OUR FAMILY IS NOW A CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE!!! (That is what it will feel like when we get all of our kids together)




June 20th 2006

Only 1 more day and we leave for home.

Yesterday our Bethany Guide went to the U.S consulate on our behalf. He went for 3 families. The Bonks, The Bridges (a family that just arrived that is with Bethany)
And us. We were happy as our children’s passports came through today after a computer glitch happened and they were not sure we would get them on Monday and we were a little worried that we would not get to come home when planned. However for us we only had one small problem. All the paperwork had Nathan’s correct birth date on them however when they were translated by the Notary office they translated it wrong so the official document read that He was born June 14, 2006. So they had to retranslate one. The kicker is that WE had to pay for the mistake the notary made. Luckily it wasn’t too much but we are trying to figure out why WE had to pay for this mistake.
The Bonks had a problem also as the consulate said that they needed the Federal tax records from them and not state. Luckily they said that they would let it go this time. Well Thank God for that. However if the consulate would actually look through her tax records it would show that he ACTUALLY had submitted them. She had submitted both just in case. The Bridges however were not so lucky and it sounds like they will have to stay a few more days as their home study had ONE line that the consulate was picky about and this family was told they would need an addendum done before they could get a visa for their son. It was something that was written wrong by their social worker. Hopefully they can get this faxed back quickly and it will be done soon.

We are excited as Al and Carey Richardson and Zack and their new son Luke should be here anytime and we will have one day with them before we leave for home. You will remember this is the family that traveled with us from Grand Rapids. We split up in Beijing as their son was in Shanghai and they had the glitch where because of a summit going on in Shanghai the passport office was closed until Monday. They will now not come home until Friday.


This picture is of some friends we made at a store called Jordan’s. Their names are Jason and Wendy;
I hope you all had a good day. We will be home soon and I can’t wait to see everyone.

We are having a blast but getting lonesome for everyone.

Hannah had another very good day. I am hoping that she will not get shy when we get off the plane so that everyone can see her true personality but I have a feeling she may get a little shy at first. She is such a sweetheart!!! Trust us! She’s a keeper!!!

It is 6:05 pm right at this moment which means in 24 hours we will bee seeing everyone!! How cool is that!!! We just got back from the U.S consulate where we had our swearing in ceremony and Hannah officially received her Visa to enter the United States!!! She told our guide that she is very happy to go to America.

Love ya all!!

We had a few people us to post a reminder on the blog as to what our flight details are.

Tomorrow we will be leaving the hotel at 5:35 am and our first flight to Tokyo leaves at 8:30 am. We then catch a flight to Detroit and arrive in Detroit around 2:30pm. We have a 3 hour layover in Detroit to get through customs and Immigration. It will be exciting as Hannah officially becomes a U.S citizen when the plane hits the tarmac!!!

Our flight to Grand Rapids arrives at 6:05pm via Detroit on Northwest Airlines!!

P.S.

A BIG HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY TO EKATERINA!!!!

We love you sweetie and we will celebrate when we get home!!!!! We miss you!!!

Nikolas and Caleb!!! We miss you!!! It won’t be long now and we will be home with you!!!!!

We are just waiting in our room right now to see that everything with our consulate appointment went okay. Daniel our agency worker was able to go on our behalf today and then we go tomorrow for the Oath and on Wedensday we leave for home!! Hard to believe!!!

I had kind of a tear jerker this morning when I called my mom and dad. My little boy Caleb will NOT talk to anyone on the phone. He is scared of the phone for some reason but my mom told me that he was going to just listen and not talk and when I said Hi sweetie he said Hi Mommy right back and I lost it in the middle of the store. I almost fell off my chair. It was great talking to all the kids today. We are in the middle of a very long thunderstorm. Which is very typical in Guangzhou. If you don't think we see much of the sun in Michigan you should come here for awhile. I don't think I will ever complain about Michigan summers again. We have not seen the sun since we were in Beijing.


