URGENT PRAYER FOR ERIC...

Please pray right now and the next “24” hours! We left Beijing today in a van with Eric and Lucy (one of the China Little Flower helpers). During this “45” minute ride to the train station, Eric started to cry. I (Amy) cried with him and tried to comfort him, but he just cried harder. I got out the translator and said a few things. Then he used it to convey the saddest message ever. He says he is sorry, but he doesn’t want to be adopted. He wants to stay. I prayed and prayed. When we got to the train station he didn’t even want to get out of the van. It was so sad. We just explained that we needed to get to Taiyuan… that we could talk about it there… and that no paperwork would be done until tomorrow (Monday). By the time we got inside the train station he calmed down. Eventually he was willing to play some electronic games with Andrew on the train. Then we were able to connect on the phone (while on the train) with David, one of his friends that was adopted three months ago and who lives in Oregon now. That conversation did make him get a little emotional again, but it was helpful to hear him verbalize his concerns. 2nd Cor. 9:8 has been my verse for this trip… He is able!! At this moment, I have no idea how this chapter of our journey will unfold… but I do know who holds the future. Please pray us through this. Pray that Eric would have peace and courage. Pray for God’s provision to be evident and powerful. Pray that Eric will be brave enough to say yes to adoption (Mon. morning). At Eric’s age, they do have a say in the matter, so this is a very stretching to say the least. May the Lord’s will be done in and through us. Thanks for praying!!

More Pictures

Pictures of Eric's goodbye party below:

Pictures of their trip to The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square below:

REFLECTIONS SO FAR

Ok, so this adoption trip has been quite different so far. Normally, you receive your child maybe the 2nd day you are here and they stay with you 100% of the time after that. This time, our first 4 days we are getting sporadic time with Eric and his foster family prior to him staying with us. I think this has been good for Eric to gradually become more comfortable with us, and yet, I also think it is prolonging his sense of leaving. Leaving is going to be sad for him, even though he was about to lose his foster parents and have yet another transition. I am hoping that once he actually leaves here (on Sunday) to go to his province where we will adopt him, that we will begin to see some closure and therefore, more openness to us. I expect there will be some grieving as well. Yesterday we learned even more details from his past and know there will also be many unaswered questions. Please pray that he will allow himself to begin to bond with us as we go through these next weeks and months.

LANGUAGE: We have also become much more tangibly aware that the language barrier is going to be a huge barrier for a while. Again, I don't think we're really going to know how much English they know until we break away from their surroundings and all our helpful translators. But we just need to pray that we can help them progress in English very quickly.

ANDREW: So far it has been a delight to have Andrew along. Yesterday we had a lot of car time to and from the Great Wall (with Mike, Amy, Andrew, and Eric) all squished in the back seat of a small car. Andrew and Eric played a lot of tic-tac-toe on the foggy window, used their translators together, and then threw snowballs at each other once we got there. Kids have a way of connecting in spite of language!

GOOD-BYE PARTY: How can you put "good-bye" and "party" together? Good-bye's can be sad, but we were blessed to be able to share this time with Eric this afternoon. Father Luke hosts a movie time for all the kids in the group homes and today's "party" was in honor of Eric. There were about "20" kids there today. There are so many special kids here. Some that are paper-ready and up for adoption. Some that are not. Some with mild needs and some with major needs. They are all so precious. When a child is adopted from one of these group homes, it opens up a spot for another child to come into a family setting. There is a long waiting list to get in to these group homes. So even though it is "momentarily" sad for Eric to leave the "known" behind, it will allow him the hope of a future as well as allow another child the opportunity to experience a family setting that is better than the orphanage. We are also fortunate that in Eric's situation, he will at least have the opportunity to stay in touch (via email and skype) with people like his foster parents, Father Luke, and some of his friends. (We don't yet know if that will be an option for Brandon.)

TIANANMEN SQUARE AND THE FORBIDDEN CITY: Mike and Andrew enjoyed time this morning touring Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square reflected the current (tributes to Moa) while the Forbidden City reflected the ancient past. The size and scale of the Forbidden City was truly magnificant. We walked thru just a portion of the city in the nearly 2 hours we were there. It is no wonder it is high on the list of tourist attractions in China.

