Help & Favor Needed...............Stacie Ham

Hope you get this on time, We made a trip to Manila,Philippines and had our bags stolen from us with our phones and credit cards in it. The embassy is willing to help by letting us fly back home since we still have our passports, We just have to pay for our ticket and settle Hotel bills. Unfortunately for us, I don't have access to funds without my credit card, I've made contact with my bank but they need more time to come up with a new one. I was thinking of asking you to lend me $2,500 that I can give back as soon as We get home. We really need to be on the next available flight. I'm so confused at the moment I need urgent help.

Western Union is the best option to send money to me. Let me know if you need my details(Full names location) to make the transfer,you can also reach me via email.

Many Thanks.

Fri, 11/16: waiting day #2, all packed and ready to go home!!!

Our bags are all packed and we have 1 hour until our shuttle to the airport arrives.  We are sooo excited to get Zoe home, but also nervous to see what her reaction once home will be.  In the nearly 2 weeks we have had her she has transformed from a silent toddler with no emotion other than being serious, whose legs would collapse when we tried to stand her, who didn't know how to chew solid food and who only held a toy when we put it in her hand, to a vivacious, laughing, playful toddler who is nearly running and eating soft foods very well.  In this time the environment has been constant (our hotel room) and both of us have been with her pretty much constantly with no distractions.

So our concern is, how will she react to her new home, which is likely larger than her entire orphanage was?  How will she be with sharing her new parents 3 three siblings?  She will no longer have familiar languages being spoken around her or familiar smells or an abundance of food she is used to (congee has been her staple).

Hopefully it will all go smoothly and we'll enjoy a week together as a family since Lucas, Noah & Ella are all off school all next week.

For now, we just have to get through the next 24 hours of flights and waiting in airports.  In 24 hours we should be home (our flight gets into SMF at 11:30pm Fri)!!!!

Thur, 11/15: waiting day #1

We received Zoe's visa and everything we need to take her home this afternoon at 4:30, so we spent the day doing some last minute shopping on Shamian Island.  Unfortunately, our flight doesn't leave until 9:30pm on Fri, so we'll have another day of waiting tomorrow. 

Wed, 11/14: more pics

Wed, 11/14: US Consulate Appointment & Group Pic & dinner at The Brew

This morning was our visa appointment for Zoe at the US Consulate.  It is located in a rather ugly high rise building and no cameras are allowed so we don't have much to about it.  We basically take an oath swearing all the documentation and information we are providing is true and accurate and each family is called one by one to turn in all their documentation in order to get a visa & visa package for the newly adopted child so that when we arrive in the US and present the package to the immigration officer, the child will officially be a US citizen.  We won't get all this until 4:30pm on Thurs, which is why we are not flying home until Fri.

In the afternoon, all 10 families with our agency got together to take a group picture, most of the kids were dressed in traditionally Chinese dress.  Zoe put the outfit we got her on, but wasn't too happy about it.  The picture of the 3 girls on the couch is the 3 children from our province (Guangdong), believe it or not, Zoe is the youngest of the 3!  On the left is Rachel, who is 20 months old, and in the middle is Libby who just turned 3 years old.  Yes our little girl is big J

For dinner, we went with our new friends, the Hoskin's (Libby's parents) from Iowa that we met 2 weeks ago to go to a western restaurant called the Brew that we had driven by several times.  We had a great time eating wings, fries & gravy, nachos & burgers.  It was a little taste of home after all the Chinese food.

Tues, 11/13: Pearl River Cruise Pics

Tues, 11/13: Buddhist Baby Blessing & Pearl River Cruise

This morning we went with 2 other families to the Six Banyan Buddhist Temple.  It was a beautiful, peaceful place in the middle of the city.  We walked around and then had one of the monks do a baby blessing for us.

Zoe napped most of the afternoon and in the evening we went on an evening river cruise of the Pearl River with the rest of the families from our agency.  Our agency reps ordered pizza for us to eat (yum) and we brought our own beer (pizza & beer, double yum).  It was a great 70 minute trip that took us under many lit up bridges and by many beautiful lighted buildings.

It has definitely reached that time in any trip when we are ready to come home, only a few more days, we leave Fri evening J