We went shopping yesterday. I can't believe how many people are in this city. I know they always talk about how many people are in China but Wow!!!! It is amazing.

Last night we went to Lucy's again for dinner and we ended up going very late and about 5 minutes after our food arrived we looked over and Hannah was sound asleep. She had such a big day and we had to carry her home and she did not move until 8:00am this morning. a day of swimming and shopping just wore her out!!

I wish I had brought our camera with us as it was so cute.

We have a free day today so it is very relaxing today!! Hopefully can write more later.

June 18

Today we went to a park. The statue is of the five rams. It is from an old legend of how the city was founded. We have learned alot of history and we did not realize how bad the Chinese had it during world war two. It is interesting to see how the chinese live. In the park (and everywhere else} people play a game like hackysack but with what looks like a large badmitten birdy. Many older people play this for excersise in groups of five.
As Brenda usually writes I will give you my take on Hannah. I know this is why you read this sight anyway. I wish you could see our pictures but you will have to wait.
In the pictures you have seen it may look like she does not smile much. This could not be farther from the truth. She is always laughing and giggling. She loves to play and is very energetic. She has bonded with both of us which is very nice. Any insecurities she had are gone. Today at the pool she would jump into my arms from the side and let me hold her with one hand while she swam. As you know this is sure sign that she trusts me. She even wanted me to take her under the waterful. She has been scared of that until today. There is no problem with the language as she has figured out when we don't understand to show us with hand signs. She is already speaking alot of English and can name all her brothers and sister and Grampa's and Grandma's by name! It is as though she is saying " I have been waiting for you to come get me, what took you so long?" We know God has always planned on her bieng in our family and cannot wait for you all to meet her.
The weather is unbelievable. It is so hot you cannot stand to be outside. This morning at 9:00 it was 90 with about 95 percent humidity. Then in the afternoon it storms everyday and seems to get hotter.
The accomidations here are great. We are living well above our normal lifestyle and the people are so nice. We have made many new friends.
See you all soon!

Last night we also went on a wonderful river boat cruise to see the all the lights. The buildings are all lit up along the Pearl River that is right outside of our hotel. It doesn't look so great during the day but in the evening it is just beautiful. Some of the big buildings are like a big giant TV screen and will run commercials and sometimes different scenes that are like short cartoons and different pictures. It is pretty neat.
For once we let Tersea be in a picture. This is our little China family!!!

We took the picture at left because it always seems that whenever Teresa is along we are going to be in trouble somehow and so they had to show us how to use life Jackets because she got on the boat.

(You know I love ya Teresa!! LOL) It is a huge joke here in Guangzhou that it seems what ever Teresa touches lately falls apart) NOT really it just seems that way.

When she sat down at the Passport office the other day the computer suddenly broke and we had a great laugh about that and now we find out today that we were suppposed to get the kids passports today and now because of that computer glitch we cannot get them until Monday (about 15 families have this problem) they do not think it will hold us up any as the US consulate knows about this problem but we were supposed to go to the consulate on Monday morning and now we are not sure what time we will go. We are not worried but and we were told that it shouldn't hold us up from coming home but I will update more when I know on Monday.

One other funny story as we had to get our own taxi's coming back from the River boat. That is all find a good but we thought we would all cram into one. Oh my that was an experince.

I cannot say it near as well as Teresa can so I am borrowing this from her webpage.

