Fascinating Discoveries

The following are things that have elicited a WOW response from our newest son.

• ice that falls magically from the refrigerator
• cold air when you stand on the vent
• helicopters and airplanes
• the Alban Cat complex with all of their machinery sitting on the lot
• Johns Hopkins Medical Campus as we drove by this morning, I think it was because of the construction around there or he just has a great love of Western medicine.
• raw cookie dough
• electric pencil sharpener

-----Susanne

Speaking English

Nathaniel's first english word, spoken of his own accord on the parking lot of Target this morning was........CAR!

Go figure, a boy that loves cars, has spent time playing with them this morning and has run out in front of several cars would speak that for is first word.

---Susanne

Homeward Bound

Our morning began bright and early when we all had to be on the bus at 5:45am. Very painful, Zach didn’t exactly jump out of his bed and we had to prod him along to get up and dressed. It was our least crazy airport trip, no gate changes or any confusion. The gate was downstairs in the holding pen, very 3rd world, no loudspeaker announcements, just a woman with a bullhorn and a horde of people waiting to get on a bus to shuttle out to the plane. 5 families from AWAA were on the flight, one poor family had to deal with a sick child. Little Levi got sick, out of every which opening on his little body as they waited to go through security. By the time the Pinkman’s left for the USA he had a fever and was still ill. We watched their plane sit on the runway for over an hour and I felt their misery for them.

Before we landed in Beijing we were stuck in a little bit of a holding pattern. No biggie, Zachary was squealing with the need to use the bathroom though! Got all of our bags, one of the boys in the group had a lost piece of luggage so we waited to figure out that situation. Zachary wants you to know it was a lost sword that he had bought in Guangzhou. No big deal, we have to wait until 6:30pm for this next flight.We all check our paperwork and figure out that we must head off to terminal 2, schlep all of our luggage on to the hot sticky wasteland of a bus. Compared to the beauty of the terminal (prepared for the Olympics), we were in the low rent part of the airport. Guess what, wrong terminal got to go back to Terminal 3. Let’s put our luggage on the elevator to go down and out. I get on with the kids and some luggage. Chris waits for the next elevator, puts the bags on and is holding the door with his elbow, the door shuts anyway. Mr. Ugly American comes to town and kicks the steel doors as he yells out in frustration. Then he comes barreling down the escalator, calling for all hands on deck. All the adults scattered to the 4 different levels. Finally, Linda ended up finding the luggage. Haul it all back on the stinky sweaty shuttle bus and ride back to the mecca of Terminal 3. So much for thinking that we will have hours and hours of boredom as we wait for our 6:30pm flight to Dulles.

The flight is almost over, I think we have about an hour to go before we land. At this point we have been up for about 25 hours. Sleeping, if you can really call it that on the airplane doesn’t really count as sleeping. Compared to the food on the China domestic flights the food offered on this United flight has been delicious. Ahhh! Good airplane food, we missed it so. The other part of inflight service we were loving was the ice in the cups. Ahhh! Just divine! No business class this time, but we were fortunate enough to be bumped up to “economy plus”, a little more leg room then the normal economy. Not too bad though, we are just ready to be done.

Oh yeah….they are getting ready to tell me to turn this thing off!!!!! I can feel that we are heading downward. Yeah….Baltimore here we come!! 40 minutes until arrival, that is about 30 minutes earlier then the original timeline. See you all soon!

---Susanne

The End of the Road

Here I am on our last night in China. It has been a true adventure for our family. We saw so many sights that are unique to China and have marveled at God’s creation half a world away from our home. We have also experienced many emotions over the past 2 weeks. With all of the wow factors we have been a part of, I can’t say that I am sorry to be leaving. Tonight I have spent a good 2 hours repacking our bags! Difficult to do in the 3 square foot space I have available in the room and 4 boys running about. I can’t wait to have them run free in the yard.

Today was a low-key day for our group. We had a group picture this morning, several families here have 7,8,9 people with them, a few have 3 people, you can imagine it was quite the picture. In our free time we shopped a little more and went swimming again. For lunch today we had some McDonald’s burgers, just the burgers, sick of everything else they have to offer. You know it is bad when Kit tells you, “anything but McDonald's, it keeps giving me gas.” Nathaniel has found his first love in French fries, he didn’t like the burger though. Every time we walk past the bench with Ronald McDonald sitting on it we have to stop and take a picture of Nathaniel.

This afternoon we headed to the American Consulate to do our swearing ceremony. To be honest, I don’t know what I agreed to… I kept thinking, wait I might have changed my mind. I can’t handle this, are you sure about this God? I think maybe you got the wrong gal here Lord. I know….Moses and I have a little something in common. After dinner we headed straight to dinner. This time when Nathaniel picked a pricey item, I put my mommy foot down and tried to explain in my best pantomime, that it was too much. My new mantra throughout dinner is Country Mouse. Remember the story: City Mouse, Country Mouse? If you don’t the idea is that the country mice don’t know how to act in the city. We’ve got ourselves a country mouse folks. This little farm boy doesn’t know not to run in the street or to not pour his tea in his saucer and slurp it out of there. Elevator buttons, bells and escalators are all new to this little guy and I can’t wait to get him home where we don’t have an elevator that he can press all of the buttons so that we stop at each floor.

I’m longing for my bed, doing laundry (as sad as that is, it is true!), eating a dinner that I like without paying money for it and waiting for ever for the food to be served, playing outside and a routine.

Thank you for all of your prayers. We have appreciated them and needed every single one of them. Keep praying for us dear friends as we have many adjustments to still make. Pray for Nathaniel as he grieves the foster family he lost, we found out today that he had 4 older foster siblings and 2 younger foster siblings. No wonder why he is so angry at times.

See you all soon!
----Susanne

Lows and Highs

Hey everybody! Time to wrestle the reins back from Susanne, who has been a blogging champ lately. There was a lull in the action today – just a day for some of the paperwork to be processed at the American consulate here.

This morning Susanne and I were both feeling discouraged. We knew that we were in store for some rocky times when we decided to make this jump, but we also thought we would have a honeymoon period of sorts, at least while we were in China. There have been so many encouraging things the past week (one week! Wow!), but plenty of frustrations as well.

