Leaving for China

If you're reading this you probably know that my family is leaving next week for China to complete our second adoption. And since I completely dropped the ball when it comes to blogging, I'm not going to pretend to have resumed. However, a few of you might stop by because you know that last time we traveled, I did post pictures, videos and journal entries from our trip (check October 2008). But for that sort of thing this time around, you are safer to follow my wife's blog www.raisingtomatoes.blogspot.com.

However, here are a few picks we have of our son, Jack Yintao.

Top 10 Highlights of 2008

In honor of the new year, I thought I would do a top 10 list of my highlights from 2008. Enjoy.

1. Kate & China
The biggest highlight of the year, of course, is the adoption of our daughter, Kate. We were finally matched with our daughter this summer on July 11th. After getting our LOA and TA, we traveled to China for two weeks in October, and on October 13th, 2008 we met her for the very first time. While we were in China, we went through Beijing and saw the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, traveled to Nanjing and Suzhou and walked around the beautiful canals and the Ming mausoleum, and finished up in Guangzhou with some final shopping and the oath ceremony at the US Consulate. After an extremely long flight, we returned home on her 2nd birthday, October 23rd. She has been a constant joy, even as our new family struggles through the newness and strangeness of it all. She has gone from wanting me non-stop for the first two weeks, to not wanting me at all (only Mommy), and now--especially in the last little bit-- she seems to be comfortable with us both (though sometimes she still just wants Mommy). We have worked through a lot of communication issues already: we picked up some Chinese, she seems to understand a lot of English now, and we've all been learning sign language. She loves her brothers, and the boys absolutely adore her. I can't tell you how thankful to God I am that we are now together at last.

2. the Boys
The boys are great kids. I'm so proud to be their dad. This has been a wonderful year with them. Ben and I have always been close, but now that Kate has come along, I think Will is becoming a little less of a Mama's boy and has been closer to me. This summer they both took swim lessons, and they're starting an indoor soccer program next month. In the Fall, Will started preschool two days a week and Ben started half-day Kindergarten five days a week. They are so smart and are great at teaching Kate new things. In 2008 Ben started reading, and I'm so amazed with his ability to read so well (he reads anything and everything he can get his hands on). And Will is very creative and athletic. The work he brings home from school and church are very imaginative, and he's becoming quite coordinated as we play ball together. I'm so excited to watch how they continue to grow!

3. 10-year anniversary
This August, Amy and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, and we took a long weekend trip together to Myrtle Beach (via Chimney Rock, NC). If you know my wife, you know how lucky I am. She is beautiful and sweet and smart and witty. She loves God and her family and supports me and my ministry in a hundred different ways. I love that she "gets it" (i.e. she cares about the things that you're supposed to care about), and she's so great at listening to me go on and on about whatever I need to talk about. She's my favorite.

4. Baptisms
This year, three students from our youth ministry were baptized: Buckley, Sarah and Stefanie. I was also privileged to perform the baptisms for Stefanie, her step-dad Dean, and a new friend, Aaron. It is a huge honor to be a part of such a special moment in their spiritual journey.

5. Toronto
I think the highlight of our youth ministry in 2008 for me was probably our mission trip to Toronto, Canada. It was awesome to be a part of a group of 10 youth and 3 adults from our church to serve in the urban center of Toronto this summer. We had a great time, and I got to witness God using our teenagers to go outside their comfort zone and serve others. I'm continuing to see ripples from this week of ministry all throughout our youth group.

6. Fusion, Summer Internship, and Student Leadership
In my second year of youth ministry here, I'm proud of three new developments. One is our youth ministry network called Fusion. In January, I began contacting and pulling together youth ministers from churches all over town and setting up opportunities for us to get together. In the Fall, we pulled off our first joint venture-- Fusion: United-- community service projects and joint worship service. I've enjoyed getting to know these awesome leaders and look forward to what we'll do together in the future.

Second, we started a summer youth internship program. Blair, a junior at the college next door, worked with the youth this summer and did a fantastic job. She was full of great ideas, was great relating to the youth, and was fun to work with. I've enjoyed hanging out with Blair and am glad that she's continued working with our girls high school small group.

Finally, there were a few students who were ready to take the next step in their relationship with God and their role within the youth ministry. So, we've begun a student leadership program with four students who have committed to being contributors instead of just consumers. We're meeting to talk about what it will take to be the kind of leaders within the student ministry that God wants them to be. It's so exciting seeing their enthusiasm.

