Redeeming creation one byte at a time
Archive for August, 2011
Ok, back and kind of lucid.
0It’s thursday night here and we’re getting lucid; jet lag is brutal. Brendan is doing ok so far, but I’d bet it’s helpful that he had an afternoon nap that we just lengthened out to become his bedtime and his bedtime became his afternoon nap; in other words, he had two sleep periods during the day.
We’re also working through relational strife, but nothing so different than anyone that’s ever had a new kid in the family. We’re dealing with great relationships and awful ones where people are feeling left out because they aren’t the center of attention. The nice thing about much of the long hours of training we spent getting into the Hague adoption track is that nothing really catches us off guard, and at that, we feel like there is a great support system amongst our community when we deal with stuff.
Moving backwards, the ride home was long…real long. We left Guangzhou (forgive me if you’ve heard this story), with Tony our “D”river. He was awesome. Black driving gloves and everything. Tony took us out from the China Marriott and 2 hours south to Hong Kong. It’s a fun drive, albeit a bit lawless. People on the highway just drove – no rules – and it reflected in Tony. He was alert, on top of his game and apologized at one point when he had to break hard and sudden. Brendan wasn’t quite used to the ride in the car so he was all over the front seat and we were trying to get him to stay.
Shenzhen is kind of an economic DMZ between Hong Kong and the mainland. We drove through the Shenzhen special economic zone and eventually got to the boarder. I’ve never been to a tighter boarder before. We got met by military, shot with cool laser thermometers and waited in the space between boarders – about a 1 block long parking lot where cars from one gate waited to go through the Hong Kong entry point. We wondered as we sat there who took care of the black line in between areas. Once we got into Hong Kong on went the seat belts, and the speed went significantly down. I really liked Tony – he took his business seriously and was amazing to watch navigate traffic in Guangzhou and into Hong Kong; it was something to see.
Hong Kong? Amazing. Pretty. A crazy long flight from anywhere (14 hours to Detroit). It reminded me of all the photos we’d seen of Hawaii. Mountains ring the airport with very picturesque clouds surrounding them. Logistics prohibited us from making our way into downtown Hong Kong which is a shame because I really was looking forward to seeing Victoria Harbor up close. Still, the airport is amazing to walk around; a large scale mall mixed with a hotel and and a large, International airport. I tried really hard to catch the vibe of the airport with photos, but it reminded me a bit of Dubai. Walking down the aisles in any airport in the US and you see ‘Deluth’, ‘LA’, ‘Chicago’ and the like. Hong Kong offered ‘Vietnam’, ‘Seoul’, ‘Beijing’, ‘Sydney’ and weird places like ‘Detroit’.
It was a really long flight – 14 hours. We spent the time with some Athletes for University games in Shenzhen. Never heard of it, but apparently it’s big.
The thing that’s sticking out to me from the whole trip was gotcha day. It’s going to be one of those defining moments of my faith. I’m appreciative of trial and suffering when they are over and oddly I miss them and this is the case here. Seriously, in the dark night after we felt God’s presence tangibly. It’s hard to describe, but things turned after we reached out and you reached out to God in prayer. It seems too that all of Melissa and I’s watershed moments in our marriage happen in hotel rooms too and in that hotel, it was sacred space as we determined to endure and in that respect, it was lovely.
So. We’re a week into this thing and it’s got its challenges but I’m appreciative of the love we’ve been given and the opportunity to build our family this way.
Wed-Thursday Guangzhou and Hong Kong and points in between
0645 days
by Pete
in Adoption Story
Ok…it’s been a busy past couple of days. Wednesday, after breakfast, we made our way back Shamian Island to pick up a few other gifts for people that we needed. One of them was stamps for the three kids; specifically one for Brendan, but also for Aidan and Iona. In the culture they were used in lieu of official signatures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_%28East_Asia%29 – typically with red ink and were made out of a hard material (like Jade).
Ok, so it was nap, packing, pool (one last time) and then off to dinner.
Today has been fun too. We were driven down from Guangzhou, through Shenzhen to Hong Kong. It’s a ride and we were driven by a Driver (and this guy was amazing to watch…he navigated traffic like nothing). In China, there aren’t any rules per say on the freeway according to our driver so it was a little more wild but once we crossed into Hong Kong, he started to drive like you would anywhere else. The crossing between mainland China and Hong Kong is interesting. It’s a large office like structure with ports for cars. Because we were in a private vehicle, the crossing went much quicker than it would in a bus; we just stayed in, they searched our car, took our temperatures and then off we went.
Hong Kong is really pretty; I feel like a broken record saying, but hey…it’s really pretty; pictures don’t quite do it justice. Large bridges span the gaps between the islands here and everything is pretty well built up.
If everything goes well, we’re going to make our way downtown just to have a look when everyone is done with naps – then tomorrow morning…early…we start our long flight back home.
Brendan is beginning to feel grief; the manager of the restaurant we were at spoke to him in Mandarin and he cried. We’re hoping that in the midst of our tiredness we can care for the needs of all three of our children and be warmly present with them.
mile 11 of our half.
0647 days
by Pete
in Adoption Story
When I have run half marathons, it’s always mile 11 that really gets me. Mile 6 requires patience, Mile 9 requires stamina but those last couple tend to be all mental. It’s keeping the finish line in sight and being encouraged by it, but also keeping your pace and making sure you’ve got the basics covered like remembering you’ve still got two more miles left….18 or so minutes…I’ve ran for 98 minutes so far…must run farther. It’s getting encouraged by the thoughts and smells of the finish line.
