Hong Kong Day 2–Amazing City

First I have to say that I am so thankful I got Windows Live Writer on this laptop before we left home.  I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to make web pages show up completely in English.  Example – when I open up this blog online, my words are in English, but the “sign in,” etc type stuff that is at the top of the blogspot screen is in putonghua…not so helpful.  I have tried several tricks to see the stuff in English, but to no avail.  Just another part of the experience :).

Today is Saturday.  We had a “day off” so we decided to head to downtown Kowloon.  First stop, Tsim, Sha Tsui and the East Promenade where we were treated to a beautiful view of Hong Kong Island. 

Hong Kong is known as the Pearl of the Orient (as the statue in the background symbolizes).  Yes, the weather is foggy…it has been raining every day…we head out with out umbrellas up and it is still very humid all day. Thankfully the rain has let up 10-11 each morning.  I love the picture below – I feel it accurately captures the old world/new world that I have witnessed in Hong Kong.

  And of course, while we were there we had to get some pics at the Avenue of the stars.

Our kids were excited to see a name they knew on the avenue.  However, I’m not sure Jackie Chan would be impressed to know that they only know him as the voice of Monkey in Kung Fu Panda :).

Next we headed to the HK Museum of History.  By this time it was 11:30 and we were hoping the museum would have a restaurant inside, as so many American museums do.  We were disappointed to discover that they do not, but the rest of the museum made up for it!  We really enjoyed this view into HK’s past as well as its many traditions.

 

About 2 hours later we emerged.  Starving.  We started heading “home” to our apartment with quickly wilting kids (humid heat+hunger definitely = wilting).  As we were walking, we were keeping our eye out for a place to eat, but that’s a bit more difficult than it sounds.  Even Ka Hei’s case worker has given us some mild cautions about where we eat, and with our kids in tow, it makes me a little nervous to just hop into a restaurant.  And then we saw an oasis ahead…

   In all seriousness, I’m not much of a McD fan.  I’m happy with their salads, but since I’m the only one of my crew who will order a salad, I’d usually rather find somewhere else to eat.  But today, McD was a truly welcome sight.  It’s nice to have something familiar after you have been surrounded with everything that is UNfamiliar. Like the streets we had been walking.

I felt like we walked Times Square times a bunch today and with all the new smells and sounds and language it can get a bit overwhelming.  We headed back to spend the rest of the afternoon (3 pm on) resting and relaxing at our apartment which worked out perfectly because it stormed a bunch of that time.  Don’t get me wrong, we are truly enjoying our time here, we just need more down time than normal to process everything & recover from jet lag.  And I know this experience is helping me have a greater appreciation for what Ka Hei will go through as he transitions into our life in the US.

Hong Kong Day 1–It’s all about expectations

Since I’m a planner, I don’t tend to do well with plan disruptions, but I went into this trip with the mindset of…things will be messed up and crazy and that is ok.  See, I was planning for disruptions.  Stuff like not getting our luggage for nearly 1 1/2 hours.

I was totally good with it.  And congratulating myself for my "just go with the flow” attitude.

Then everything flew out the window.

Last night as we were getting kids into bed (around midnight here…so 11 am Morton time), Andrew said I should hurry because there was a message from Gladys (Ka Hei’s case worker).  She had an itinerary for us.  We would start meeting with Ka Hei tomorrow.  Good news right?  He is the whole reason we are here!  Well, between the fact that I was severely sleep deprived, working with a little culture shock and the fact that we had been told for MONTHS that if we wanted to see Hong Kong we should do so before we met with Ka Hei because we would meet Ka Hei a couple times, then he would be in our custody and then we should leave the country….like seriously, don’t stick around...just fly home.  I was in shock.  What about the language barrier between us?  What if he just plain wanted to go home (not with us)…he would be so close and yet not able to be there because he would have to be in an apartment with people he hardly knows?  And we’re not flying home for 2 weeks!!  It took some gracious calming from my husband and a good night’s sleep before I could shake the panic.  Sad, but true.

Fortunately this morning as I prayed, God reminded me that I had put this trip into His Hands and now was not the time to try to take it back. 

So, we headed out of the apartment to get the “lay of the land.”  I’m so thankful Andrew is directionally amazing, because it didn’t take me long to get completely lost.  It was raining, but not hard.  It definitely did not affect the number of people out and about.  We saw lots of fun stuff.

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I just love all the bamboo scaffolding :).  The lovelies below were in a restaurant window.  And of course, our kids were pleased to see these familiar arches.  By the way, most of these pics are courtesy of Kayla, my resident photog.

 

We bought a few grocery items (we found pb&j! True comfort food :) ), returned to the apartment we’re staying at and waited for Gladys to come.  About 11:30 she arrived with an itinerary of our time here in Hong Kong.  Because Ka Hei is older (10), she wants to give him plenty of time to warm up to us.  So, she told us, he will meet us for a few hours today, then have a weekend to process.  Then meet us for a few hours each day until the evening of the 10th when he will move into the apartment with us.  We fly home on the 13th.   I’m so thankful!  I want him to want to come home with us at the end of our time here, not feel like he is forced to.  Gladys is going to do everything in her power to help this transition be as smooth as possible.  Praise the Lord!

Gladys led us to Ka Hei’s home (he is in a foster/small group home) via walking, MTR (subway) and more walking.  1/2 hr later, we were there!

 

And he is a typical, nervous, goofy, cautious, smiling, 10 year old boy who creamed us in Rummikub and Clue :).  Trust me, it was not because of some language barrier…even if Lucas tries to convince you otherwise.  And what did he request for lunch?  Pizza Hut!

