Hong Kong Day 11–a visit to our apartment

Today Ka Hei got to see our apartment for the first time.  Throughout our time here, Hong Kong’s Social Services has had some parameters set around what we could and could not do with Ka Hei.  We understand they want the best for Ka Hei, so we are very willing to work within these guidelines, but the fact that he could not visit our apartment was kind of hard.  You see, because there are 8 children in Ka Hei’s home, it gets crowded when we are there too.   And yet, we could not come to our apartment.  So, from the moment we pick up Ka Hei until we take him back for bed, we have been on the move.  And while we have enjoyed the things we have done and seen, it gets exhausting to have so little down time.  In light of all this, we decided it would be good to just stay here for the day to have some time just playing with each other.

When we picked up Ka Hei, we got a surprise.  His luggage was already packed and ready to go.  He still will not stay overnight with us tonight, but he was eager to get his things to our apartment :)  :)  :) !  And he has a lot of things - a big suitcase, 2 big backpacks, a shoulder bag and his violin.  At first, our younger kids quietly asked me, “Why does he have so much?”  Then I asked them, “If you were told you would be leaving everything you know, and you could only take the things you pack…what would you decide to leave behind?”  They were a lot more understanding and willing to lug things through MTR stations after that.  It is pretty sobering to think that all the material goods he has in the world are now sitting here in our apartment.

We had a really good, relaxing time together.  Here are the boys playing Mario Cart against each other:

Eventually, we had to leave and take Ka Hei back to his apartment….but this was the last time!  Tomorrow is the last day we will make the roughly 30 minute commute to Ka Hei’s small group home (8 kids) because today (!!!) is Ka Hei’s last day there.  Tomorrow, quietly, without any fanfare, this little boy will officially have parents (custodial parents, because we can’t legally adopt him for another 6 months, but in my view, that’s just a difference on paper, not in real life).  Wow. 

Now, because we have been asked what our commute is like, I thought I would show you.

First we walk down 3 flights of stairs and exit our gated apartment building.  Here we are at our door (on a different day – we didn’t have any rain today, so we didn’t need our jackets) and then looking at our apartment buildling (the green one on the left) :

We walk past the building that has the blue awnings and continue down that street.  When we begin our journey, there typically aren’t a lot of people because we are staying in a less congested area.  We pass a bakery that has delicious breads, egg tarts and pineapple buns.  It’s also where we found pig-in-a-blanket type rolls that our kids really like.  Then we pass a meat and vegetable market.  We always have to check how many pig legs they get in that morning, and how many have sold by that evening :).

(Yes, the pictures are out of order, but I thought they looked better grouped this way rather than 2 verticals, then 2 horizontals).  And those 2 long skinny things at the top right of the rack are the pig legs.

Anywho, shortly after the market, the sidewalks begin to fill up with people until we eventually arrive at Prince Edward Station.

(sorry - the sun was just behind the station, so the picture isn’t too good)

We swipe our Octopus cards – every person has their own card, it records where we enter the MTR system and deducts money from our cards as we exit (it’s like a debit card) .  Then we head down two sets of stairs and get on a train to go to Kowloon Tong (on the MTR map below, we started at the far left of the green and are heading a few stations to the right).  

 

When we arrive at Kowloon Tong, we walk through the station (and a lot of people) to get to stairs leading up to an outdoor platform.  There we board a train going to Tai Wai.

At the Tai Wai station, we ride an escalator down a flight of stairs, walk through the station, exit and then head to a different escalator across the street.  This escalator takes us up to a sky walk (there are a lot of sky walks in Hong Kong so pedestrians don’t have to interfere with vehicles).

These 3 signs are very important:  The First tells us which section of the sky walk to take to get us to Ka Hei’s estate.  The Second is the name of his apartment building, and the Third means we will NOT be walking on nasty spittings on the streets (or skywalks) of Hong Kong :) & based on what I’ve heard from those who have visited China…that third sign is a true blessing!

So there ya have it.  Probably too much detail, but I really want to remember this daily journey after we get home.  The fact that we made it so many times is a real testament to the care and concern Ka Hei’s social workers (especially Gladys) have toward him, and their desire to help him transition into our family as smoothly and joyfully as possible.  We are so thankful God placed them in Ka Hei’s life!