Slow Train to Hong Kong

We woke up to a steady downpour of rain this morning. It is the first time it has rained like this since we've been here. At around 12:30, we checked out of the Victory and headed toward the train station in downtown GZ. Helen was very kind and helped us with our luggage up to the passenger waiting area, but from then on, we were on our own. No one spoke English, and none of the announcements were made in English. So we did what all good foreigners do, we followed the crowd. lol! :) We only have the 3 carry-ons, but it was tough to manage lugging those up and down escalators and holding Mason too. We were so thankful for the baby carrier! Thank you Holly and Lisa B.! :) We finally arrived on the train platform and walked down to car #7. Dave managed to get on board with Mason and 1 of the suitcases while I tried to figure out how I was going to lift two suitcases, Dave's backpack, my red carry-on bag, the camera bag, and a shopping bag that has special treasure in it from Chengdu for Mason. Just when I was starting to panic and really wishing the lady standing there in the train uniform would actually help me - from nowhere, a wonderful gentleman appeared and saved the day! He asked me if I would like some help and bent down and lifted with little effort one of the suitcases for me. I could of cried I was so happy to see him. The Chinese are not big on helping Americans - or at least that has been our experience. I'm not sure why, but it always seems that when a helping hand is clearly needed, there is always someone standing nearby that could easily step in and save the day, but whether it is a fear or laziness or just "mind your own business" mentality - whatever the case, no one comes to your aid. So the man didn't just lift the bag onto the train, oh no, he followed me all the way to our seats. I couldn't thank him enough! He said he understood how hard it is to travel with children in tow, and then just as quickly as he appeared he disappeared back down the train aisle and to his own seat. Thank you LORD for sending such a blessing! So the train - it was slow. Not fast. not even a little bit fast. It was slow. So slow in fact, that I'm pretty sure I could have jumped off of it, survived, and ran faster to Hong Kong while hauling the luggage myself. Seriously - that slow. Mason had fun though. He liked looking out the window and saying "who" and pointing at everything. :) We kept him happy giving him a lollipop, Smarties, crackers, and a yogurt drink. About 1/2 way through, he fell asleep in my arms. Sorry no cute photos of that - by now you've noticed who takes the majority of the photos in our family. lol! :) Have I mentioned how cuddly Mason is? Oh goodness - he scrumptious to hold! :) Love him so much! Other than that - it was pretty uneventful and very slow. We didn't even get to see the ocean when we crossed over because we went through a tunnel of some kind. Everything went completely black and then all of a sudden the train stopped.

So in summary, for those who are international travelers or for those who are adopting from China, I would not recommend going by train to HK - getting the luggage on and off the train was difficult, navigating the station was doable, no one that worked on the train spoke English or even attempted to explain what was going on, where we were headed, why we were stopped (we stopped at least 4 times), etc. We had to guess when we arrived in HK - again, the mass of people exiting the train was a fairly big clue. We then walked into the HK train station, promptly got our tempature taken - we all passed - and snaked through a long line of people going through immigration and customs. By the time we were through immigration/customs, we were tired and very hungry. But this isn't the end of the journey, after we exchanged Chinese money into HK money, we snaked through another line of people and waited our turn to load into a taxi to take us to our hotel. Our hotel is connected to the HK airport so it was pretty far from the train station. We ended up touring a good portion of the island of HK just trying to get there. There are a lot of very tall buildings, mountains all around us covered in green trees, and we drove on a bridge over the ocean near a shipping yard so Mason got to "who" at the boats. lol! :) I caught one photo of him saying "who" to David on the train. It is very cute!

Oh and just as an aside, which I guess this whole post is pretty much an aside, but anyway, I totally didn't know they drive on the other side of the road here in HK. Makes sense seeing how they were colonized by Britian for so many years, but still, that was an adventure being in a taxi that is going very fast in traffic and on the other side of the road! When we arrived at the hotel, we had to once again go up 2 sets of escalators just to check-in and then up the elevator to the 3rd floor where we weaved and circled around until we finally came to our room which happens to be the next to the last room on the floor. Shew. We waited for them to bring up our luggage (they wouldn't let us take it ourselves) and to bring up a crib for Mason. Then we headed over to the airport to look for food. We ran into our NC friends and we went to BK to eat dinner. It actually tasted just like the real thing! We visited a little with them and discovered they took a van to HK - arrived in 2 hours and had spent the rest of the day at HK Disney. So I guess the next time we are in China and have a need to travel to HK, we will be taking a van and not the slowest train on the planet. hahaha.

So now it is bedtime - the boys are trying to sleep. Dave just told me it might be softer to actually sleep on the floor. Somehow, we've avoided the concrete beds that China is known for only to find them here in HK. I don't think it will matter that much though - I'm so tired I could sleep standing up if I had too. We leave for the airport tomorrow at 9:30am and our flight departs at 11:50am for Chicago. Our flight into Indy should arrive at 6:40pm if all goes smoothly, please pray all goes smoothly!, and we will finally have our baby boy home! Can you believe it? After 10 months of praying and trusting God for our son, after a mountain of paperwork, after months of waiting and waiting and waiting, after 2 weeks of travel in China, our son, George Mason Yang will be home!!! Praising God for all the miracles that He has performed to make this possible! And so very thankful for the many family and friends who have sacrificed so much and helped us so much while we have been gone. Mamaw & Papaw and Stephanie & JD for watching and loving are kiddos while we have been gone. Drying tears and giving reassuring hugs, running to school bus stops and football practices...thank you so much! All the wonderful friends and family who have signed up to bring us meals after we get home, and the wonderful Zachman family for watching our crazy but loveable dog, Pippin, for these 2 weeks... thank you all so much from the depths of our hearts! We can't wait for you to meet George Mason and to thank you all in person! We are humbled by your servant hearts and so blessed to call you our friends and family! One last sleep here in Asia - and tomorrow a very long flight as we chase the sun back home. Hoping to land in the heartland by dinnertime at 6:40pm in Indy! Thank you Father for allowing David and I the opportunity to follow You to China once again, to be blessed by Your calling to adopt, and to bring home our treasured son!