Our finish line will be at 8:40 p.m. CST (roughly) on Friday. We’re hoping you’re there. It would be great to see everyone at BMI within reason. A warning – Brendan is incredibly shy and will most likely not want to speak when we are there…but he may want to see his big brother and little sister who he has been chatting about constantly…(phonetically) ba ba…ma ma….guh guh…mei mei….mao….mao…
Today was big. Our final hurdles were crossed. It’s an amazing view of the US from the outside when you walk into a consulate or embassy overseas…it gives you perspective on what is important and what isn’t. After an early breakfast, we made our way with our guide to the consulate which was a floor in a very guarded building. It worked the same as last time…cross a few security checkpoints…get ushered into a room with a bank of teller windows and exchange documents. In this case, because we were under the Hague convention, we took an oath saying everything was above board. It was similar, but different to Ethiopia. After a few families walked up, we went up, answered a few questions and off we went.
Guangzhou is a stunningly beautiful city. There are thousands of apartment buildings here that just are everywhere. There’s a highly efficient use of space, it seems, in driving. I feel like in some cases, some apartments could just look out their back window onto a road on a bridge. It’s something to behold structurally – it’s like a tetris game only with city pieces and everything is aesthetically done. The weather here is BRUTAL, btw. Get out past 11 and it’s the 7th ring of hell, with humidity. There is no dry heat.
After the appointment, I ran an errand to a local photo place to finish getting Brendan’s film he came with developed. I’m appreciative of people who don’t have english in their grasp but can communicate quite well what they need to and the guy who ran the photo place did just that. We exchanged money for goods and neither of us spoke each other’s language; it was magical.
My favorite point of the day was something I’d looked forward to all last week in Zhengzhou when we were struggling with the mid point of our race. Many (maybe not all) of the travel groups we’d seen from AWAA took a group picture in this ubiquitous staircase in the lobby of the China Marriott. I’d seen it *countless* times and recognized it when we came in the door. Today was our turn and it was a great first finish line and a time to reflect on God’s goodness to us through this time. We’d gotten a chance to take the photo with people we’d come to be quite fond of.
There’s also a Lamborghini dealership across the street and the Evans family and I walked over to take some photos. Surprisingly it was locked though a guy was in there (Dan said it best: “You need to come into the place with a briefcase full of cash”). We did get some fun photos though.
Afternoons with a five year old are incredibly quiet. Lunch, sleep, play. That’s how it rolled today too. Play doh is the weapon of choice here. Brendan has been fanatic about the Play doh. Pre Dinner we made it to another park, though it was INSANELY crowded. It didn’t quite work out, especially getting cased by some people trying to figure out if we had a wallet to pick. *sigh*.
Most of the group was able to get together for one final meal at food street – a chinese place in the hotel. I’ve come to appreciate just how diverse China is for cultures, traditions and food – food street had something from every region and there were about 300 things on the menu.
So…here we are. Tomorrow we pick up our Visa and Thursday we drive to Hong Kong. Be in prayer for traffic; we’re leaving post-rush hour so we have a feeling we should do well, but you never know.
3 more US sleeps (3.5 China sleeps) until we are home. See you all soon.
Monday in Guangzhou
0648 days
by Pete
in Adoption Story
Guangzhou is just strikingly beautiful. Today, our anniversary, started out pretty normal here. We had breakfast downstairs; the hotel knows how to do coffee well and the stuff we’ve been having for breakfast has been stunning.
Brendan came with a camera; when we sent our care package for him, one of the items we sent was a disposable camera with 35 mm film. The problem is that 35 mm film is really hard to get developed in the US now; as I recall, Walgreens doesn’t do it anymore so I set out in search of a photo lab which took me on about a mile walk through the city and its just stunning; I’ve got a number of photos to upload of the walk.
Around mid-morning, we set out for Shamian island. It was built up primarily by westerners so that buildings have a distinctive look in the city. The consulate, and the white swan hotel are on the island as well and there are a number of shops in the area that cater to western couples adopting; the primary reason many of these shops exist is that market. We got a number of gifts for family and friends and rounded out our shopping.
Tonight we’re headed to a steak house with Brendan to celebrate our anniversary; I’ve said this a few times today, but it’s interesting the path God had us on that led us to this anniversary and what our family would look like and we’re thankful to be here.
Tomorrow is our consulate appointment and group picture and then we get our visas on Wednesday. Once tomorrow comes the babies will start to travel back. Thursday a.m. we’re going to be headed for our fourth city – Hong Kong and then Friday we will start our long journey back home.
See you all soon!
Monday in Guangzhou
0648 days
by Pete
in Adoption Story
Guangzhou is just strikingly beautiful. Today, our anniversary, started out pretty normal here. We had breakfast downstairs; the hotel knows how to do coffee well and the stuff we’ve been having for breakfast has been stunning.
Brendan came with a camera; when we sent our care package for him, one of the items we sent was a disposable camera with 35 mm film. The problem is that 35 mm film is really hard to get developed in the US now; as I recall, Walgreens doesn’t do it anymore so I set out in search of a photo lab which took me on about a mile walk through the city and its just stunning; I’ve got a number of photos to upload of the walk.
Around mid-morning, we set out for Shamian island. It was built up primarily by westerners so that buildings have a distinctive look in the city. The consulate, and the white swan hotel are on the island as well and there are a number of shops in the area that cater to western couples adopting; the primary reason many of these shops exist is that market. We got a number of gifts for family and friends and rounded out our shopping.
Tonight we’re headed to a steak house with Brendan to celebrate our anniversary; I’ve said this a few times today, but it’s interesting the path God had us on that led us to this anniversary and what our family would look like and we’re thankful to be here.
Tomorrow is our consulate appointment and group picture and then we get our visas on Wednesday. Once tomorrow comes the babies will start to travel back. Thursday a.m. we’re going to be headed for our fourth city – Hong Kong and then Friday we will start our long journey back home.
See you all soon!