Thanks for your prayers – today was probably our best day yet with Nathaniel. As Susanne reported, we are making a habit of calling him “Nathaniel Weifeng” now. Kind of a mouthful, but he’s getting it.

After a heart to heart and some praying, Susanne stayed behind in the hotel with Nathaniel, waiting on an administrative phone call. The other three boys, Mom and Dad, and I walked to a local park.

They do parks right in China – beautifully landscaped, bridges, lakes, peeing children…
Yes folks, peeing children. Totally legit in China. To the point where a child being potty trained will walk around in tush-eating shark attack survivor pants – no cloth over the derrier.

The park was Africa hot – the highlight was eagle-eyed Joshua finding 3 mini frogs. This is on top of the frog he found yesterday. Said frog was a covert guest of our 5 star hotel last night, evidently. Josh made sure he was doing OK – found a baggy and put a touch of water in it, made sure there was a little passageway for air at the top. Frog #1 was set free on the way to the park. When we asked Josh what the frog did after getting his freedom back, he reported – “He looked at me.” This made me laugh out loud. Frogs 2 through 4 are in their little Joshua-created ecosystem in a mini water bottle as we speak.

The real blessing of the day was the time Susanne and Nathaniel had back in the room while we were gone. The looked at pictures and watched a bunch of home movie snippets on the computer. Nathaniel laughed and laughed at goofy videos of the boys dancing to the Cars soundtrack at home. It reminded us of how he hasn’t really seen the real Hardings yet. Just the slightly stressed, crammed in, too long in a foreign country Hardings.

This afternoon we caved in and did a bunch of souvenir shopping. Up to this point we had largely avoided this. The boys all got “chops.” I used to think this referred to chopsticks, but instead it is the name for a personalized stamp, carved with your name or anything else you might like. The stamp itself is made of jade, with an animal carved into the top. These things are to China tourism what the hermit crab is to Ocean City. OBLIGATORY.

Susanne bought herself a silk dress, tailored and all for less than $30. I scratched my itch for buying knockoff name brand stuff, too. You all can play “guess the knock off” when you see me. For all of you “Way of the Master” trained peeps out there, yes, I guess that makes me a thief. There I said it. Finally, what trip to China would be complete without the purchase of cheap plastic swords? Not this one.

This evening, many of the families in our travel group commandeered the area in front of the elevators on the seventh floor for a talent show and pizza party. A sweet night of real Christian fellowship. All the kids got up there and did silly things, and everybody ate it up and applauded while we ate overpriced Papa John’s. ($20ish per pizza) Color me biased, but little Kit was a big hit with his dancing exhibition. The kid can shake his booty, and he doesn’t care who knows it. Joshua pulled out his secret talent of competitive arm-tooting, much to the delight of the ladies in the crowd. Zachary boldly offered up his Kyle Boller imitation / schtick. Poor Kyle…people taking pot shots at you in the off season from half a world away. We couldn’t convince Nathaniel to get up there, although the stinker did sing “Happy Birthday to you” in ENGLISH (!!!!) to me at bedtime tonight. Don’t know if he memorized it from hearing it tonight at the talent show or if it’s taught in school along the lines of Frere Jacque or whatever the heck that French song is. Kudos to Candace Keck (who reminds us so much of Brenda Castlebury, it kills us) for this awesome idea.

It has been such a blessing to be in the company of these families. You could not have asked for a more genuinely Christian group of people. I get choked up when we are together as a group to see the love of Christ so tangibly displayed in their lives.

That’s all for now. Thanks to everybody who has been checking up on us. We still need your prayers! Satan would like nothing better than to attack our family and somehow interfere as we, in Joshua’s words, introduce Nathaniel to the “one true God.” For the longest time we were not able to read your comments, but now we can, and it’s a joy to see them.

-Chris

Prayer Request

Okay friends, here is a new one for you.

I think Nathaniel has been in a foster family that worshipped buddha. We have found him doing some kind of prayer chant a few times. Chris prayed with him last night that Jesus would just chase away the false spirits. While Chris was praying this, Nathaniel started letting out angry screams during the pray, so please pray that God would wrestle this little guy's heart away from the false idols of this world and mold it for Him.

Susanne and Chris

Name Change

After being with the entire group for a few days we realized that we were the only people who were speaking some Mandarin with our older child and using his Chinese name. We also realized that he was the only older child not even bothering to try to speak english. So we thought it best to make a switcheroo. Which was interesting because he did try out some english last night with us in the room. Baby steps, baby steps!

---Susanne

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Guangzhou is HOT! It was 99 degrees today, the sweat rolling down our backs and heads was one of the first clues of the temperatures. Kunming is considered the ideal temperature, so I don’t think Nathaniel Weifeng has ever experienced heat like this before. His head was dripping eater any time we were outdoors. Yes, we had a name switch, more about that later.
This morning our group went to a temple that had been turned into a museum. The wood work was extraordinarily beautiful. Did you know that there are people in China who sleep on wood beds and use porcelain pillows? The wood is supposed to be good for your bones and the porcelain is cooler than a nice soft pillow. How could you even sleep like that? After the museum we headed over to a tea house, we really thought it paled in comparison to the experience we had in the Kunming tea house. We tasted monkey tea today. The leaves are so high up in the mountains that they monkeys have to pick it. Our group decided if you need monkeys to pick it, it isn’t worth drinking. It was terrible; the only way to get it down was to slug it back. Kit thought it was so bad he wouldn’t finish it, and no one was willing to drink it for him so that his cup would be empty. We are only really talking about 2 Tbs worth of liquid, that is how bad it was.
We spent the afternoon at the pool today. It was so nice, although this pool is rules out the wazoo. You can’t do anything that remotely resembles fun. 2 of the moms were wearing swimsuits with skirts and they were questioned if they were really wearing swimsuits. The pool attendants stand at the edge of the pool and are quick to tell you if you are breaking a rule.
This trip has been so much fun for the boys; they have really enjoyed playing with the older boys. They are very nice young men. If we aren’t sure where the boys are we only have to look for Tanner or Hayden to find our boys. We are with a really fun group of people. We have enjoyed eating together as a group, although we are a little intimidating in size. We had 28 people at a restaurant tonight and it was obvious we had overwhelmed them. Zach, Josh and Kit had to wait the longest for their dinners, they did remarkably well considering I had been finished my meal for a good 15minutes before they were served.
We are going to have to retrain Nathaniel on restaurant behavior when we get home. He takes the menu and just selects what the wants. This is easiest for the moment because he can’t communicate with words what he likes. Tonight he picks a pasta dish with lobster sauce and seafood. I questioned whether or not he would like this. One of the ladies in our group is fluent in Mandarin so I had her ask him if he liked seafood. He said yes. I should have gone with my gut instinct. He didn’t eat one single bite of that seafood, he liked the pasta. Never one to let good food go to waste, Chris decided he was going to try the squid that was on the plate. Yes, squid and octopus legs were the seafood! I have pictures of each of the men eating these little critters. The consensus was that it was rubbery. Joshua’s response to us trying to convince him to eat it…”no thanks, I’ve eaten a rubber band before”. Sensible me didn’t try it either.
I don't have the pictures downloaded at the moment but I will try to get them on our next post.
---Susanne

