to do what we would like. Once everyone arrives there is a packed schedule. First day will include visits to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace. It will be interesting to see all these things again without scaffolding since the last time we were there they were in the process of preparing for he olympics. Day 2 will include an international church service (passport required for entrance), the Great Well, and a Beijing Duck Dinner.
Then comes the big day. Early on Day 3 we will fly from Beijing to Guangzhou since Jadon is in an orphanage in Guangdong province. That day the orphanage director will bring Jadon to us and in the eyes of both the US and Chinese governments the adoption is finalized. Many have asked recently why we need to stay in China for so long. Once this occurs the process becomes a preparation for traveling home. We will need to get Jadon a Chinese passport and visa (along with the completion of many other paperwork steps for the adoption materials). Jadon will become officially a US citizen when he first steps foot on US soil. Until then he must travel by his Chinese passport and visa with his Chinese name.
We will post more about the itinerary when that arrives. Please continue to pray for all of us as we make preparations to leave. This weekend is a big one since it is really our only time to pack. In typical fashion, Alan is not sleeping well now since he is thinking about this pretty constantly. Ruth is still fighting some respiratory things--doing much better, but still not out of the woods. Kirsten's leg has good days and bad days. Andrew is very excited and a little nervous about the whole process. I can't even begin to think or know what Jadon is experiencing in this time. In all of it God is good. Pray that we would remain confident in that goodness and trust Him in all the details.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Encouraging Possibilities
It is beginning to feel very real!! We are traveling very soon.
In an attempt to become more prepared to welcome Jadon into the family we sought out a Yahoo Discussion group of families who have adopted children from the same area from which Jadon is coming. It is amazing what can be learned in such a short time through connections with like-minded people. Through this group today we were contacted by another family who is anxious to receive their TA to go and get their 8-year old son from the same Orphanage. There is even the possibility that Jadon is friends with this family's son. Wouldn't that be incredible. We don't live that terribly far apart either.
The orphanage in which Jadon has lived for the past 3 years has programs run by Half the Sky Foundation (see picture along with classroom from inside). For more information about that group you may visit www.halfthesky.org. Since he has almost certainly been in their program we are excited because they are commited to preparing children to go to forever families. They are set up in a family atmosphere, use Chinese and Western educational methods to provide the best enrichment possible, help prepare children by using English names and helping them to write them, and we have reason to believe that he has at least been exposed to English--which would be great for his sake (and ours). In addition, since he is in their program once we have returned home we may request that we receive all the progress reports and information that they have on Jadon. It will be great to help make sure that these years of his life don't just disappear.
Stay tuned for more.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Colds, Colds, Colds
Kirsten came home earlier this week with a doozy of a cold. Unfortunately the rest of us have picked it up as well. Alan has done pretty well--his voice has been affected, but other than that not much. Andrew has had a headache and a runny nose. It slowed him down a little bit, but not too bad. Ruth on the other hand has been really hit hard. The cold was compounded by some mold in some leaves and yard things that we bagged yesterday. As a result she has been in bed much of this day and has had some trouble getting good breaths. One thankful aspect of the timing is that we do not need to get on a plane this week. We are hoping that we will all be in great shape when we leave.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Plane Ticket Saga
Things are becoming even more real to all of us. Yesterday was a good case in point. We received our Consulate appointment time yesterday morning and were told to keep our eyes open for the travel reservations that were being arrnaged for us. We received the travel reservations by e-mail yesterday around 1:20 PM (CDT) and were told in the message that we should review these arrangements and make a decision by 5 PM (EDT) which was 4 PM (CDT). Since Ruth and I were not together and I had no way of contacting her it made things a bit complicated. It became even more complicated when I looked at the cost of this trip. I knew that it was not going to be inexpensive, but I did not expect what I saw. I decided to go to a local travel agent to see what might be possible from them on various other airlines. There was some hope in this process. I then drove to where Ruth was, found her and told her we needed to make some decisions.
In order to use our Eternal Family fund which several family and friends had contributed to in 2006 we had to book our flights through AWAA (our adoption association). I decided to contact their travel individual and mention the other fares that I had discovered. The agent then explored on our behalf these other possibilities. We were told that we could finalize things today rather than at the originally stated deadline. We learned today that in order to get these much lower fares we would need to leave a day earlier than we had originally anticipated. Since the total savings to us was over $2600 we decided that this would be a good thing to do.
In talking about this process to a good friend she stated that she wondered if God didn't just allow us to go though this process so that we would know in a more real way how good He is. Certainly He could have caused us to have the lower price right away, but in that process we might not have seen His goodness like we did after experiencing the much higher price. In any case, I am thankful for those who prayed with us during this saga and for the greatness and goodness of God in showing Himself in the midst of it all.
In order to use our Eternal Family fund which several family and friends had contributed to in 2006 we had to book our flights through AWAA (our adoption association). I decided to contact their travel individual and mention the other fares that I had discovered. The agent then explored on our behalf these other possibilities. We were told that we could finalize things today rather than at the originally stated deadline. We learned today that in order to get these much lower fares we would need to leave a day earlier than we had originally anticipated. Since the total savings to us was over $2600 we decided that this would be a good thing to do.
In talking about this process to a good friend she stated that she wondered if God didn't just allow us to go though this process so that we would know in a more real way how good He is. Certainly He could have caused us to have the lower price right away, but in that process we might not have seen His goodness like we did after experiencing the much higher price. In any case, I am thankful for those who prayed with us during this saga and for the greatness and goodness of God in showing Himself in the midst of it all.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Travel Approval
We received a phone call this afternoon with the great news that we have travel authorization. The plan is that we will leave for China on Thursday, April 30 and return home either Wednesday, May 13 or Thursday, May 14. It's time to go and bring him home. Lots to do to prepare! I am sure we will be posting a bit more regularly as we prepare to get Jadon. Please pray for us and for him as God prepares to bring our family together for the first time.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Long Overdue Update
It has been too long. Sorry for the delay in posts.
Alan and Kirsten returned safely from South Africa. It was a wonderful trip with many memories and friends made in the process. It is a really long trip (actually longer than the trip to China). Since returning home it has been a process of overcoming jet lag, rearranging financing, purchasing a car that will accommodate the addition of Jadon to the family, and all the normal activities. In addition we have completed many travel documents and shipped them off to our agency. The travel process will be real very soon.
The latest guess was that we would travel around April 23. The one problem with this is that Alan has a concert with Women's Concert Chorale (a celebration of the South Africa trip) for which his attendance is really required scheduled on Sunday, April 26. Once the travel approval comes in (should be within a week) we will know more specifics and need to make a decision regarding dates. Please be praying that the best possible timings would be evident as we trust God to complete the process of bringing Jadon home. We do not want to delay this in any way since we are all anxious to have him with us.
Alan and Kirsten returned safely from South Africa. It was a wonderful trip with many memories and friends made in the process. It is a really long trip (actually longer than the trip to China). Since returning home it has been a process of overcoming jet lag, rearranging financing, purchasing a car that will accommodate the addition of Jadon to the family, and all the normal activities. In addition we have completed many travel documents and shipped them off to our agency. The travel process will be real very soon.
The latest guess was that we would travel around April 23. The one problem with this is that Alan has a concert with Women's Concert Chorale (a celebration of the South Africa trip) for which his attendance is really required scheduled on Sunday, April 26. Once the travel approval comes in (should be within a week) we will know more specifics and need to make a decision regarding dates. Please be praying that the best possible timings would be evident as we trust God to complete the process of bringing Jadon home. We do not want to delay this in any way since we are all anxious to have him with us.
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