Time to Go !

Arriving at the airport at 4:30am

Lidia and I getting ready to depart on our long journey

July 6, 2009
Well, the time has finally come and early tomorrow morning Lidia and I will take our first of 8 flights for our journey to bring Briella Xiyao home. Lidia & I are packed, clothes for Briella packed, orphanage donations packed, Brinley & Bayla are packed, paperwork is ready, all laundry (2 adults, 7 kids) is done, stocked up on groceries, house has been cleaned (and I finished painting several walls), check lists, reminders & schedules typed up and handed out...now today I will tie up a few other loose ends and then relax a little and enjoy being with my sweet family.

It is doubtful that I will be able to post to this website while in China. The internet is heavily monitored there and blogger is blocked, as are many other websites. I hope to have internet access and will send updates and pics by email back home to Brianna, who will upload them onto this site. A friend of mine that just returned from China with her little boy told me that certain key words within emails will cause my email acct to be disabled. So, be careful to exclude or encrypt words in any emails to me, like; China, or other Chinese city names, words of faith, like God, prayer, etc. (so sad), or words like orphan, orphanage, etc. Her email acct was disabled. Or just encrypt it, like; *hina, pr*yer, etc. I've never experienced this in my previous 3 trips there, and don't know why it seems this way right now. Enough of that!

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel one last time to a far away land. We will not have a travel group, and it is just Lidia and I (and our guide). We will start off flying from Charlotte to either Chicago or Dulles airport, with a layover and then on to Beijing. After we're in Beijing for a couple days, we will then fly on to Fuzhou which is the capitol of Fujian Province, where Briella is. We will then travel to her smaller town of Xiamen, then back to Fuzhou. Next, we fly to Guangzhou in southern China, where the U.S. Embassy is. Then, either back to Beijing to fly back to the states, or we'll take a train to Hong Kong, then fly back to the states. China is taking strong measures to protect their country from the swine flu. We'll be thermoscanned on the airplane, in the airport, and at different checkpoints, to be sure we aren't sick or with fever. People who are sick with the flu, or have been in close contact with someone who is, may get quarantined. I even purchased travel delay insurance, in the unlikely event we get delayed because of that. There are also brand new immigration requirements in place that require adoptees (from any country) to be tested for TB. Our trip is longer this time due to this testing. Usually we've traveled about 13 nights, this time it's 16 nights. Maybe if the TB testing goes faster than expected, we'll be able to come home a day early. If not, we hope to be home on July 24th. Yesterday, the entire congregation at Parkwood Baptist Deaf Church prayed over Lidia and I. A very teary-eyed woman came up to me after and signed to me "you are so lucky". Yes, I am blessed indeed.

Since I haven't posted in a while, here are some recent photos of our team...

Briella Xiyao Jordan, age 11, patiently waiting for her family to come... Lidia and I will welcome her into our family on Sunday, July 12th.


Briella is from Xiamen... a coastal town in southeast China. You can see it on the map, just across the East China Sea from Taiwan.


Blake and me...


Brianna and Dakota prom night







Brianna the night before her mission trip to Honduras...they will reach out to the deaf Honduran community


Our Brianna Faith in Honduras... making a difference


Posing with a sweet Honduran girl...Brianna wants to be a teacher of the deaf


Beautiful girl... beautiful view


Happy Hands Deaf School/Ministry in Honduras


Nancy made Brent a beautiful cake to celebrate his 13th birthday !


Brent getting ready to enjoy his cake... Mmmm !


Taking a break from swimming... Brent looks like Mike more & more !


Lidia with her new haircut ! (6 inches cut)


Isn't she pretty??


Lidia and her principal... she received 5 awards, including the President's Silver Academic Award and a nomination for highest character. Now on to middle school !


Ben and his teacher Anna Hawkins... so sweet of her to come to his baseball game


Ben participated in our county special olympics... he's ready to race !


Bayla waving him in to the finish line


Ben received 3 gold medals... he was really happy !


Ben's teacher Anna and the class


Ben writing his name in english & chinese on the school sidewalk


Ben really enjoyed being on the baseball team with Brent


Bayla and Brinley enjoying the lake in our neighborhood



My sweet baby girls