Paperwork and More!

After a short nights sleep we were up and atta ‘em early. We had to be in the lobby at 9am. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of the families at breakfast. What a beautiful thing God is doing here. All 12 families have adopted special needs children; it is an incredible thing to see that children who had been discarded are valued for who they are, no matter what! We loved seeing all of the children, it was also a relief to find out what every one else has been struggling with, we felt like it was perfect for everyone else and just difficult for us.

Off to the baby visa pictures and medical examinations for all of us. Our guide, Amy, took us to a grocery store so that we could make some food purchases. I am really excited to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich tomorrow for my lunch. Yummy!
Back to hotel to get ready for our paperwork party, over 2 hours of filling out papers, so much fun. While I was slaving away Chris, the boys, Ron and Linda went to enjoy the pool. I was jealous. Can’t wait to go swimming tomorrow.

Stay tuned for tomorrow.

Susanne

Prayer Requests

Family and Friends thank you for all of our prayers. As we have progressed through this process we can update those requests for you.

Please pray for Weifeng to attach to us.

Please pray for him as he grieves for his foster family of 5 years, he loved them a lot.

Please pray that God would work on his heart to become soft and obedient, his will is strong and he doesn’t appreciate having his freedoms being restricted.

Please pray for his spiritual development, I think I may have found him doing some kind of false god prayer a few times, I will be interested in listening to what he has to tell us about it when he can communicate.

Please pray for his English to develop, he doesn’t seem to have a desire to try it out.

Chris and Susanne

Farewell Kunming

Time to move on to the big city of Guangzhou. I spent the morning packing up, Chris, his mom and dad took the kids back to the park. Did I mention that I am over living out of a suitcase? I can’t find anything that I want; when I want it or need it.

While getting ready to take a hike to McDonald’s for lunch, the boys were playing in the room. Crash, boom, bang..Weifeng wiped out on the nightstand and split his eye open? I am glad that I brought a medical kit, cleaned it up, iced it and bandaged it.

2 o’clock rolls around, time to leave for the airport. On the way there we made a stop at a local tea house. What a fun experience! We sampled 4 different teas, each to be enjoyed a different way, one you had to slurp to get the flavor and one you had to “chew”. The kids liked the tea baby; you put it in a cup and poured water in to test the temperature. If it was too hot, the baby would pee pee out water. You’ll never believe it, the water was hot, and he pee peed on us! Oh man Weifeng’s cut is bleeding!

We still had time to waste so we went to the flower market. This place was huge and overwhelming with flowers. They are so inexpensive that it is considered an insult for a man to give his lady flowers. Julie and Bernie bought a bunch of lilies and a bunch of gladiolas, I think it cost abut $4 US. Isn’t that amazing? Susan told us they would sell out of their flowers and have new ones in the morning. Oh man Weifeng’s cut is bleeding again!

One of the best parts of the day was seeing Weifeng experience the airplane for the first time, even the airport was full of new adventures. I now know the Mandarin word for airplane cold; I also looked at 50 or so pictures that he drew of the airplane. As we touched ground all I can tell you is….man, Weifeng’s head is still bleeding.

Uncle!!!!!Ever been in a medical clinic at 11pm in China? We have!!! 4 prescriptions and US $221 later we are back to the hotel for some sleep. No stitches needed, only steri-strips. They won’t take your child back from you will they?

Let’s hope there are no new injuries or illnesses tomorrow.

----Susanne

Stone Forest

Today we drove about 2 hours south of Kunming to visit China's Stone Forest National Park. It took at least an hour to get out of the urban environment. The cities here are huge in a way we just don't see in America.

The drive was a little painful, but so worth it. First of all, we got to see something closer to the "real" China. Beautiful countryside, terrace farms, poverty blending into intermittant prosperity. This is the type of environment Weifeng has been in with his farming foster family. We found out today that he did not have oxes or pigs at his farm. He wouldn't tell us what they grow there.

---Chris

When Chris says terrace farms, what he really means is people farm on the side of these huge mountains. It is done by hand, we even saw an ox pulling a plow, what hard work to make a living. We saw men on bikes with baskets full of chickens attached to the back, men and women with basket yokes hauling their produce around town to sell.

Stone Forest was worth every bit of the long drive, all around you were these huge rocks growing out of the ground. At least some of the area is used to farm, as we went down the hillside at one point we were surrounded by fruit trees and rice paddies on either side of us. My words can not do this place any justice. The pictures will have to speak for themselves.

Of course no day trip would be complete if it wasn't done Harding style. At one point the boys all followed this path up the hill that twisted and turned through rock caves and outcroppings. After the adults all caught up with the kids we turned back around. Josh decided to climb a rock and surprise Chris, so as Chris passed by, Josh jumped. Jumped right into another huge rock and kacked his head. It was a tiny wound, but the deep red blood running down his head was enough to freak him out. Chris being the nice daddy offered to carry Josh down the rest of the way. As our merry little troop lead the way back to the cart Chris missed a step, turned his ankle, dropped Josh and was left lying on his back, all four limbs in the air like a dead bug. Oh yes, my friends, those loud Americans are in town. Josh got more scrapes on his elbows and knees and Chris hobbled back to the cart we were using to tour the park.

