Ellie - The Hof Finale

We took the MTR train from the airport (about 25 minutes to Hong Kong Central Station on Hong Kong island) and then took a 5 minute taxi to the hotel. Both were very easy to navigate and both were very comfortable. The MTR train was especially nice and comfortable. We are staying at a Courtyard, which is fantastic.   We were reminiscing this morning about our first adoption - no running water after 10. NO ONE spoke any English that was over 12, food was always a mystery etc.   Had we started our adoptions in Asia and then gone to Eastern Europe I think we would be in shock.   We had a great buffet this morning and thanks to the British influence we were able to have grilled tomatoes and beans.   They had Chinese food as well, but it was nostalgic and exciting to see the tomatoes.  They also had some "pork sausage" next to the grilled tomatoes - it was not a British sausage by any stretch and seemed more like a hot dog.

In the photos below, you will see some strange fruit. 2 points to whoever can tell us what this fruit was on our fruit plate.  It was like a cross between a watermelon and kiwi?   Not a lot of flavor, had to try it once, but will probably skip it tomorrow.

Today we are off for some shopping and sightseeing in Hong Kong.   The heat index is goign to be 96 today, which isn't bad for Hong Kong in June I guess, but it is still a hot day.

First Airplane out of PIA

Second plane DTW-HKG (Boeing 777). Sorry about the bad photo, all the windows had these dots on them.

View of Kowloon from the Workout Room in hotel.

This was my view from the treadmill during my run this morning. Simply beautiful.

Here's the fruit from this morning. OK, so what's the black and white fruit?

Silly picture with our younger two before we left.

This is the first post on our blog for our journey to meet and bring home our little girl.

 

This is not our first adoption, but will be quite possibly our last. We feel joy and sadness as we realize that this will be our last trip of this sort.

 

We started this journey for Ellie in February of 2011 – traveling in June 2012 makes this a pretty fast adoption all in all. We are all packed up and getting ready to say good-bye to Kyle and Megan (sniff sniff). We said good-bye to Nick yesterday as he left with his best friend and friend's family to have adventures in Minnesota.

 

We are flying from Peoria to Detroit and then are flying 15 hours to Hong Kong for a few days to recover from the jetlag and get acclimated to Asia.   We will then fly to Ellie's hometown of Hangzhou.  (See map).  We will finally be able to meet her and hold her on June 4^th.   We will post at least once a day and promise to take lots of pictures.

We want to take a moment to thank Jesus for this awesome honor and privilege of adopting another child. We are thankful for His provision and for setting us on this adoption journey so many years ago. We are also thankful for our family and friends who have also made this possible by looking after our kids while we are traveling, praying for us, providing financial support, and loving the children that God has placed in our family. You are all truly a great blessing to us.

Let the journey begin...