~♥~ WELCOME HOME ~♥~

Tonight as you lie sleeping

For the first time in your bed,

There must be something lasting

And profound that should be said.

But as your face is gazed upon

Framed by your soft, black hair

No words can tell or quite express

The feelings that we share.

The wait is finally over

You're home, at last, to stay.

And there will always be the memories

 Of the joy that filled this day.

With a love that's running over

By the sight of you alone

Welcome home, dear cherished son,

At long last … welcome home!

Author Unknown

Coming to America

We're on the plane waiting to taxi toward the runway...one hour delay due to stormy weather. Documenting our plane taking off from Hong Kong - probably the closest I'll ever be to Australia. :)

14:53 hours until we arrive in Chicago...plus 1 hour for the delayed takeoff, plus another 45 minutes for the pilot to go around the stormy weather = 17 some hours on an airplane with a 2 year old = 2 beyond tired new parents.

The good news is that George Mason went with the ebb and flow and didn't have any meltdowns at all. He handled the flight really well and caught a few cat-naps while I held him. He liked the pretzels and tolerated the apple juice - still not a fan though. He ate some noodles and some rice too. But overall, I'd say it was a thumbs-down on the airplane food.

Getting ready for take off - he loved playing with the earphones - plugging them in and out of the tiny outlet on the arm of the chair. :) He also liked watching Kung Fu Panda 2. And for those who are wondering, yes, there were shoe prints on the toilets again! lol! I guess some people just can't go unless it is a squatty potty.

We chased the sun to the other side of the world. The clouds were so beautiful! Like celestial waves of white.

The only problem happened when the plane landed in Chicago. First of all, it was a rough landing with lots of up and down turbulence and he ended up having air-motion sickness again. We felt so bad for him. And I forgot to pack an extra outfit for him with our carry-ons, so we had to muddle through customs with a shirtless baby boy. We put my sweatshirt around him, but he didn't like that for some reason, so I'm sure everyone thought we were horrible parents carrying around our little guy with no shirt on. :(  That didn't stop him from becoming an American though, because as soon as his feet hit the ground in Chicago, he became a US Citizen - shirtless and all. lol!

We were so tired that we were barely walking when we landed in Chicago. Had to go through security, then immigration, wait for immigration to approve George Mason's paperwork, go through another security bag screening in customs, go up and down escalators until we find the tram to take us to the right terminal, run through the concourse to the terminal gate entrance because David is so freaked out that we only have 5 minutes to board the plane for Indy, go through another security check and take off all our shoes including the baby's sandals which just seemed a bit over the top to me, but I comply, only to have one of our bags get re-checked three times and have them unpack it because of a supposed "sharp object" which ends up being the jade Chinese tower that we purchased for Mason which I forgot about completely - luckily he allowed us to keep it, but while he was unwrapping it Dave is having a breakdown because he is beyond tired and thinks we are going to miss our flight because of the over-achiever TSA dude who certainly deserves extra stars on his stripes for his thorough investigation. Suddenly, I hear my usually calm husband shout out, "Oh Dear Lord! We are not going to blow up the plane because we just adopted our son and we are bringing him home! You have got to be kidding me!" To which I politely apologize for my husband's outburst and explain that we have just flown 17 some odd hours from Hong Kong to Chicago and we got zilch sleep and my husband is very, very tired, and of course, you are more than welcome to unwrap all our souvenirs, and yes, of course, we will be more than happy to comply with all of your requests because we realize you are just doing your job... all the while scared out of my mind that this guy is going to stand there and slowly unpack every single one of our carry-on bags or worse throw my husband in the airport lock-up. My midwest charm worked, and the TSA dude smiles and says he has taken that flight and knows it is a long one. Hands over the souvenir tower and tells me we are free to go. Somehow I feel like a Jedi who has just successfully used the force "These are not the droids you are looking for." heh. 

Anyway, we end up running from the security check to the gate (I'm wearing flip flops I might add) hauling all our carry-ons with us and Mason and just as we approach the gate, dripping with sweat and out of breath, we panic because there is no plane pulled up to the gate. Thinking the worse that the plane has left without us, David goes up to the attendant at the gate with our boarding passes and asks her if we've missed the flight. She looks at us like we are insane and explains that our flight isn't even scheduled to leave for another hour because we are in Chicago and Chicago is on Central Time, and if that wasn't enough humiliation, she then explains that had we taken the time to check the flight status on any of the monitors in the airport, we would have noticed that the flight has also been delayed an additional hour because of operation issues. So we have TWO HOURS before our flight leaves for Indy. I look at my native-Chicagoan husband, David, who by this time is sheepishly grinning at me, and I say in the sweetest voice I can muster...