After convincing everyone we didn't need the doctor, we headed to a local restaurant. This place had adventure written all over it. The first room they took us to smelled like a men's room, no thanks, next room had hay all over the floor. This was good, it hid the dead flies littering the floor and the smell of the hay masked any other smells. We had a hard time eating the feast that was presented to us, but at least a few of us went for it to be polite. I just kept telling myself not to think about the lack of atmosphere and went for it with gusto, I even used my chopsticks for the whole meal. Zach and Mitch both threatened the possiblity of throwing up, but it never happened. The duck with the head still on it as part of the serving presentation was the coup de grace of the meal.

Back on the bus to a tiny village that was famous for needlepoint work. We saw some of the most beautiful embordiery pictures ever, they looked just like paintings. Every one in our group bought something from this shop. It will be a nice momento for Weifeng as something from his province.

Bus torture continued as we headed back to the hotel. All the adults were ready to jump off of the bus by the time we got back to the hotel, sweet relief. As we all headed out to dinner together we reflected on what a nice day we had had. That all went down the pot when we whipped out that Harding flavor as we paid for our dinner check and Josh vomited on the floor of the restaurant. Kunming never saw us coming, but they might be glad we are going today!

We leave for Guangzhou tonight at 6:30pm. I have heard that it is more western and I am looking forward to that!

Till tomorrow-Susanne

Green Lake Park

We had our morning free on Tuesday. Our merry band of travellers decided to venture out a few blocks and find Green Lake Park. After risking life and limb to cross the street in 3 different places we found one of the entrances to the park. What a beautiful treasure! We strolled along the walkway and found colorful boats, ducks twice the size of US ducks and dancers. There were 4 different types of dancing going on in a small section of the park. We saw traditional couples dancing, women with fans and parasols, women with clinky finger cymbals and our personal favorite the women who were dancing the Chinese version of the Macarana. We laughed so hard at the thought of that.

At one point the boys found a huge gaggle of geese, they all climbed out of the lake together, I bet it was 40 geese, then followed a worker down the path as he hurried them along. Where these geese were going in such a hurry, I've got no idea.

The highlight for the boys was "Happy Town", with its fake Mickey and Minnie images plastered all around. It was like Chinese Chuck E. Cheese, except a worker had to plug in the machine each time some wanted to use it. The game of "skill" the boys wanted to try was called Pet Goldfish you had to scoop the fish out of the water. Folks, I am talking real life goldfish with buggy eyes. No way are you playing this one kids. Josh asked if the reason they couldn't do it was because of the eyeballs. Well, yes Josh, but how about the fact that you can't take a fish on the airplane? The best part of these rides was the tinny sounding, loudly blaring, synthesized Christmas carols that played as you rode your little heart out. Isn't this awesome kids? Forget Disney World, we've got Happy Town!

Actually, it was fun to see the surprise and excitement on Weifeng's face as he tried out these things for the first time ever.

After lunch, our guide, Susan took us to see the places that our children were abandoned. This was a touching moment for both families. Weifeng was abandoned near a highway underpass. The area had a ghetto feel to it. The picture below doesn't do it justice. Susan hurried Chris for safety's sake as they left the bus to get the pictures. I can't imagine the desperation that this woman felt as she left a precious baby in the rubble and stench of this place. It was not a pretty location: rundown, trash on the ground, and the smell was horrid. If it was downtown Baltimore you would have been terrified for you life. Natalie was left at a hospital, her mom Julie told us that the courtyard there was filled with children and their parents standing around as the parents decided if they were going to pay for the hospital care. It is done as a prepay program. America is an awesome place.

We were also able to visit a cultural museum that displayed the handiwork of many of the local minorities. Yunnan province has the largest percentage of minorities. Very beautiful pieces were kept there. It was a little stressful as you can well imagine with 4 boys in an important place. The guides were not bothered by it, in China they don't restrict too many freedoms of the children. You would never dream of touching anything in a museum, but they said it was okay. I couldn't really let in on that one, I still made the boys abide by not touching. I have found such cultural differences to be very eye-opening as a parent. We have some training cut out for us. Please pray for us as we teach him to rein in some of his freedoms.

Our next stop was an hour or so out of the city, at the Minorities Village. Absolutely beautiful, lush, green, verdant, it made you feel like you were at Epcot with all of the landscaping. It had several arches of parasols lining the main walkway. Gorgeous!!!! We got to see the houses of several different ethnic groups and the guides for the park were all dressed in traditional garb. We really enjoyed our visit, until it started to rain, and then we had to hustle back to the bus for the long ride back. Our guide, Susan, started to panic that the Fiorelli's baby would get sick if we were caught in the rain.

Another day down here in China, I am missing you friends and family as well as my iced tea and the sheets on my bed!

-Susanne

Until tomorrow- Susanne

A Visit to the Orphanage

We woke up Tuesday morning feeling refreshed. We are blessed to be staying at some very nice, Western-style hotels. They all seem to include a very nice buffet breakfast.

Everywhere you go, the shops and restaurants seemed to be overstaffed by a factor of at least 2. How do these places make any money? Guess you gotta find a billion jobs somewhere.

One nice thing about this is people really have time to help you. There is a waiter who has been working at every meal we've eaten in the hotel restaurants. He, like so many people here in service industries, has an Americanized name - "Jack." A very striking looking guy - probably some mix of ethnicities. From the first meal down there, he seemed to have a tender heart towards Weifeng and our situation. He has become a walking English-Mandarin dictionary for us.

He has also helped us choose some appropriate food for Weifeng. A bowl of rice noodles with carrots, green onions, soy sauce, and rice vinegar was a big hit. He also scarfs down fruit like the Harding boy he is. We were touched to see him immediately pick up a fork and a knife to cut his watermelon in an effort to fit in. We have asked - this boy had never used them before in his life.

The first thing on the agenda was a trip to Weifeng's and Natalie's (the 14 mo little girl of the Fiorelli family, whom we are on this adventure with) orphanage, the Kunming City Children's Welfare Institute. This was a privilege - typically families are not allowed to visit their child's orphanage.