7. Jacob & Hawaii
Back in January of this year, Amy's mom took the family to Hawaii for two weeks. It was our Christmas present and basically a last chance to spend family time with Amy's brother, Jacob, and his wife, Alison. Later in 2008 they would leave for the mission field. It will probably be quite some time before we get to spend much time together again, so the trip to Hawaii was such a significant two weeks. It was so nice to escape the cold January winter for the warmth of the Hawaiian beaches. But more than that, it was great for us and the boys to spend some time with some of our favorite people. We saw the sights, ate good food, drank Jamba Juice, visited friends (Kele and Kaala & their kids), sat on the beach, and played together. Especially since Ben and Will miss them so much now, I'm glad we got these two short weeks together.

8. Presidential election
In 2008, we saw the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. I'm still in shock that it happened, but I'm very excited for this new time for America. I saw him in person at the campaign rally for the Democratic nomination in Louisville on May 12th and followed the general election on the news pretty regularly. I'm proud to be a part of this historical moment in our country's history, and I look forward with great anticipation the work that he'll do when he begins his term in office.

9. New Guitar
In March, with some of the money my grandmother left me, I purchased a new guitar. It's a Takamine EG543SC Acoustic Electric, and it's beautiful. It's got a great sound, and I love playing it. I think Grandma would be happy that I'm enjoying it so much :)

10. Cubs, Browns, UK basketball disappoint, but football Cats make 3rd straight bowl game

As you would expect from the Browns and the Cubs, I was very disappointed this year. Both had high expectations-- the Cubs even led the NL in wins-- but both failed miserably. The Cubs got swept in the first round of the playoffs to the Dodgers. The Browns barely even made it out of the gate before finishing the season miserably with two injured QBs, no offensive TDs since early November, and firing the head coach. Pitiful.

The Cats struggled in their first year with new head coach, Billy Gillispie. Had it not been for the emergence of Patrick Patterson it would have been very ugly. And even barely squeaking into the NCAA tournament, we made an early first round exit to Marquette. I don't even remember the last time we were ranked in the top 25. As we head into the SEC part of the schedule in 2009, I'm starting to have some hope for the Cats yet.

On the positive side, congratulations to the underestimated/ overachieving UK football team. Even though no one expected them to have much of a year, they crawled their way across the six and six line into their third-straight bowl game appearance (and hopefully third-straight bowl win). I'll be heading to Memphis tomorrow with great hope that they'll pull another one out, this year against the Conference-USA champions, the East Carolina Pirates.

guangzhou

Here is some video from Suzhou... It's fun to see our family interact. I think Kate must think all we ever do is eat (which seems to be okay by her!).

We are now in Guangzhou. We flew in early yesterday (Monday morning) from Nanjing. Here's a picture from the flight, not long before she spilled that cup of water (pictured on the right) all over my shirt and lap. Nice.

Once we arrived and checked into the White Swan hotel, we had a fairly Americanized lunch at Lucy's down the street. More expensive but worth it. We then took Kate to her visa picture and medical examination for the paperwork for the American consulate. Not fun, but I'm glad she's so healthy. That evening, Amy worked diligently preparing all the paperwork to be filed this morning. (Great job, honey!) Because that took a while, we ate a late dinner at an Italian restaurant a little walk from the hotel. Not bad. I think everyone enjoyed it pretty well.

This morning we really didn't have anything scheduled. Just be available in our rooms from 9:00am to 10:30am while our guide filed our paperwork with the US consulate so she could contact us if there were any complications. Along with the other families from our agency, we dressed up all the kids in traditional Chinese clothing for pictures. Isn't our daughter beautiful? Then a little trip to go shopping and pick up some pizza for dinner. Because there were no naps, we just sent everyone to bed early tonight!

Tomorrow is our last full day in China. I guess we'll take part in the oath ceremony at the US consulate and try to get everything packed up. This may be my last post until we're back, but, for all you who twitter, I'll probably update once we arrive in Detroit.

what I appreciate

First, some pictures... This is how I spend most of my time (carrying Kate in my arms)... oh, my poor back! Ben has been dealing with a bit of homesickness the last couple days. I don't think I'm homesick, but there are some things I suppose I miss about home. From my traveling these past several days in China, I have learned to appreciate (or re-appreciate) a number of things...

1. 110 voltage: With all the things we brought that need charging, one power converter barely covers it.

2. US tap water and milk: We cannot drink water in China, except bottled water... which includes no brushing teeth with it, eating fruit or vegetables washed in tap water, open mouths in the shower, ice in our drinks, etc. And because of the recent problems with people getting sick from milk in China, we're avoiding milk... and the boys love milk. Not that they don't love getting to drink Sprite all the time, but we all miss a nice cold glass of milk these days.

3. Laundry facilities: With the 44-pound weight restriction on baggage and the limit to one checked bag on flights in China, we only packed for one week and are now on week two of our trip. This means we have been doing laundry, some of it Amy has been doing in the tub and others were done by a laundry service. I put on some of the "professionally" laundered clothes today and they smelled less than fresh. On top of that, after several hours, my skin started breaking out in a rash! Apparently I'm allergic to the detergent the laundry service used (thankfully, my underwear was washed in-house!).

