Friday, November 14, 2008

Daily Summary - Part I
Guangzhou

Happy “Heading to Hong Kong ” Day today! I woke up early this morning, as I was excited to be starting our journey home this afternoon. As you know, we check-out of our hotel in Guangzhou at 1PM this afternoon, head to the U.S. Consulate for our Oath Ceremony at 2:40PM and – assuming all goes well – board a high-speed train for Hong Kong a few minutes after 5PM. We should be in Hong Kong by 7PM and in our hotel by 9PM (8AM Friday in the U.S. ), following a quick dinner at the train station in Hung Hom. I will try to provide a brief update before we leave for the Hong Kong airport in the morning, but the next detailed update will – with God’s Grace – be in person in the United States . Johnathan is having another great day today. He ate a big breakfast this morning, and then helped us run a few errands near the hotel before lunch. He is napping right now with a little smile on his face. It is almost as if he knows that he is going to be home soon. I miss you all very much and can’t wait to see you tomorrow night. Pray for our safe, speedy travel. I love you very much!!!

Daily Summary - Part II
Hong Kong

I wanted to let you know that we made it to Hong Kong safe and sound this evening! Our Oath Ceremony started right on time at 4PM and concluded around 4:15. That left us exactly 40 minutes to get to the train station with Johnathan and all of our luggage, get through Chinese Immigration, and get to our departure gate before the train doors closed. It was like being on the show, ‘The Amazing Race’!!! I was running and calling back to my Mom to hurry. It was hilarious. Somehow we made it with time to spare!!! Our train ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong was just under two hours. Once we reached Hong Kong , we stopped at the McDonald’s in the train station and had dinner before taking a taxi to our hotel. We finally got to our room at the Prudential around 8:30PM. We get up early tomorrow and take a shuttle to the airport to catch our first flight – from Hong Kong to Newark , NJ – which leaves just after 11AM. If all goes well, we should be home by just before 8PM tomorrow evening. I love and miss you all and can’t wait to see you. One More Sleep!!!! Lil man is coming HOME!!!!

Love,

Jeff


A note from Amie…

So much to say. First thing that comes to mind is how blessed I am to have my Stripe Man, What an AMAZING father, husband and best friend this guy is. He trekked thousands of miles to meet our son and to bring him home safe to his family. And in between he changed 1000 stinky poopy diapers. H e managed to keep a 19mo entertained for 2 weeks armed with nothing more than a pooh bear ball, some Gerber puffs and super cool sound effects. He wore his stripes proud for 2 weeks straight because his wife has a juvenile sense of humor and he likes to make her laugh. He dressed Johnathan in stripes as well, because he knew it would make me smile and so that J-man could forever be known as Jr. Stripe. He woke every morning early to Skype the gang back home before the kiddos went down to bed and He would gear up to do it all again at the end of a very long day, to catch the kiddos again in the morning before the headed off to school. He let a snake wrap itself around his neck 3 times, because the gang would think it was cool. He developed carpal tunnel Impinge me practically every minute he had a chance to sit at his computer, so that I wouldn’t miss out on a thing. He took the time to text me when Jonathan had his first lollipop (along with the flavor), because he knew it would matter to me. He is in the process of enduring a 15 hour plane ride with a very active 19month old, and instead of thinking about how crazy it might be, I guarantee you he feels so blessed to be on that plane and bringing his boy home to meet his family. And he will have a deep ache in his heart for the ones who were left behind. And so much Joy that God saw to it that we could make sure that Johnathan wasn’t. How I love this man!

And how about my MIL? This is not her first Rodeo. She stepped up and made the trip to bring Hannah home just last September, and here she is again. And I guarantee you when she was there in the Fall of 07, she had NO inkling that she would be back in all of 08. Yet there she is, and gladly. She shared a very cramped room for 2 weeks with a very active nearly toddler and her grown son. She endured hours upon hours of Skype calls sometimes where we would just have the computer on in the background so we could peek in on Johnathan playing in between homework and tooth brushing, etc. As much as she LOVED this little guy and longed to snuggle and care for him, she kept her distance out of respect for the bonding process. If you knew her, you would know that was a HUGE sacrifice. There is no one I have met that lives to care for other people like this woman. She is enduring a 15 hour flight as I type, with a toddler traveling as a lap baby, so that we could save every penny to use for the next adoption, God willing. And she does it with a smile and she knows she is blessed for it. I so LOVE that about her. And I am so grateful for her sacrifices.