First we met with a woman who was the second in command. She was also the orphanage representative on gotcha day, bringing the two children to the Civil Affairs Office. It is our understanding that she is in charge of international adoptions.

We had the chance to ask her a lot of questions about Weifeng's background. With 600 children assigned to the orphanage (a mix of residents and children at foster homes), we weren't sure what level of knowledge she would have for this individual boy.

• Where had he been living? About an hour away, with a farmer's family



• How many foster families had he been assigned to? Just 1 (gulp.)



• How long had he been there? Many years - we think 5. (double gulp.)



• Is there anything that makes him scared? "Gui" (goo-ey - 'ghosts') - we laughed



• What are your favorite colors? blue and green



• How much schooling has he had? 3 yrs, two preschool yrs and kindergarten



• How many siblings did he have in his foster family? 2 sisters (unsure of ages) and a younger brother

The orphanage director came in and spent some time with us, as well. The Fiorelli family told us she has the reputation of running a very tight ship. I will say this: the orphanage was spotless. It was huge, well furnished, fairly modern. There was an overall hopeful feel to the place.

We saw the infant room, which I think made all of sad. There were about 20 babies in there with 2 nannies to look after them. We saw a toddler room, rooms full of rows and rows and rows of cribs or beds. Weifeng spent some time in school there, so we saw some school rooms. We only took 1 or 2 pictures inside the facility. We were told when and what we could take a picture of, if we would take a picture of the wrong thing, we would have had our film card taken away. The same holds true for pictures you take of any uniformed men. Can you imagine losing all of the pictures you have taken on this trip?

After the orphanage it was trip to WalMart and KFC for lunch. I found WalMart to be a very intimidating experience, 4 floors of store, couldn't find the clothing section (did we mention this boy is big? Much bigger then we expected?) and no one spoke english. The fruit section of the store smelled heavenly, the dried squid in a bag section made me ill. I also saw some beef tongue hanging around in this section. I can't even think about it, it gives me the heebie jeebies. We learned at KFC that even though you think you are in line someone is going to come up and butt in front of you because you aren't standing on top of the person in front of you. This perturbed me so you better believe I was breathing my hot breathe down the neck of the guy who butted in front of me, ain't nobody getting in between me and my greasy fried chicken!!!

Chris and I ended up venturing out in to town to get the boys some coats and to get Weifeng some pants. Chris tried his hardest to bargain down the ladies at the store, but to no avail, they wouldn't bite.

Our last adventure for the day was out to dinner at a western restaurant called BlueBird. This experience can only be described as exhausting. Think of when Tarzan was brought out of the jungle and into civilization. Every thing is foreign to this little guy, table clothes on the table, going under the table, not touching everything on the table, not playing with the silverware. We are taking the perspective that he is a baby Harding and we will have to train him just like the other kiddos. You can pray for us to keep this in mind as we spend more and more time together.

I'm going to include a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!

---Chris and Susanne

Adventures in Town

I don't think we have talked to much about this but we are an oddity around here! I have never been stared at more in my life. It is a very open and common occurence, it is nothing for someone to walk by you, stop, turn back around and watch you. It can become very overwhelming. It really feels strange now because we have this Chinese boy with us. I think it is curious to them why we are walking around with this little guy. A couple of times Chris and I have been worried that someone would try to take him away from us. We are convinced that the guy in WalMart yesterday thought we were telling him we had found a lost little boy!

The other big thing about leaving the hotel is the traffic. There are no traffic laws. The stop light out side of our hotel is not functioning, the traffic never stops, it is a continuous flow. To cross it we find a big group and try to hustle as quickly as possible. The pedestrian does not have the right of way. Cars are going one way, scooters are going both directions on either side of the street and the bikes are going where ever they want to. Crazy and death-defying all at the same time. The horns never stop either all night long. I have heard 20 beeps just sitting here typing.
I was convinced yesterday that we were going to see someone get hit by our bus, his back was up against it as we drove past. Crazy, crazy, crazy!

Dinner Anyone?

Hot Wheels----who knew this was the way to little boy bonding? Within 5 minutes, Josh had Weifeng playing cars with him, back and forth, back and forth.

The Hardings are hungry! Hey, Susan said there was a KFC within walking distance, only 8 minutes. Let's go for it! Wow, the concierge has a map to show us how to get there, and he said it is only 8 mins also!

A few little problems with this plan...

1. We can't read the street signs.

2. The people we asked for help, don't speak English and our Mandarin is very limited.

3. There is some kind of street construction going on around here and there is this gigantic blue wall all around it. You have to walk a very far distance to get around it and you can't see over it!

These 3 problems combined equal 1 hour walking tour that doesn't equal up to dinner. Oh, we stumbled upon the KFC only to find that it is closed, as in reconstruction, as in dirt, lumber and the like inside the windows.

I just want to get back to the hotel, but Chris somehow talks to this Chinese lady who starts leading us around. How do we tell her to stop!!! We don't want to follow you!!!

All of this leads to us back at the hotel and a dinner in the hotel restaurant. Why didn't we just do that at the start of the night?

We still all love each other even though it was touch and go there for a few minutes with a hungry belly.

This poor kid must be wondering what he has gotten himself into!
---Susanne

Gotcha Day!

....the continutation....

After a few hours at the hotel for lunch and freshening up we were off to the Civil Affairs office, it was about a 30 minute ride. One of the officials from the office was on the bus with us, I had to tell the boys to be on their best behavior otherwise she may tell us"no baby for you".

We had thrown all of our gifts together in a big bag before we left. Our guide told us she would just let them pick what they wanted, no wrapping or fuss was involved. It seemed a little gauche to us to just rifle through the bag, but at least they got what they wanted. This lady got first picks since she was very important. She took some Wockenfuss candy, I was a little envious of her.

We drove up to the building, which was not very official looking at all. We were sent in to a room with a conference table and some couches. You could just feel the anxiety in the room, we were getting teary-eyed as we waited and there was just a nervous energy all around us. Susan said the children would be there in about 5 minutes, so we waited and waited and waited some more. The doorbell rang and we all said "they are here", Josh being Josh said, "who's here?". I love that kid, we all had a good laugh and relaxed a minute.