We headed back to our apartment after a bit more game playing and then experienced something we have never experienced before…

 

  Our kids BEGGING to go to bed!

  Tomorrow and Sunday we have “free days.” So, Andrew and I had better figure out what we are going to do :).  Goodnight!

Closer to the other side of awesome - We have arrived!

 

In church on Sunday I (Sandy) was talking to a friend who asked if we had heard anything from Hong Kong yet regarding dates we should go and then how I was doing with not hearing anything.  I told her…I know God has an awesome plan all worked out…I just want to be on the other side of awesome. 

At 7:30 am Monday morning, awesome edged closer .  We got word from our case worker that the final steps of the process were going to happen Monday and then Friday (today).  You want to know what is amazing about hearing this?  First, we had originally set a “cut-off” in our minds for Friday at noon.  If we didn’t hear some firm dates from HK by then, we would probably try to switch our plane tickets.  I awoke Friday morning and read in the Psalms….wait on the Lord.  Ït meant going into the weekend not knowing if we would travel 1/2 way around the world on Wed or not.  I emailed Andrew the verse that really spoke to me and he replied, ok we wait until Monday at noon.  Second, Hong Kong waits until appointments are over before they tell the family…it just keeps them safe from any liability of last minute changes that would affect the date we get custody.  Yet they told us before!  Incredible! 

I flew into action booking our apartment and looking into return flights.  We got the apartment we wanted!!!  Huge praise!  and I hit a wall with return tickets.  I called Andrew, could he come home?  Amazingly, he didn’t have any meetings between 10 and noon – that really is amazing!  We eventually found “only 7 seats left at this price” on CheapOAir(most were 4 or fewer seats) for a really good price.  We tried to book them, but we immediately got a “sorry these aren’t still available”message.  Argh!!  Then Andrew had a brilliant idea.  He booked 4 tickets (the boys) on the main computer at the same time I booked the 3 girl tickets on the laptop.  We hit “book now”…..and it worked!!!  and we paid nearly 1/3 the price American Airlines was going to charge us per ticket!!

Even more incredible?  Last month, we received 2 American Airlines admiral’s club one-day passes in the mail.  Each pass allows the card holder to bring 3 children into the lounge with them!!  We have 1 layover.  2 1/2 hrs in Tokyo…which has one of the nicer admiral lounges in the world!  So, while we are in Tokyo, we can eat a meal, drink smoothies & charge devices, all courtesy American  :). When I told my mom about these passes, she was flabbergasted!  “People don’t just get Admiral’s club passes in the mail!” she said…well we did…apparently God put a glitch in their system . 

We packed Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday and then jumped in our van for the drive to Chicago – the first leg to getting Ka Hei home.

Now Andrew will fill you in on our flight details. -

After a long flight we arrived in Hong Kong about 8pm local time (+13 hours on CST – so 7am Thursday – CST).  Our first problem was a luggage delay (almost 10pm before we got our hands on luggage).  We also believe that Kayla’s ipod was left on the plane.  We then were able to exchange cash for HK$, get subway cards, pick up 2 smart phones, and work our way to 2 taxis (one doesn’t hold our family).  Thankfully, the taxis brought us directly to our apartment so we could start settling in.  The apartment is 3 bedroom (which is nice) and cozy (fits a bed in each room but that is about it).  We are also trying to get used to having only 1 bathroom. 

We got the kids in bed by midnight and most of us were up by 6am.  We are now getting ready for our day (not sure yet what we will do) but early on our list is to hit a supermarket.  We are also supposed to call Gladys (our HK social worker) and we’ll see what happens from there. 

Andrew & Sandy

Waiting (impatiently) for the Go-ahead

& I feel WAY STRESSED OUT.

Why?  Because we might be leaving for Hong Kong in  1 1/2 weeks and we might not.  There are still documents that have to get filed in Hong Kong and there is NOTHING I can do about it.

We have purchased airplane tickets to get there, but we might need to change them (it makes sense mathematically...but not to my heart). 
We might be packing frantically in 1 week (I can't pack too much now because we're still wearing the clothes we will need in Hong Kong), but we might not. 
We might get to meet our much-prayed-over son in 2 1/2 weeks, we might have to wait longer. 
We WILL need to rent an apartment because most hotel rooms in Hong Kong don't fit 7 people...and the ones that do are already booked...and frankly a lot of the decent apartments are booked too.
We WILL need a flight home...preferably in seats close to each other...who am I kidding....at this point I'm getting concerned we won't be able to find 7 seats on one plane for less than 1200 a piece.

I have known for months that we wouldn't have much warning before we traveled to Hong Kong, but I definitely DID NOT get what that would really mean until it was staring me in the face.  And I'm having a really hard time not stressing to the breaking point over it.

I think I could handle all this wait and see stuff better if it was just Andrew and I.  Hotel rooms would be easier, plane tickets would be easier; I think I could be more willing to fly by the seat of my pants.  But with so many of us....the planning gets a LOT more complicated.  And my heart is so ready to go!

Yes, I've read the verses about waiting on the Lord and about Him taking care of His own and about casting my cares. 

But right now, it feels really, really hard. 

Maybe because I'm a planner (with a capital P).  But maybe more than my control-freakedness, it is because Faith is never so hard as when I have to put it into action.  When I'm scared that we won't get to fly home together....that we'll end up in an apartment that doesn't include bed linens (yes, there are a lot of those), the only toilet doesn't work and it's in the noisiest part of the city....and that it will be that much longer before we get to see this boy face to face:

We need to get there soon, right?



ps.  Please pray for me to really leave my concerns in my very capable Savior's hands and please pray He takes care of all these details...thanks!