"You realize you owe me big for this." 

"yah...big."

"No. I'm talking big. As in B.I.G. kinda big."




"But it did feel like the Amazing Race for a minute there, didn't it?"




"Yah, expect for the part where we are carrying a ton of luggage and oh yah, a new baby..."



"Well, yah, of course there's that. But honey, you were booking. I mean fast!"




"I just kept thinking - I'm getting on that plane, I am getting on that plane."

To which we both heave a sigh of relief slumping down in the nearest row of seats thankful to be in the USA! 

Only 2 more hours until we board our last plane, 30 minutes to fly, and then we'll finally be home. 

H.O.M.E.

Home. That is the sweetest word.

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!

China Farewell

I honestly can't believe we only have two more days remaining here in China. This trip has gone so quickly, and although we long to go home, we are also having a wonderful time getting to know the two families we met yesterday. And we are having a great time enjoying the sights, sounds, and food here in China. :) We ate breakfast this morning and then went swimming with our new friends. It was very moving watching all the new Dads playing with their new children in the pool. So miraculous to think just a few weeks ago, these same children were without families and surviving, but not thriving, in orphanages. To see their eyes so full of hope, their smiles wide with joy, and to know that this is just the beginning of their new lives - it is beyond amazing what God has in store for each of them! After our swim, Mason took a long nap and we began to pack up our suitcases. Around 5pm, Helen delivered the "brown envelope" and we visited. She liked looking through the flashcards I made for Mason and seeing our home, his room, and our other children. She also was happy to see that Mason was feeling a lot better, smiling, and laughing. We made plans to meet her tomorrow morning to drive to the train station. We will leave on the train headed for Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure how fast the train will go, but it should be fun to watch the landscape of China go by out the window. We headed out for dinner to the same 5th floor restaurant and met up with our new friends. Enjoying great food, wonderful fellowship, and relaxing before going home to finish packing. We were also able to sing Happy Birthday to the sweetest little girl who turned 4 years old! She is full of energy and spunk and it was adorable to see her grinning while everyone sang to her. :) I couldn't help but think of all the birthdays that go uncelebrated every year in the orphanages around the world - millions of children who have never had their special day remembered. No one to sing over them, no candles to blow out, no gifts to unwrap, no kisses, no hugs, no one to make sure they are celebrated. And my heart breaks for those who are waiting for their "happily ever after" to begin. Waiting for a Mommy, for a Daddy, for a family. So thankful, that in the often forgotten orphaned-world of millions - there are 3 less tonight! So thankful that these Mommies and Daddies said, Yes! So blessed to be chosen to be our children's parents - for they are all such treasured gifts! Each one so very precious in His sight!

US Consulate

We woke up early this morning, ate breakfast, and then headed back to the medical clinic to get Mason a stronger anitbiotic. The Dr. that works there is very nice and he gave us a powdered version of the Z-Pack (3 packets that we mix with water). Already, we can see that George Mason is feeling better. He is starting to let his personality show more and more. He loves walking on and off the elevator and then marching down the hallway to our hotel room. It is really cute because I can tell he feels like such a big boy. :) He also has shown us a few temper tantrums. And oh my! He does a backwards body slam to the ground when he doesn't get what he wants and screams and kicks his legs. Not pretty. But, as soon as we scoop him up and tell him "ha la, ha la" - he stops. I can't imagine he got away with that too much in the orphanage, but I could be wrong. After the clinic, we rode in a van to the US Consulate appointment. We made it in plenty of time and we were able to be sworn in with all the other families this time. David and I did have flashbacks to our last trip to the Embassy, and we were thankful that Helen had already secured transportation for us so we weren't standing around waiting on a taxi to magically appear. lol! While we were waiting for the ceremony to begin, we chatted with a nice family from NC - and then we were called first to complete the paperwork. So, now when we land in Chicago - George Mason will automatically become a US Citizen! :) After the Embassy, we drove around for a little while waiting for Helen to help two other families and David decided to celebrate Mason's US Visa by buying a Coke for us and the driver. :) Helen's son stayed with us in the van and we both laughed when we saw the book he was reading. A comic book of "Tom & Jerry"! lol! Can you believe it?! I think that has to be theme for this trip.  We decided to eat lunch at Subway and we ran into the same couple from NC and they spoke with another family who is also staying at the Victory and we were so surprised to find out that we live like 30 minutes from each other! This is also their 2nd adoption and their son from their 1st adoption was from Chengdu too. It was great fun meeting them and we were so blessed to run into wonderful families to share the last few days of our trip with. We met them all at this wonderful restaurant that is on the 5th floor above Jordon's gift shop. We shared a private room with them and enjoyed fabulous Chinese food! It was amazing! When we were leaving, we saw the doormen from our hotel enjoying their dinner there too and they asked David how did we find out about this place. Dave said, "From our friends!" They smiled and said, "Good food and low price!" Now the secret is out! lol! George Mason ate and ate and ate. He loved the fried green beans, the rice, the noodles. We think he is finally feeling almost 100%. After we were finished eating, the kids all had fun running around the room, and Mason laughed and laughed at the other kids. Dave and I are so excited to see him at home playing with our kiddos. I think he is going to LOVE them! On the way home, we made plans to swim the next morning and to eat Chinese again at the same restaurant for our last dinner on the Island. Tomorrow afternoon, we will have to wait in our room until Helen picks up the "brown envelope" full of immigration papers and Mason's US Visa and delivers it to us. We are almost finished and we are so ready to come home! We miss you so much AJ, Hollyn, and Jessa! We can't wait to give you all big hugs! :)