Before we knew it they were coming through the door, Weifeng led the way. He was holding the picture album we had sent him and carrying his backpack. You could tell he was so scared. He just had this solemn stare the whole time. We got down on our knees and hugged and kissed him, he probably thought we were crazy as we tried out our best Mandarin through a bunch of sniffly tears. We learned how to say "I love you", it is "Wo ai ne", but I keep saying "Wo ai nar", which means "I love there". Oh well, I never claimed to be an expert! As we introduced his "dede" and "guhguhs" they each came and hugged him. We put him on our laps and treated him as if he was a baby as we held him. This is a very different experience from getting a baby. You could tell that he was uncomfortable with our touch, but we didn't let that deter us. He is ours and we want him to know that with all of his heart. As he sat there, tears started to roll down his face. Josh was faithful to deliver him tissues from my purse. I was glad to see the tears because we knew that he was sad to leave his foster family and he wasn't keeping it inside.

We are so grateful to Chris' mom and dad. They have been such a big help. Chris' mom did the filming for our gotcha moment, so we were free to focus on Weifeng. A very touching moment came when Chris's dad got down on his knees and gave this scared little boy a hug and a sweet kiss on the cheeks.

Finally, Chris' mom pulled out a coloring set for all of the boys and he allowed himself to get involved in coloring. He even got off of the couch and picked out a color for himself. Wow! Progress so quickly!

After mounds and mounds of paperwork that Chris filled out, and signing our names over and over again, we sealed our commitment to him with a red fingerprint over our signatures. It was official, we are now a family of 6!

They rushed us out of the building and told us we were off to the passport office. We had his picture taken for the passport and followed Susan from place to place as she told us the next step. We really didn't have to think at all, she took care of it all for us. Good thing, I don't think we would have been very coherent. As we came down the steps to pay the bill they were turning off all of the lights, boy, when they say 5pm is closing, they mean it. They kept telling us to hurry, hurry, hurry. In America if you were still transacting business they would lock the doors and just let you out when you finished. It was an odd feeling.

Back on the bus, and back to the hotel. Once we were here we asked Susan to come to the room and tell Weifeng for us that we loved him very much, we would take good care of him and we knew that he missed his family very much. We wanted him to know that we understood his feelings for them and that it was okay to cry and be sad. My sense was that those few words really lifted a burden for him, Maybe he felt relieved to know that he didn't have to put on a fake happy face to make us happy, we were okay with his sadness.

That is our story of Gotcha Day! Stay tuned for the dinner trek coming in the next segment!

Anybody who is tech savvy - Kevin Krack are you out there? - email us and tell us how to resize an mpeg to a lower file size. Blogspot will only let a maximum of a 100mb file, our two gotcha videos are 150ish and 320ish. (2 mins / 4mins respectively)

-Susanne

Butterflies & Jitters

Our big day finally arrived yesterday! We had every intention of blogging some thoughts and pictures yesterday evening, but it was't meant to be. Susanne and I collapsed in sheer emotional and physical exhaustion last night at 10:30, shortly after tucking in our four arrows in bed.

I'll back up a little to set the scene. Sunday night, after two days of full throttle Beijing touring and the physical exertion of climbing the Great Wall, we had the treat of going to a beautiful theater in Beijing to see the "Flying Acrobatic Show." It was one of those vacation decisions where you just go for it because, hey, "When's the next time we're going to be in Beijing?"

The show was awesome, everything you would expect it to be. At least the 50% of it I actually saw between doing touch and goes with my head as I fought off sleep the whole time. Kit slept through the first half. Joshua slept through the second half. Only Zachary and Susanne, blessed with hummingbird metabolisms, were able to gut-check it through. Joshua stumbled out of the theater looking punch drunk, fighting off tears, with onlookers laughing.

So we get back to the hotel, race to get our check in luggage out in the hallway by 10:30, log about 4 hours of sleep, get up at the crack of dawn, and head off to the domestic terminal at the Beijing Airport. Our guide, Sheri (pictured above with us in the lobby of our Beijing Hotel), had arranged for a friend of hers to meet us and the Fiorelli family at the terminal to help us navigate the check in process. She was great, although she didn't speak any English. We wondered what security would be like, but it ended up being a little more low-key than ours in the USA.

We had to wait a couple of hours for boarding. The boarding pass said gate 47, so off we went on a half mile hike down in to the depths of the airport. When we got there, the signs didn't match our flight, and all we saw was a bunch of busses parked outside the gate. Off we went again, deciding that the LCD signs were telling us that gate 23 was what we wanted. A half mile later (think of the old Huey Lewis video where the family is trapsing around the beach with all their earthly posessions), we're at gate 23 with not much confidence. We had stopped at two customer service desks where speaking English was not on their service menu. An Asian man who ended up being from Oklahoma (wacky) assured us that we had the right idea.

Cue Huey Lewis...as we chatted away, excitement building, one of the endless airport announcements (that we would have missed unless the Oklahoman was there) told us that they were boarding our flight out of gate 47. We logged another half mile, this time at a quicker pace, and scooted through gate 47 to board a mystery bus to our mystery plane a mile or two away on the tarmac.

Now we find that we had exchanged our 767 at gate 23 for a beat up looking old 737 for our 3 hr flight to Kunming City, home of Weifeng's orphanage. This flight was Harding style, which is to say crammed in the back like sardines. Southwest's marketing hype about having more seat space actually turns out to be true.

At least we would get breakfast, right? You know how flight attendants typically get right on the drink order as the plane is still climbing out, followed up by a snack or food in the first 30 minutes of the flight. Not so much in China. I was having flashbacks to survival school, prepared to eat whatever was put in front of me. My training failed me.

Orange juice -good. Congee (watery rice with all flavor painstakingly extracted) - not so good. 1,000 year old egg (their name, not mine) - 'nuff said. Watery yogurt - edible. Some sort of breakfast sandwich with mystery meat - mixed reviews.

