International Travel booked - Finally!

There has been so much to write this week, but am just now sitting down to get it all in a journal. After having an extra 72 hours to decide who is going and where we are going, we finally booked all international travel arrangements late on Friday.


To start, Devin struggled all weekend on whether or not he wanted to go. We had a discussion on his bed Monday night about what types of regrets he would have, whichever way he chose. It was obvious to us all that there would definitely be more regrets if he chose NOT to go. Really, how many times will you meet your little sister - adopted or by birth - when the rest of the family meets her?? This was a chance of a lifetime, and we felt he knew that. So we went to be that night, knowing this was his choice. On the way to school, he told Jenn that he did not want to go…..something about the food over there. She emailed me this before I arrived at work. I was done with the indecisiveness of it all. So I emailed our adoption agency first thing to tell her that the whole family was going, including GDaddy, and we would live with the ramifications of any disagreement. Devin’s principal emailed me to confirm that there would be NO penalties for missing school during the trip! (WOW!!! What a blessing!) I knew that was a confirmation that this was meant to be – no matter what Devin “thought” he knew.  At 12:01, I received an email from Devin’s teacher that he told her that “it had been decided that he was not going.” That was NOT any decision of ours. At 12:06, Jenn emailed me and in big letters, she said that Devin ran to her 2nd grade class to let her know that he DID want to go after all. We had to chuckle……adolescence…. It was nice to know that as parents, we knew best (at least this day we did!).

Once we thought we had gotten past the hard decisions, trying to decide when to go and where to arrive was a whole different story. If anyone is traveling overseas – like for an adoption in China – I highly recommend Delight Travel in the state of Washington. Lawrence Tung was fabulous, as he exhibited enormous patience with us and walked through all the options for us, steering us away from making financial and direction mistakes. It was nice that he is aware of what adoptive parents need and familiar with China in general.

After all was said and done, we will leave on the morning of Wednesday, October 6th (2 days earlier than expected…..for a reason the kids are not aware of yet) and will arrive in Hong Kong on October 7th in the evening. The next day is the surprise for the kids that they are not aware of yet. We were told by the Freeland’s that Hong Kong has a Disneyland – and it is much more affordable than the one in the states! And how many people can say they have been to Disney in Hong Kong?!? Why not treat the kids to something special, since they are going on this journey with us. So we are looking forward to spending this day in the Magic Kingdom in HK (no other parks in HK), before we leave for Chongqing on the 9th. (We hope that we can get to Noah’s Ark in HK before we leave on the 9th. Can you believe that there is an exhibit like this in China??? Look up the site to see what it is about. )

After all is done, we are due to land in Nashville on the evening of the 21st in Nashville. There are definitely lots of details in the middle of the trip. But we will get to that later.

In Him,
Mark