4. Traffic rules: I experienced this quite a bit on my previous visit to China, but there's no way to explain the driving here. Traffic rules here are, at best, traffic "suggestions." Pass on a double-yellow line? No problem (even with oncoming traffic headed right at you). Honking is not rude or angry; it's merely necessary to let other drivers know you are close. The confluence of cars, vans, bicycles and motor bikes is amazing, indeed. (However, train travel--like in Europe--is so nice... I really wish we utilized this more in the States.)

5. The 112 miles between our house and Mimi's: I love my mother-in-law and am so glad to have her help with the boys on the trip. She does a great job with Ben and Will, and I think it's so great that they've gotten to experience this. But after so much non-stop time together, I think Mimi and I will both be happy for a little distance when we get back home.

6. Variety in food: I think I've done a good job of eating. If you know me, you know I can be a picky eater, but I haven't complained about the food. We've had breakfast buffets at our hotels, which always have bread or toast, eggs, OJ, and some other things I like (plus, I'm not much of a breakfast eater anyway). For other meals, we've tried a number of places. We ate at a hot pot place a couple days ago (very spicy); we were served lunch when we visited the orphanage; we ate at a noodle place tonight; and a couple other "local" places along our tours. We are certainly getting our fill of rice. There are a few other options, too... McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and we found a Papa John's, too. All in all, I'm getting burnt out on these limited options though. I could really go for some good home cooking right about now (or at least a Cracker Barrel).

7. Media: This goes both ways. I appreciate the distance from the media because it gives me a break from the political circus (commercials, coverage, phone calls, polls, etc.). It also helps me deal with my heartbreak over the Cubs not being in the NLCS or World Series (at least I don't have to watch the horrible Phillies play the games the Cubs should have been playing). But I miss my cell phone and text messaging, college and NFL football, ESPN sports radio and updated podcasts, and the new episodes of Heroes and CSI.

8. Self-sufficient children: Now that Ben and Will are old enough to take care of themselves so much, I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to go back to taking care of every need of a toddler. On top of that, since I'm the only one Kate has totally bonded with, it's left to me to feed her (which is sometimes tricky, especially liquids), bath her, diaper her, cloth her, rock her, tuck her in, supervise her playtime, give her medicine, brush her teeth, sit with her in the van, carry her on the tours, and be there at any moment she wants something. It makes it harder that she can't tell me what she wants but still gets mad at me when I don't get it right. I love Kate so much and have totally enjoyed being her beloved Daddy, but now after six days, I'm ready for some help :) I hope she bonds with Amy soon!

These (along with soft beds, air-conditioning, and non-tonal languages) are just some of the things I've grown to appreciate more over the last 10 days.

what you come here for

I don't doubt that the reason most of you come to visit my blog is for the videos I've been posting, so here you go. This is from the Humble Administrator's Garden we visited yesterday. We attracted quite a crowd. Enjoy.

I'm the luckiest dad in the world

My daughter is amazing. I can't believe we are finally together! I am even more amazed that she has bonded with me so well already! Oh, how my heart is ready to burst :)

(my new favorite picture, I think)

Well, since I'm nice and all, I let Amy get on-line first after we put Kate to bed tonight (that, and it's taking me a long time to convert all the video to the computer). So, go visit her blog soon.

Amy is quite amazing, too. What you don't know is that, because I knew it was common for the adopted child to have a preference for one parent over the other, I was afraid I would be the one rejected. What would have devestated me, Amy is handling wonderfully. She has been great, finding opportunities to bond little by little, helping me out all the time, and encouraging me and giving me confidence that I'm doing a good job.

Video of our first moments with Kate...

Some time well spent at Haagen Dazs...

Some more updates

This morning we visited Tian An Men Square. It was pretty amazing... a strange mix of leftover Olympic and Para-Olympic decorations with a strong communist nationalism (exemplified in the very, very long line of people waiting to walk past the body of Chairman Mao).

Close by was the Forbidden City. What an interesting clash in political ideology. Next to Tian An Men, the symbol of socialism and economic equality, was the Forbidden City, the sprawling palace that was once reserved strictly for the emperor and his family (now crammed with masses of people ironically enough). It certainly provides a visual reminder (propaganda?) of the extreme excesses of this kind of empire over against the teachings of communism.

We arrived in Nanjing tonight and are hoping for a good nights sleep. It's funny... driving through Nanjiing (and walking around the hotel a little), it reminds me much more of the China I experienced 11 years ago (looks and smells). I noticed several roadside vendors selling meat on a stick, people coming up to you to try to sell you stuff (a la "Hello Banana Lady"), and I even had myself a Magnum bar for good measure. Shawn is probably the only one who'll read this and know what in the world I'm talking about :)

By the way, don't forget you can see our travel itinerary (with links for more info) here.