Tomorrow we take the train to Eric's province and begin the real adoption part of the trip.

Pictures

Here are some pictures of the Great Wall trip. Yes, it was snowing and they said they were FREEZING!! :)

Above is Eric with his name spelled in the snow.

Above is Andrew with his name in the snow.

Sorry don't know why the above one is sideways but it is Andrew, Father Luke, Eric, and Mike in front of the Bird's nest.

I was told to remind you that Mike and Amy are not the ones uploading these posts due to inablitiy to do so while in China. (it is Josh and sometimes Amanda) So, please email them at mjaaa97@yahoo.com if you would like to comment or ask anything.

For Now, Amanda

THE GREAT WALL IN WINTER

Thankfully Eric was well enough to go to the Great Wall with us today, along with Father Luke. We also walked around the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. I'm going to have Andrew share his thoughts about our day, since I was so frozen I'm still thawing out.

Ni hao (hello) followers... This is Andrew. Today was an awesome day. The Great Wall was soooooo beautiful... In my opinion. I guess we haven't told you that it was snowy/snowing in the mountains which is where the Great Wall was. On the way back from the Great Wall we parked the car and walked by the Bird's nest and the Water Cube.. (Where the olympics were in 2008.) They were pretty cool to look at. The Bird's Nest was huge, but nothing compared to the Dallas Cowboys stadium. (For those of you that have seen the Cowboys stadium.) Tomorrow we go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden city. Eric isn't going to either of those with us. Tomorrow some of Eric's friends and Catholic priest, Father Luke, are putting on a good-bye party for Eric, and I am looking forward to meeting his friends. It has been quite an amazing experience for me. Oh, and something words can't describe, traffic! It's horrible! Our taxi driver has driven on the wrong side of the road, passes cars on the shoulder of the road, and has had who knows how many close calls. Us Americans wouldn't last a day in Chinese traffic. Oh, and not to mention, no seatbelts! It's an experience all right.

Day One

CHINA LITTLE FLOWER (CLF)

CLF runs Eric's foster home, along with 4 other foster homes and a baby home. Today we visited CLF's baby home, had lunch with Eric's foster family in their humble home, and also visited Eric's school. Unfortunately, Eric is sick with a fever today, so he did not join us on those outings. His foster mom and one of his foster brothers have been sick too. So now we have been thoroughly exposed to some kind of contagious sickness. As I said, we "shared" a meal with them...and I mean we really "shared' a meal! Trying to be gracious, there wasn't much we could do. Oh, please pray that we will not get sick! This would be very bad timing to get sick, with all the travel we yet have coming up! The director/founder of CLF spent a couple of hours with us this morning, showing us around the baby home and telling us a lot about their amazing work...about the sad stories these children have...and about Eric's past. And furthermore, the babies recently had scabies and are still under treatment, so we weren't allowed to hold any of them! I could have held them all! Oh, and we also had an unplanned "interview" today... several friends (of Eric's foster family) stopped by while we were at Eric's house for lunch, and one of them was a timely visit from one of these friends that could speak English well enough translate for us. Prior to that we were there with no translator, so we had been doing the best we could. We had a nice visit with her help, but then she went on to question us to make sure we were a good fit for Eric. (It was kind of funny but also heartening.) All of these precious people love Eric and want to make sure he is going to a good home. We also keep hearing that Eric is a favorite in his foster home and is very close to his foster mom. His foster parents are older and had planned on retiring a few months ago, but extended their work once they learned Eric was matched. They purposely decided to stay long enough to see him into his new family. (He has been with them 6 years!) That meant a lot to us! They are really precious people. By extending their stay, it allowed Eric to not have to go through yet another transition.

Picture Labels

1-Standing in front of Eric's school

2-Having lunch with part of Eric's foster family

3-Some of Eric's classmates from his 6th grade class (Theresa and Ming)

Picture Info.

Sorry about some of the mistakes in the post with spacing...still trying to figure out the layout.

As for the pictures that were posted here are some of the labels (starting from the bottom pic going up):

1) Andrew sleeping at LA prior to our flight to Hong Kong

2) Andrew enjoying the ice cream!

3) Eric and Luke (the Catholic priest)

4) playing Uno with Eric

5) Time with Eric and foster siblings and foster parents

We will keep posting as we can!