5 Goat Park ~ Symbol of Guangzhou

Today we decided to go take a walk on the sun. Okay...so maybe not. But if you were to imagine what the sun felt like, well, that comes pretty close to the hotness we felt today in GZ. We were drenched with sweat just walking out the lobby of our hotel. We walked back down to the medical clinic after breakfast. George Mason had a rough night last night and didn't sleep well at all. We wanted the Dr. to check his lungs again and see if things were getting better or not. We also had his TB test read too. The TB test was negative and he passed with flying colors, but the Dr. exam caused major hysterics again. This time we came prepared with the light up/spin toy and it calmed him down enough for the Dr. to hear his lungs. He said he was starting to get bronchitis, so he gave us some cough syrup/mucinex type of medicine and we started the antibiotic that we brought from Dr. Curnow. He took a long nap and was full of energy this afternoon. We were happy to see that his appetite came back a little too. He still doesn't want to drink his bottle though. So we found some little yogurt drinks that Jessa Li loved when we were in China and thought we would try them with Mason. He LOVES them too! We were so glad to find something that was liquid to keep him hydrated. He doesn't like any juices at all - not even apple, which is surprising because all of my kids have loved apple juice. So needless to say, we stocked up on the little yogurt drinks and he is downing them left and right. lol! We went with our guide to a park in the very center of GZ. She told us it was the only park that had some shade, so we decided it would be fun to get out of the hotel room today. We drove by the new millionaire district that was being built and she explained how the US Consulate will now be in one of those buildings. She also told us about the peasant farmers who had farmed that land for centuries and the government bascially made them millionaires in a day by buying their land and giving them their own apartment in the new building. Their lives will never be the same! Helen's little boy is eight and he will start school in 2 days, so she brought him with her. We were excited to meet her son and it just adds such a neat dynamic to our trip to have other children with us. :) Yang Yang really likes being around other kiddos. Her son said "Hello, nice to meet you." in perfect English! He is adorable! She told us he had spent the last week or so with her sister and her sister's son - his cousin. She said they are more like brothers. :) That reminded me of Andrew playing with Joel and Jack and of course I started missing him so badly. He would have loved to have hung out with Helen's son today especially playing video games in the van. Yes, some things are the same no matter where in the world you go. lol! :) So we walked up the hill in the park and saw the famous 5 Goat Statue of GZ. It was up five flights of stairs so David ended up carring Mason in the stroller up all 5 flights. The statue was interesting but more so the legend that goes with it. The people believe that in ancient times 5 celestial beings rode down to GZ on 5 goats and in the mouths of the 5 goats where stalks of grain. They presented the people with stalks to plant with the promise that famine will never come to GZ and it will always prosper. So the people planted the stalks in the water and it was rice, of course, and that is the legend of the 5 Goats of GZ. She told it more beautifully than I did, but those are the facts more or less. :) Then we just walked around the paths of the park, stopped to buy some water and her son an ice cream, and took some photos of the beautiful plants. Lots of different varieties of hostas and shade growing plants with beautiful varigated leaves. Palm trees also and a little creek/pond that ran through the center of the park. There was also a sports stadium and several memorials to important Chinese leaders. She showed us 2 tombs of "little emperors" - which she explained where like the Emperor's cabinet members. They were from the Ming Dynasty - that was amazing to think how long ago that was...like 200 years ago! The US is just now 220 some years old. China really is a country with a long history! We also saw a bomb shelter that had been constructed for the people to run into during WW II when Japan was attacking China. And we of course saw many Chinese enjoying a day at the park too. Listening to music, walking, and sitting in the shade. We saw a