Now on to the taxi ride back to the hotel. Imagine a zillion people just getting off this boat and trying to hail cabs on a curb on a Friday night. Now imagine three adults and four children from where taxis don't exist trying to hail a cab and not get ran over. So Nate grabs one and says get in. Brenda gets in with her two girls and I figure I'll take the next one that I can get with my two girls and make the statement to come back for me if they don't see me in an hour. Well, Nate had intended on staying back himself and was telling me to get in. Needless to say, cars were honking, people were yelling and next thing I knew we had Brenda and I with four girls crammed, and I mean crammed, into the back seat of a very small taxi! Nate jumped in front and the taxi driver looked back and about had a cow!! I guess it's a good thing we don't speak Chinese. He had some things to say. Brenda and I decided he could probably lose his license over this so we decide to duck the kids down as much as possible. These girls were squished. Poor Alyssa was curled on my lap like a snail with my arm over her head, and I kept saying stay down, stay down. Alyssa then decided to announce to the entire cab that my armpits stunk! At that point, I was laughing so hard I snorted! (I guess you had to be there.) Apparently, the driver was lacking in a sense of humor and kept hitting Nate on the leg throughout the trip and pointing to the back and scolding him in Chinese. (I'm not sure the uncontrollable laughing helped.) You should have seen the doorman's face at the hotel when we piled out of the taxi! The taxi driver ended up demanding 30 yuan for a 10 yuan trip. We gladly paid it! (About $4) I decided it would best not to have taken a picture while in that taxi. You'll just need to use your imagination for that one. What a day!!!

Like I said I can't tell it any better than that. We were still laughing when we went up to our room and we had some people putting their heads out of their door shushing us. For those of you who know me you know how hard I can laught and you can x's that my 7 of us plus the floor lady that we have befriend and she was laughing hysterically as well after we told her the story.

Hope you all had a good night. Miss you all!!!

To all of my COP friends!! Wow I can't wait until you come here!!! You will LOVE it!!!!

June 17th.

We did not get a chance to post yesterday as we had a very busy day doing lots of nothing!

Actually we had a fun day. We always meet Teresa and her girls for an 8 am breakfast. The place where we eat breakfast is just beautiful and one of these times we will actually remember to take a camera to show everyone where we eat every day. We are near a beautiful indoor waterfall with a small river that is loaded with Large golfish.

we have been spending tons of time at the pool and today for the first time things have stayed dry and it is more hot than humid. Thankfully. Humidty is NOT my friend. However Heather seems to do well with it as her hair has never looked better and she is just glowing.
China has been good to her.















Abby, Hannah, Heather and Alyssa are becoming very good friends. They has so much fun together and we have hardly had any incidents of fighting between any of them.

Last night we went out to our favorite Chinese restuarant. I do not know the name of it but the sign says its the best cantonese food in Guangzhou and it is very good. On the way to the restaurant you have to pass a place where you can pick out your own food. Let me just say that thankfully we ate BEFORE we went in their to take pictures. It was NOT pretty. Cheri, I wish you were here because I would have to take you to lunch there!!! :)

It would make a great diet plan to visit this place before every meal!!!



















As you can see in one of the pictures below Alyssa bonk was quite unsure of her selection!!

The girls were very happy that we did not eat in this restaurant.










We did quite a bit of shopping last night as well and we laugh so hard at times. We have a ton of fun teasing Teresa. Last night she bought 7 t-shirts for her family. They all say something like big brother, grandpa, grandma, mom, dad and so on and got them quite cheap we were in a hurry as we were on our way to the river boat ride. Well after a few minutes she realized she forgot to get Abby and Alyssa one and off we went back to the store. She bought two more and when the clerks gave her a higher price than before she stomped her foot and said BUT I just bought 9 t-shirts wheres my deal and we all laughing so hard and we were so tired we were almost giggly and we were teasing her so bad because she stomped her foot at the girl. Now most of you that have been in GuangZhou know how they beg you to come into their stores and they they will give you best price for adoptive parents so when the price was higher teresa just let loose.

We have to take pictures of the stores yet so when we get back I will update my blog with all the pictures off of our camera. I am very sad that we cannot upload them from our camera.

Daniel our guide told us today that he is 52 years old and when he was a boy that their was not food and in a 2 year period from about 1960-62 around 10 million people starved to death. To get meat they used to eat Cicada's. That is how they stayed alive. Just a interesting tidbit for you today.