I mention this not so much to complain, but to let you know how desperate we are for Western food. Kit's assesment of the breakfast sandwich: "I guess I'm eatin' a hambuhguh for breakfast," with a little shrug of the shoulders. Susanne resorted to the survival school technique of staring at the chicken sandwich ad for Mcdonald's in her copy of People. Yes, Christian friends, Susanne has a little weakness.

God has used the food issue to teach us how overwhelming a change Weifeng is facing as he joins our family.

We arrived in Kunming, took a bus back to the terminal, grabbed our luggage, and met our Kunming guide, Susan. Her smile and excited greeting reassured us as we headed off to the apex of our adventure.

Our hungry and tired band of travelers were off in a shabby but strangely homey bus on a rainy day in the "City of the Eternal Spring" to meet the main character of our story.

Gotta wait till the next post for the big stuff....Felt like I have to get the details recorded, or they will wash away with time. I will give you this Sneak Preview: God is faithful! Things have gotten off to a great start!

-Chris

Things I've Learned About Myself in 2 Days

1. I don't like the smell of burning incense.

2. I'm a "5 Star" potty kinda gal.

3. Sometimes a plate full of french fries and a plate full of watermelon for dinner is just fine!

4. I kicked booty on the climb to the top of the Great Wall, although I didn't run up it like Josh and Zach. Only a few huffs and puffs along the way. I am not considered a true hero in China for completing the climb.

5. I love being Chris' wife and a mommy and am so excited to be a mommy again.

-Susanne

House of Mao-se

Can't believe we've been here for two full days!

Wanted to give an update yesterday, but the standard computer connection issues were a big pain in the tookus.

Yesterday we toured Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City in the morning. With all the talk of Mao Tse Tung and how he wanted the gated Tianneman entrance to the Forbidden City to represent a new China...Joshua eventually gave in and asked the question that had been bugging him all day - "Why is there a mouse in that building?" We tried to explain they were talking about good ole Chairman Mao, not a mouse...

The highlight of today was the Great Wall of China. I've always kind of scratched my head when I heard people referring to "climbing" the Great Wall...what's to climb? It ain't that high.

I was crazy wrong. You're not so much climbing the wall, you're climbing with the wall as it flows up a mountain. It was an absolutely beautiful setting largely unspoiled by kitschy (sp?) tourist junk. The boys practically raced up to the top - even Kit, who made us very proud. Susanne and I got up there, too. It made for a very memorable Father's Day.

It has been such a whirlwind start to our time here that I find myself emotionally scrambling to keep up with the fact that tomorrow is such a huge day in the history of our family!

Milestones in life have always made me emotional. Tonight is no different.

Please pray for us as Weifeng becomes a Harding tomorrow. We have long prayed that God would prepare both our hearts and his. What's left now is the faith that He has it all planned according to His will.

-Chris

It's 3 AM but I'm not lonely

Guess you can tell we're starting to get into this blogging thing.

No extra charge for this special 3:39 AM edition of "A Fourth Arrow."

I think I sealed my fate around 11:30 PM when I announced to Susanne that I was really tired, and "I'm not gonna have a problem with jet lag." An hour and a half later, I'm awake with a new heat seeking missle codenamed "Joshua Harding" pressed into the small of my back.

Our rooms are across the hallway from each other, so Susanne and I were forced to do our best "Dick Van Dyke show" impression. I forgot my key for the room that Susanne is sleeping in with Kit. I eventually camped outside her room, hoping for some sort of sound that would signal that she wasn't sleeping either. I figured there was no sense in waking another two people up.

I got all excited when I heard that familiar "Microsoft Windows is shutting down" chime, and mustered up the courage to gently knock at the door. No dice. Sweet relief when I heard her shuffling to the bathroom, and I got to stop being that creepy American guy who hangs out in the hallway at 3 AM. You know the type...

Today is a big sight seeing day. We're going to Tiannamen Square, the Forbidden City, and the silk market among other things. Should be good fodder for a million digital pictures. The biggest bummer - no Weifeng yet. A couple of days from now family shots without 4 boys won't be complete.

-Chris

Off We Go... Day 1

There is never a dull moment around our house. Every thing was going according to our plan, we were on time for once, luggage was packed, all Hardings in the car. Then all those plans went out the window as we were driving down 495 on our way to Dulles. Zach was carsick! Is it bad parenting to drive down the highway with your child hanging out of the back door of the minivan? It's not like I wasn't standing there holding on to him for dear life. This was on top of a brush with diarrhea and a bee sting yesterday evening before we left. Ain't life grand?

So, we get to the airport and have to wait for our seating assignments. The most amazing thing happened...we were all upgraded to Business Class. Yeah God! We credited all of our praying friends for such an amazing blessing. We were enjoying our new digs in Row 6 when the captain announced that the plane had a minor maintenance issue that would be fixed in about 30 minutes. Okay, no biggie, well, before you know it they are telling us to exit the airplane as quickly as possible and to leave your things behind. These are not the words a nervous flyer wants to hear, but God is good and we had an awesome flight. Chris seemed to think they may have had a small electrical fire when they were fixing the original problem. Yikes! The final complication of the day came when one of us misjudged the capacity of his bladder - just as they were calling us to reboard! I got some laughs in the restroom as I stood at the hand dryers, one pants leg cupped around each nozzle in an effort to dry the culprit's jeans.

An interesting fact, we flew north from DC, crossed Greenland, neared the North Pole and came down through Russia. As you can see from the picture, we were all enjoying seeing how the other half lives. (Chris writes...When it comes to flying Business class, I must quote Ferris Bueller: "I highly recommend it, if you have the means." :) )

The Beijing airport is beautiful and humongous! It is brand new for the Olympics and is very pretty with its shiny floors and glass walls. Chris got a laugh at the ads with NBA star Yao Ming with the caption at the bottom "Your Friend, Yao Ming."

We were able to find our group quickly, boarded a bus and headed for the hotel. We met four of the 11 or so families who are joining us from our adoption agency. What an exciting day! It is good to be here. Two days till we meet Weifeng! Please keep the prayers coming. We will talk to you all tomorrow.

-Susanne

The Things I Want to See

When we get to China, I want to see all the things in the airport. I want to see what it looks like all around our hotel and see the Great Wall of China-walk on it. What their writing looks like. That is all I can think of!



