The Haas family adoption adventure blog: 2013

Thursday, January 17, 2013

So long Guangzhou...we're on our way home!

This will be our final blog post from China. It's Thursday night in Guangzhou and we head to the airport Friday morning to start our journey back to the U.S. Please pray for our flights and connections. Here's our itinerary:

Friday, January 18
Asiana Airlines 370 Guangzhou to Seoul
Asiana Airlines 272 Seoul to Seattle
Alaska Airlines 2181 Seattle to Portland

We actually leave at 8:40 PM Thursday night Pacific Time in the U.S. which corresponds to 12:40 PM Friday afternoon here in Guangzhou. We are scheduled to arrive in Portland at 2:50 PM Friday afternoon through the Concourse A/B/C security checkpoint at PDX.

Enjoy some pictures from our final days here in Guangzhou including our group picture of adoption families and our Pearl River cruise from Tuesday night. See you in Portland!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Another warm, sunny day in Guangzhou

It was another beautiful day here in Guangzhou. I know it's freezing for
everyone back home but it was 70 degrees with blue skies again today. Most
of the families in our adoption travel group went to Chimelong Safari Park
about an hour southeast of Guangzhou today. The park is part safari, part
zoo, and part amusement park. We stayed in the safari and zoo portions. It
was a fantastic day but we were exhausted by the time we got back to the
hotel around 6:00 PM local time.

It's off to bed early tonight because Tuesday is Chloe's visa appointment at
the U.S. Consulate here in Guangzhou at 7:50 AM. Please pray that all of
Chloe's paperwork goes smoothly so we have no delays in getting her visa to
come home. We are currently scheduled to leave Guangzhou on Friday (January
18) to make our way back to Portland.

To everyone who has been praying for us during these last 10 days in China,
words cannot express how grateful we are. We love you all!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

A day at church & strolling around Shamian Island

Began today with a yummy breakfast, Went to church,,, talked to the kids.... then off to Shamian Island. First If I could please ask my prayer warriors to please pray for my kids, Lydia got a cold, and it turned into croup.. my sweet friend Kristen at 1:00 in the morning along with Hannah took Lydia to the ER. She was having a difficult time breathing.. so they gave her a steroid shot. as you can imagine, this is NOT what this momma wants to hear clear over on the other side of the pond!!!! So after another melt down,,, I Know that the Lord has them in His hands... and I thank GOD for such wonderful friends... You don't even know how much the family of God means to us... words cannot express the love and appreciation we have... Also Abby had her first Bball game, which we missed,, but am so proud of her as she made a basket... Love ya Abs!!! We worshiped today at the Guangzhou International Christian Fellowship,,, WOW!!!!! People from ALL over the world in one room united in Praise and worship to the Lord, the pastor is from the US. Great worship,,, I cried again, as I was overtaken at the fact that we just witnessed a little taste of what Heaven will be like, all kinds of people, from all over praising God... Just AMAZING!! thanks Jen,,, that is what we needed!! Shamian Island was beautiful, got some stuff there for the kiddos and ate some lunch, a little starbucks to top it all off...

Its been great to see Chloe come out of her shell some.. last night she started singing in her crib.. got that on video.. she is a little stinker.. she is shy with others,, but is wild in the room with us.. just a few more days.... please pray for my heart as I miss my kids.. tomorrow we are off to the zoo.. a good time killer ;) love to you all...

Friday, January 11, 2013

Goodbye Nanning...Hello Guangzhou

Just a short blog post today. We are in Guangzhou after the short 1 hour flight last night. This morning it's breakfast and then off to Chloe's U.S. visa medical check-up. Todd Brandenburg and Kevin visited the local orphanage in Nanning where the Brandenburg's daughter came from. No pictures are allowed inside of buildings but Kevin snapped a few on the outside. The Nanning orphanage is one of the larger ones in China with about 500 children and 500 elderly who have no family to care for themselves. I'll spare any political commentary here but I can tell some stories when we get home. The last photo is of our wonderful guide, Jane, who has worked for Holt for 12 years. She has earned the nickname "Crying Jane" from the Holt China staff because she cries every time a family leaves Nanning for Guangzhou because she is so passionate about her work. She did a fantastic job for us while we were in Nanning and we are forever grateful.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

A trip to the Guangxi countryside

This is Lauren blogging again. Today's adventure was off to Yiling village about 1 hour north of Nanning. This is where the Zhuang (pronounced "drung") people live. They are a minority people group in China. Almost all Chinese are Han ethnicity but in Guangxi the majority people is Zhuang. We walked through the countryside which was very pretty and handed out candy to the kids. We toured a home of a more wealthy rural family but it is mixed in with some poorer homes. The typical annual family income of a rural farming family is about $1,500 per year. There are pig farmers and water buffalo farmers. They also grow lots of vegetables. It was nice to get out of the city and see how most of China lives. To watch the women wash clothes at the water hole, and vegetables at the other water hole.

Chloe is doing fine, she is throwing a fit as I type , because she wants me to be right by her. She is a mommas girl, which I like, but will get old real fast...she will have a rude awakening when we get home, as I have other kids to deal with. She is going to have an all daddy day, when we get to Guangzhou ;-). We leave Nanning tomorrow to head there. Please pray for our traveling as she has never been on a plane. Her friend from her orphanage is getting adopted also, to a family from Grove City, Pennsylvania!!! Small world. The dad was born in the same hospital as I was. We are going to keep in contact with them and hopefully get together when we visit back east. Looking forward to some real healthy food in Guangzhou, and some COFFEE!! However we did splurge on some Pizza Hut pizza on the way back from the countryside today--YUM!!

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

The waiting game...

Now that Chloe is officially a member of the Haas family according to the Chinese government, many people not familiar with international adoption wonder why we have to stay 2 weeks in the country. The waiting game has officially begun and the Lord is teaching us patience. The official adoption was actually completed on Tuesday (January 8) but we have to stay in Nanning until Friday (January 11) when Chloe actually gets her Chinese passport. You can't proceed to the next phase of the adoption process until your child has her passport. On Friday evening we'll fly to Guangzhou where we'll be for the rest of our time in China to complete the U.S. visa process.

In the meantime we've been keeping in touch with the kids back home through Skype (one of the few internet sites not blocked by the "Great Firewall of China") and strolling around Nanning with our friends the Brandenburg's from Walla Walla, WA who also adopted a girl from Guangxi province. Rebekah spotted an assortment of Frito Lay products in the supermarket across the street from the hotel which should please our friend Chuck Leutwyler who works for Frito Lay back in Oregon.

Our hotel is the Nanning Majestic Hotel which is supposedly a 5-star hotel for this region of China but is really more like a 2 or 3-star hotel. However it is conveniently located by a large city park that you see in many of the pictures attached to this post and not too far from the large downtown shopping complex where the Starbucks we visited yesterday (see previous blog post) is located.

Thursday (January 10) is a big day as we'll head out to the countryside outside of Nanning to visit a Zhuang village. The Zhuang are a small but important ethnic group in China and the largest concentration of Zhuang people are in Guangxi province. Chloe very likely has some Zhuang ethnicity so it will be exciting to see what rural living is really like in China. We'll post pictures tomorrow.