Nikolas, Caleb and Katie have a lot of fun camping!!! Love you guys very much and miss you terribly. Hopefully we can talk to you this time when we call as I so much want to hear your voices.

Good night from Guangzhou!!!

Today we went to the GuangZhou Zoo. We were supposed to go to the Folk Art Museum but we begged off that one and asked to take the kids to the zoo instead. Good Choice.

Heather was able to see her first live panda. It was big, lazy and fat!! But Very cute!!!! Unfortunately I do not have a picture as we cannot upload our own pictures onto this computer and Teresa's pictures did not turn out as it was so dark. However we did see giraff's, elephants, Zebras and other neat animals.

The zoo was very empty except for a few Kindergarten and preschool classes. The kids were darling.

Heather is not fond of the bathroom situation over here and giggles every time she has to use one. Quite a few of the bathrooms are normal but most of them are like this picture below. Hannah is an old pro but Heather would rather not get

used to this.

We have seen some strange animals here. a very large snail right in the middle of town which we did not get a picture of and a strange looking Catepillar.

The first picture is of us out for dinner last night. We had Amy, who is the daughter of Shiyan who works for Bethany, take us to a good Chinese Restaurant last night. We had walked past this place before and we had seen the food swimming in the tanks in front of the restuarant and our appetite would go away. However last night we went in and what we saw was a very nice place to eat. Amy ordered for us and we had a really awesome dinner!! It was so good!!!!

We are getting spoiled with all the good food here.













These pictures of Nathan and Hannah were take at the exact spot where she was found. She was found at the entrance of a biscuit and cracker factor. Near the spot is also a large shopping district which mean her birthmother left her in a safe place where she was sure to be found. We were also told that her birthfamily were probably farmers that lived somewhere nearby.

These are some typical pictures of China. GuangZhou is a very big city with tons of buildings very close together and a lot of people. A lot of people ride motorcycles here.

These pictures are very typical of what you see.






Some of you have asked us what the Weather is like here. It is HOT and HUMID!!!!! We have a thunderstorm or 2 every single day. The weather is like a big wet blanket on the city and you can't hardly breathe its so humid. However there are 2 very nice pools here that we try to use in between rain drops.

The kids are having so much fun swimming!!!












A little more about Hannah. She is a very sweet tenderhearted girl but she also has a small temper. Wow! Just like the rest of our kids!! She has a huge smile and she loves to show it to everyone! She loves to yell out hello to those passing by!! If you really want to know what Hannah is like just spend 20 minutes with our little boy Caleb!! Yep you guessed it! they are just a like!!!! Hard to imagine. She loves hair and when we asked our translator to tell Hannah that we would let her hair grow out she was so happy and so excited. She also loves to dance and we will be happy to show the world how well she can dance!!! It is precious!!!

These are pictures from the GuangZhou Social welfare institute where Abbey and Hannah spent the first years of their life. It was a powerful day. Abbey and Hannah were thrilled to see their friends again but it was hard for Hannah to leave again and cried for a little while. Hannah has a little friend that is just adorable. His picture is on our camera and we are now in a mission to get him a home!!! He is a doll and we would love to have a family near us bring him home as Hannah and this boy were good friends.

We were able to see where they go to school and we were able to video Hannah doing a dance with her class. Talk about a tear jerker. So sweet!!!!! In the top picture Abbey was showing the group how she could do Heather's hair. Heather was not so sure about this and was a little scared of all the kids. She was out of her comfort zone and it was very good for her to see how these kids are growing up with out parents. It also remind us why we are always on the hunt for finding adoptive parents for the kids in the world so for all you families that have thought about adopting watch out!!! :) Just kidding!!

Just a few more pictures for today.

We went to the orphanage today and got to meet Hannah's teachers and nannies. It was a very emotional experience for all of us that I will write more about later when we get the pictures uploaded. We also were able to to see the exact spot where Hannah was found when she was a baby. It was hugely emotional but a very awesome day!!!

