Visit to Harmony House

There is no way to explain the joy of visiting Harmony House, a special needs foster home. Operated by Harmony Outreach, it is located an hour south east of Beijing in a town called Langfang. The home is run by a wonderful lady named Lily Huang.  This foster home has had quite a number of kids adopted to California, including Fresno. I am a physical therapist and had the opportunity to consult for several kids during this visit. Here are a few pictures.  Yes, that is our precious Blossom who will be my niece in a few months.

 

 

 

We brought some donations for the kids, such as vitamins, medication, a booster seat and blankets

These two boy blankets were purchased through the fund raiser for Pam Bean and donated to Harmony House by Miss Annie.  Made by my daughter-in-Law, Julia, they are wonderful tied double fleece.  Still available at www.bringblossomhome.blogspot.com or email me and I can tell you how to connect on a more personal level

 

Please continue to pray for the children of Harmony House and the caregivers. They will be moving to a new apartment next week and need much prayer for this busy transition. Here are a few pictures of the new place. (you saw it here first).

 

The Kitchen

                                            The Living room

 

bedrooms

Bathroom

 Bedrooms up stairs.

The one on the left seems about 200 sq ft

Beijing August 25th

Our Guide met us at the airport and drove us to the Park Plaza Wangfujing.  A beautiful hotel in the middle of Beijing.  We made arrangements for the next day and went to bed, sleeping very well.  We met the next morning at 9am and set out on a tour of the Tianamen Square and Temple of Heaven before making our way over to Harmony House.

Our China Plan : The launch

Our China plan came upon us fast and furious.  Our Internet went out for an unknown reason for the zillionth time.  No time to argue with comcast again.  So, I will give it Blow by Blow.  

Final dates:  August 23 -Sept. 15.  5 days longer than we had hoped.
                    24 Aug :  Arrive in Beijing
                    25 Aug: tour Beijing in am, go to Langfang in the afternoon.  Play with Harmony House  babies, PT consultations and have dinner with Lilly Huang
                    26 Aug: fly to Chongqing
                    27 Aug: Kylie day, adoption final 28th, await passport
                    31 Fly to Guangzhou
                    3 Sept: Bobby day, adoption final 4th, await passport
                       Both kids adoption medicals, TB tests, consulate appts, swearing in ceremony
                    15 Sept fly home
                    
Our money was wired to the Lifeline Rep, plane tickets confirmed, arrangements made for our Beijing stop and visit to Harmony House.  Then the Internet goes out...  We drove away from our home in Fresno, headed to LAX 4 hours south, with out  confirmation from our Beijing guide that he knew which flight we were on.  We stopped for gas and to feed the kids, got online from McDonald's, but still could not get into my email.  All of the information was in my comcast account.  Should have mailed it to my yahoo account which was available.  Live and learn.

We got into LA in good time but could not find the parking place.  Our GPS took us to the wrong spot. so I called the Place and the guy who answered, speaking perfect English, could not confirm their address.  All he could say was "we are off of Imperial.  I started laughing at him, what else could I do?  We finally figured it out and we made it.  I will be writing a critique, but will wait until I have my car back in my possession.  Lilly chose to bring her Grinch..

We finally made it to the airport and onto the plane.  Our adventure begins.

WE have our Consulate Appointment

After 3 days of great frustration, we have an appointment with the American Consulate in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China.   But it was very late in the afternoon and I knew I needed to get tickets booked ASAP.  I spent the night looking and figuring the best way to fly, as I had no communication from the 2 travel agents that sent me fight suggestions and prices.  I went to a meeting at church Saturday morning trusting that I will receive a email very soon.  Sure enough 3 hours later I have plane tickets!!  We chose to go out of LAX because it is cheaper by $800. 

We will leave on August 23 and  go into Beijing first.  We will visit the Harmony House foster home to see the beautiful children there and a few other places. Then on to Chongqing on Sunday August 26th with tentative gotcha day of August 27th for our daughter, Kylie Gail Xiewen.  A week in Chongqing then onto Guangzhou with gotcha day of September 2 for our son, Robert Tianyang.  We are there for nearly 2 weeks with flight home on September 15th with arrival to LAX at 3:00 pm

 We are getting excited.  I have been planning as we have gone along, so things are coming together.  I am so grateful that I started ahead of time as it seems like the final phase has happened very quickly. I Hope to be done and ready to go by tomorrow night. then can spend the last couple of nights doing my continuing education reading before I go.

TA at last

AT LAST we have our Travel Approval.  It took 26 days.  The Social Worker emailed me Tuesday night that we have the TA.  Other wise it would have been day 27  We applied for the consulate date of Sept 11th, 2012.. So we wait. and wait .........

Party on August 4, 2012 in Fresno, California

Happy Anniversary to Mom and Pop
June 8, 1962 - June 8, 2012
           
  FIFTY YEARS

Beautiful table setting for the party for my parents.  Funny Thing, I was so busy making sure the air conditioning kept running, I forgot to take a picture of the cake.

We had a wonderful time and my parents were happy and felt very special.  There were quite a few of their friends that were unable to be there because of illness of one of the couple or people who just could not travel.

My Brother-in-Law, Duke, put together a video of pictures of the last 50 years.  It was very nice.  Too long to post on You tube.  Hopefully a version will be prepared to have on my blog.

We Love You.           You did it Well!