large group enjoying a hacky-sack kind of game using a toy that looks sort of like a badminton birdie with chicken feathers on the end of it. One man came up to David and tried to show him how to play. :) David was amazed at the flexibility of the man. Kicking it from behind and spinning it around. Very cool! As we were leaving the park, an elderly woman came up to us and scolded us for having the baby out in the heat. She told us he was pouring with sweat (what she didn't know is that I had just poured water on a wipe and cooled him off), she told us he needed to be in the shade (we were leaving the park so we were leaving the shade), she told us we needed a visor for the stroller (the stroller was a loaner and didn't come with a visor)... I just smiled and nodded and agreed with her. I thought it was actually sweet that she cared so much about our little guy. David was slighly annoyed at a stranger telling a Mom who has had 5 children how to raise them - but really, it was cute. There was also a man outside the park selling roasted chestnuts. They smelled delicious, but Helen told us they do not eat them in the summer because it is hot food and gives you a sore throat. She told me they only eat cold food in the summer like melon, and cucumber, lots of vegetables. So since I couldn't try them, I took a photo of them instead. :) By the time we were done walking the park, David and I were ready to go back to the hotel. Walking on the Sun does that to a body. So we took a cab back, put on our swim suits and we were all excited to go swimming! Only to find out the pool closes between 12 and 2pm. Yep, right during the hottest time of day the pool is closed - mind you, there is a man whose job it is to sit there between 12 and 2pm, but not so that you can swim, nope, his job is to tell you it is closed. And not because they were cleaning the pool, or checking the chemicals or anything. It's just closed. Go figure. So we went to Plan B, well, really I guess it would be Plan C at this point since Plan A was to go to the flower park, but a water pipe burst and the taxi cab driver refused to take us there which is why we ended up at the 5 Goat Park, and Plan B was swimming, and so Plan C was the playroom in the hotel. Oh did I say playroom? I meant to say the "Children's Palace". :) Love the Chinese names for things! We were the only ones on that floor so George Mason had his pick of all the toys. He loved it! He played toss the ball with Daddy, went down the slide, played with blocks, rode a little horsey like the one at his orphanage, and was having a jolly good time until...dun, dun, dun... the attack of the rabid marled brown stuffed bunnies... dun, dun, dun! It all started when the ball was tossed into this little "egg" shaped chair that was in the playroom. Sitting in the chair we could see there was some kind of plush animal for the kids to play with, but it looked like it had real fur - like brown, marled, fur of a beaver or mink or something. Anyway, Mason was a little leery, and when the ball went in the chair, I would go get it for him or David would. Mason got some courage and started getting the ball himself but his face was just priceless. So funny! So I don't know what came over me, but I told David wouldn't it be funny if you growled when he went to get the ball. Thinking that Dave would just do a little growl like "grrrrr", but nope, he decided to do the full-on German Shepherd bark. I tell you, I've never seen a child run so fast in my life! Mason high-tailed it straight for Daddy's arms. Momma put those bunnies in time-out far away from Mason and he helped me tell them a thing or two about being nice bunnies too. hee. He kept checking on them to make sure they were staying put, and was a little concerned that Momma was too close to them too. It was too funny. I'm sure there is something wrong with us in that we found this all funny. I'm also sure that we are beyond tired and very loopy. :) Like I said, walking on the sun will do this to a person. Eventually, we did get to go swimming. And George Mason loved it! He enjoyed it so much he fell asleep in my arms in the pool. :) Then we went back to the room, took a nap, and ate dinner at The Cow & Bridge. They serve Thai food and it is very yummy. However, note to self: when a dish has 2 red peppers next to it on the menu, that means your mouth will feel like the sun! So after lots and lots and lots of hydration, we finally called it a night. We are praying Mason feels a little better tomorrow. :)