Nikolas, Katie and Caleb!! We love you and miss you!!!

June 14, 2006.

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

We have been having so much fun in China, but today for the first time we realize how good it will be to get home to the other kids. We so miss them. Robin, sorry we missed your call, we were out shopping yet and didn't get back until late. The shopping here is incredible. We can buy and buy and not spend much money!! The funny thing is its not me that wants to buy it all!!! :)

I am going to try to add some more pictures here for you to enjoy. Everytime I try something happens and they end up not posting. The two pictures above were from near the beginning in Beijing. The two families we are with are so much fun. The one picture above is of Teresa and Alyssa Bonk, Al, Carey and Zachary Richardson, Us, and our tour guide for those 3 days Silena.

Some of you may remember that Nathan had a vision about Hannah just before we left that he had help her up over his head and she giggled and when she smiled her teeth were kind of bad. We had never seen a picture of her smile before so we had no idea if her teeth were bad or not. Well the very cool thing is when we picked her up at the Civil Affairs office the first thing Nathan did was pick her up and she giggled. It was precious and Nate said it was the exact same giggle that he heard in his Vision. Then she smiled and her teeth are NOT too good and we were just in awe that the Lord showed us this BEFORE we knew Hannah and it was just HIS way of showing us that we were truly in HIS will and what an awesome feeling that is!!!

Chad B.-- Nathan wanted me to remind you to turn in your Spirtual Journal!! :)
Tammy B-- Squeaky shoes are coming!!! :)

HANNAH FAITH YONKER
ADOPTION DAY JUNE 13TH, 2006

Yes it is official. I apologize for not writing more today but I had a really long post written and the computer froze up so we will write more as soon as we can. Hannah is doing great yet and we are thrilled with her.

Hopefully tomorrow we can write a really long post again.

If you want to read some funny stuff about Teresa please check her blog again as she is having a ton of fun too!!! :) You can find her blog address in one of the above posts.

We are getting the emails just fine so keep emailing as we love to get mail from home.

you can still email at tearsofjoy@highstream.net

We are all doing great yet!! Off to make some phone calls! Good night!!!!

Gotcha


June 12th 2006

Wow what an awesome emotional day. We went to the Civil affairs office at 10:00 am and
the girls were not there yet and they asked us to sit in the waiting room. After about 15 minutes of waiting the elevator doors opened and out walked Hannah and Abbey Bonk.

Wow!! We recognized her right away and she was so cute and she went right to us. She was laughing and playing and would sit on our laps. She loves her bear so much and would not let it go. When it was time for the nannies to leave Hannah started wailing and the grieving began. She cried and cried. After we filled out a bunch of acceptance document we went back to the hotel and Hannah was very, very quiet. We thought she was hungry and so we gave her some oatmeal. she loved it and started to really come out of her shell. She loves playing with her ball and with bubbles and balloons and Mom she loves all of her birthday presents!!!! She is sweet huggable girl and has a wonderful smile!!!! God is so awesome and for those of you I told that I prayed to God that Hannah would speak English her first words were Hello momma and Hello Papa!!! It just put me in tears!!!!! Right now the 4 girls are having a blast with eachother and we found out Hannah and Abbey were in the same room at the orphanage and they even came dressed in the same clothes.

She is very active and fun and really reminds me of Caleb.

Oh by the way we did walk the Great Wall of China and wow!!! I can't wait to tell you about that walk. It was something else!!!!! However it was a very cool experience.

We are having a small problem with pictures so we are using some of Teresa's pictures and hopefully we can get some of ours on soon.


Love and miss you all!!!

We are having the time of our lives!!!!