-Joshua (typed by Mom)

One Day to Go

It's official; we have our tickets, passports and visas. FedEx delivered all of it into my anxiously awaiting hands yesterday afternoon. All of the bags are packed, okay, not all of the bags. A certain someone is causing a certain other person a little heartburn because 4 out of 5 bags are complete. I won't name names, it wouldn't be right to sell that person out.

Today is a day of cleaning, haircuts and general last minute fuss around here. Have an awesome day friends!

-Susanne

Psalm 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made;let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Overwhelmed

11you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

1 Cor 1:11

Wow! Susanne and I have been simply overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support from the body of Christ. We are simply compelled to brag on all of you out there...

• We were serenaded today by the sweet 1st graders at Perry Hall Christian School as a sendoff to China. Their song promised us that their little hands would be praying for us while we are gone


• Joshua's teacher, Michelle Masemore, and Zachary's teacher, Mary Anne Hines, made sure that the boys' classmates left school with a prayer calendar for the Harding family. Each day we're gone, there's a reminder to pray for a specific person in the family or aspect of the trip.


• Our friend Jenni Thomas excitedly told Susanne that she would pray for us everyday we were gone; she would even write notes to herself to help her remember. Her husband called me the next day, telling me about how when he got home from work their were a bunch of stickies with the letter "H" on them all over the house.


• Zachary's baseball team, the Bruisers, had a tough loss yesterday. At the end of the game, Zach's coach Chris Robinson and his wife Laura (who are both completely sold out to Jesus Christ) presented us with a cake to celebrate our adoption. Talk about unexpected! They had to transport the cake in a cooler to fight off the 98 degree heat yesterday, worried all the time that the sweet picture of Weifeng on the icing would melt away. As I ate the deliciously cool cake in the heat of the evening, there was something so fundamentally juxtaposed about the whole scene...It had the fingerprints of God all over it.


• Trish Jacoby recently saved our family by volunteering to help Susanne with the most dangerous activity two married people can engage in - hanging wallpaper. Talk about above and beyond the call of duty. Weifeng's and Kit's room looks great!


• We were humbled a few weeks ago to see a table in our Church's foyer full of presents for Weifeng. Always exciting! Even more encouraging -- when we thanked Tracy Hammel for her obvious role in organizing the gifts, she assured us it was no big deal -- people had lit up her email account with responses eager to support our family.


• No list of shout outs would be complete without mentioning two families in particular that have been beyond generous in helping us with an expensive process. You know who you are, and we are deeply grateful.
• Just when you thought the draft was a dead issue, Kevin Krack gets called up to serve in the grass-cutting corps. Don't forget, Kevin, I want a checkerboard pattern. Thanks...one less thing that to worry about. While Kevin is slaving away, Joy has been asked to serve as pool maintenance officer, sorry we don't have a pool boy to bring you some iced tea. Just kidding! Thanks to the Kracks for being so willing to help.

Finally, let me say how awesome it is to be a Christian! If there was ever a life event fraught with potential anxiety, this would be it. There's the logistics of the trip, the vagaries of bureacracies, the language barrier we will face, bonding issues, and simply the unknown of it all.

Scripture teaches us to not be anxious for anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, present our requests to God. Thank you all for making this possible! I have simply lost count of the times recently a brother or sister has earnestly reported that they are covering our trip in prayer.

Never have I felt the promise of Phillipians 4:6-7 more than I do tonight. We do have a peace that passes all understanding about this whole thing. I can only assume that there are a few speedbumps ahead for us, but I stand firm knowing that it is all according to His high and holy plans. As it says in Revelation, the prayers of the saints have gone up before God like the smoke of incense. What more reassurance do we need?

-Chris

Getting Ready

Kit and I had a conversation this week that I want to share. He has been helping me get the room ready that he and Weifeng will share. As I put the new sheets on the beds, I asked Kit where he wanted me to put his pillow. He thought for a moment, then asked me where Weifeng's pillow was going to be. I showed him and Kit explained that the head of his bed needed to be right next to his brother's .

I asked him why?

"So we can talk and laugh, but first I have to learn his words", was his reply.

I am so thankful for the innocent and accepting love the boys have been showing toward their new brother. It is a beautiful confirmation from God that he is weaving our family together with His mighty hand.

-Susanne

Plan A

There's a funny comment we often got whenever the subject of adoption came up over the past few years. In a typical Chinese adoption, the Chinese Adoption Authority assigns a child to your case file after what has become a 24+ month wait. The family gets some generic input, i.e. boy/girl, 12-18 mos old, etc. Nothing more.

The question is asked, "Isn't it kind of scary to be assigned a child with no input?"

You know what? Yeah, it is. But isn't that about what happens anytime a child comes into your family, no matter the source?

This whole process has taught me a lot about the sovereignty of God.

I've long been inclined to view God as benevolently showering us with the blessings of life (which he does), all the while working around our mistakes and recrafting his plan when we make a mess of our lives through sin. Or as a God who picks up the pieces when tragedy strikes, and shifts to Plan B. As if the tragedy was a surprise to Him.

I'll never forget listening to Brian Luwis, the man who founded the adoption agency we're using. It was one of those moments in my walk where someone wiped away a little of the dust from the dim mirror (1 Cor 13:12) I had been using to fashion a picture of God. So he gets the credit for the insight I'm trying to share.

Here it is: With God, there is no Plan B.

God didn't look down upon a freshly spoiled Garden of Eden, thinking to himself, "What in the world am I going to do now?" His plan since before time began was to bring himself glory in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This plan was so much more than just the best he could do on short notice after Adam and Eve punted it away.

Just as the Cross was Plan A, a consistent view of the sovereignty of God demands that we realize - it's all Plan A! Including the unlikely path that Wei Feng's life has taken: a foundling in Kunming City, China to the expectant arms of the Harding family. We will never know the desperate circumstances that led his birth mother to make such a heart wrenching decision. But we can see now what God's plan was for this child. What a privilege to catch a glimpse of the Almighty at work!

So, I praise you, God, for your promise to work all things for the good of those who love you. And for the testimony Wei Feng will have one day. The God who has our hairs numbered is on His throne.

-Chris