Well, just a reminder... tomorrow is the big day! In about 13 hours (Sunday night for you), we will meet our daughter. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We hope to post some great pictures and videos soon!

China in review (so far)

If you're wondering what our travel to China has been like so far, you can read some notes on Amy's blog. But here's a video recap of the trip over from Ben and Will's perspective :)

This was video is from this morning on the Great Wall of China. Will and I had found a spot to rest and wait for Amy and Ben to catch up with us. (Be sure to notice Ben in background yelling, "We'll see you in a minute!") The scenery was magnificent.

And it's true. Ben, and especially Will, are quite popular. It's hard to tell how many times we were stopped by people asking to take a picture with them. (I might need to google "picture with a cute white kid with freckles and dimples on the Great Wall of China" to see how many of those pictures have been posted to the web!) Even in a shopping center where we ate lunch today, Will was being stalked around every corner by two clerks trying to get him to give them hugs (see picture below). I'm afraid they'll start thinking they're celebrities.

(Also a quick shout out to Dad for the power converter that is making all these updates possible--keeping our camera, computer, video camera and all other technology charged! Thanks!)

8 days to go

How is it that time is moving so slowly? (Although I still can't seem to get everything accomplished I've got on my to-do list!) I can't wait to get my arms around this little girl!


These pictures are now six months old, but we just got them last week in a file we were sent from our agency. What a wonderful surprise! (Click here for more recent pictures.)

One week from tomorrow we get on the plane to China, and in 11 days from right now (given the time change) we should be meeting our daughter! I can't believe how amazing this is.

We're hoping to have good internet access on our trip so that we can post regular updates to our blogs-- this one and Amy's (see "Raising Tomatoes" on the right-hand side of the page). We look forward to reading your comments as we post from China.

a different kind of trip

We found out last weekend that we got our official Travel Approval to go to China, and a couple days later got back our passports with their Chinese visas (above, on left). But we were disappointed to learn that the US Consulate did not have any available openings until October 21st to schedule us for the finalization of the adoption on the American side of things. I guess this is what should be expected when you are working with bureaucracies from two different countries!

So we will be traveling to China on October 9th. But this isn't my first trip to China.

I first traveled to China in the summer of 1997 (see visa at top, right side) when, along with five other college students (Shawn, Sharon, Qny, Momi and Angie), I spent five weeks in Yangshuo, Guangxi (near Guilin). We traveled through Hong Kong and southern China by boat, train, airplane, bus, taxi, bicycle and foot. We saw breathtaking landscapes filled with limestone mountains and terraced rice fields, picturesque towns with pagodas and ancestral shrines, and amazing cities with skyscrapers that climb to the sky. We spent our time with a school full of kids (mostly around 13 and 14 years old). We learned Chinese and taught English. We played basketball and ping pong and learned tai chi and mahjong. We snacked on "sheep-on-a-stick" at roadside vendors, dined on some odd-looking pizza at "americanized" cafes while they showed movies (like an "edited" version of Braveheart), and accepted invitations to traditional Chinese meals (where I was first introduced to beer... "Gan Bei"!). We tubed down the Li Jiang and bicycled to Moon Hill. We haggled in the marketplaces and took lots of pictures. We danced and laughed at birthday celebrations and wept, hugged and set off firecrackers at good-byes. The most amazing part for me was answering the girl who asked, "Teach me how to pray," and hearing my closest friend, Cook (pictured below), tell me that he believed. It was an awesome trip, and I can't imagine what my life would have been without it.

Now 11 years later, I will be going on my second trip to China. Like before, I expect to see a lot of amazing sights and experience meaningful moments. But this trip will be a very different kind of trip. Two weeks instead of five. Through Beijing instead of Hong Kong. Probably pretty comfortable accommodations throughout. Again, I will be there with five others with me... but they'll be my family members Amy, Ben, Will, Mimi (my mother-in-law) and Kate. But the purpose of this trip is to adopt my daughter! We will arrive in Beijing, meet our agency workers, adjust to the new time zone and then meet our daughter in her home province of Jiangsu. We have to spend a week together with her there according to the Chinese guidelines of international adoption. Then we will go to Guangzhuo to the US Consulate to swear on oath that we will take care of her and raise her well. We are so excited to finally be with this little girl that we have planned for and prayed for for so many years.

I can't wait to return to such a beautiful and wonderful country that I have grown to love dearly. Though this is an extremely different kind of trip, I'm not sure this journey would have happened if it weren't for the impact of my first trip to China.