Hi everyone!! Things are great, we are all doing well and feeling great!! Today we went to the Tianamin square and the Forbidden city. Tonight we went to an acrobatic show and afterwards we went to a chinese restaurant that was very, very good. It was a fun but long day. We did have a surprise that everyone here is very attracted to Heather and they love to look at her and some of them even would like to take pictures of her because they hardly see anyone with her hair color. She was a little scared at first but after awhile got used to it and is having a ton of fun. She really loved the acrobatic show and thought the chinese dinner was awesome. Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall and fly onto Guangzhou to get Hannah. Here are a few pictures of our day. It may be a few days before we can update again as we will get into Guangzhou late and we are not sure yet what time we will be picking up Hannah. One of the families we are with also has a blog and she will have some great pictueres of our time on her blog. The computer uploaded some pictures that I was not planning on and included some pictures of the acrobatic team.



http://www.grantps.net/PC/Media_Center/Meet%20the%20Staff/Index.htm

Nehow!
We are safe in China. We are really roughing it! Bejing is a very large city with 13 million people. There are bikes everywhere. The one picture is of a resturant and as you can see they are honest about their service! It was nice to just hang out today as tommorrow we will be busy doing the turist thing. We will try to keep updating as much as possible. God bless you all!

A big hello from Beijing, China. Our flights were some of the smoothest flights we have ever had. Our suitcases even arrived just fine. I always said that I would never fly

Northwest and they were wonderful. We arrived last night at 9:00pm China time. We are exactly 12 hours ahead of Michigan time. It is strange because in Russia I felt uncomfortable being their the first few days and here in China it feels like Home.

Heather was a huge trooper on the flight and did awesome!!! She was very happy as on our last flight she got to watch the movie 8 below on her own personal screen. She loved the whole experience and truly enjoyed her self. We had no melt downs at all and we were so proud of. She only asked one time we there yet one time and that was in the van on the way to the airport.

We were met at the airport by a nice young lady name Silena. She was quite perky and happy and talked non stop about the city and things we are doing. Today is a free day and we are going to leave in a few minutes to walk around Beijing and do some shopping.

We had a wonderful breakfast at the buffet which is included in our room price.

We felt your prayers so much. Last night I had tears in my eyes when I realized we are now in Hannah’s home country. Tomorrow is her birthday if you would stop and remember a small prayer for tomorrow that would be great. (or I should say on Saturday)

We love and miss you guys but so far its been wonderful to be here.

Nikolas here is your special message for the day. Congratulations on making it to the 4^th grade and take special care of Aunty.

Katie, congrats on making it to the 2^nd grade.

Caleb, Hope you had a really fun day fishing with Grandpa!!

Here are a few pictures. Our camera is not hooking up well but from now on we will share with Teresa's pictures and when we can get ours figured out we will share the few new pictures we got this morning.

Not really a whole lot to report but I had a few minutes so I thought I would post something. I can hardly believe that in 3 days we will be on our way. The kids are all packed. Katie and Nikolas will be leaving on Tuesday night. Caleb will be coming back to the airport with us and then riding home with Grandpa Visser as Grandpa has promised to take him fishing for a couple of days. In fact Caleb is so excited about this he came up to me on Saturday night and said that we could leave now. He just kind of did is Caleb smirk and laughed. Crazy kid.

I have to say it makes me feel so much better that they are happy about staying with Relatives. It gives me so much peace to know they are very well taken care of and loved so much back here. I will have a few minutes of Sadness Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and then our big adventure will begin.

more later

Not really a whole lot to report but I had a few minutes so I thought I would post something. I can hardly believe that in 3 days we will be on our way. The kids are all packed. Katie and Nikolas will be leaving on Tuesday night. Caleb will be coming back to the airport with us and then riding home with Grandpa Visser as Grandpa has promised to take him fishing for a couple of days. In fact Caleb is so excited about this he came up to me on Saturday night and said that we could leave now. He just kind of did is Caleb smirk and laughed. Crazy kid.

I have to say it makes me feel so much better that they are happy about staying with Relatives. It gives me so much peace to know they are very well taken care of and loved so much back here. I will have a few minutes of Sadness Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and then our big adventure will begin.

more later