Sweet Dreams Harrison...

A sweet feeling swept over me as I finally went to bed at 0400 this morning, knowing that God has looked after the smallest details about Harrison...

Two week ago, when we learned of Harrison's hometown, Ma'Anshan, being a renowned industrial city known for its iron & coal production; we had images of an orphanage being housed in an upper flat of a high-rise building, with the lower floors being used as factories.

To satisfy our curiosity on little baby Harrison, and in view of the fact that adoptive-parents are not permitted to visit the orphanage at the time of adoption, we'd joined a Yahoo Group of adoptive families with children from the exact same orphanage. As it turned out, many of the parents have since made the pilgrimage to this orphanage with their adopted child. They posted numerous photos and stories at this website, complete with no less than a Google-Earth Placemarker for the orphanage.

To our utter amazement, the Ma'Anshan SWI is a complex with surroundings similar to that of a Spartan country club. It is far removed from the city center, on the other side of the mighty Yangtze River. The vast expanse of agricultural fields and gentle rolling hills provides for the pastoral backdrop. The complex is nicely designed with buildings of no more than 3 storeys; a wing for the seniors, aptly named "Social Welfare Institute"; and a wing for the actual "Children Welfare Institute". The grounds are well-appointed with playgrounds, manicured lawns, flower beds, rock garden with waterfalls, and a man-made lake; a great setting even to the photo enthusiast.

Photos of the inside revealed a congenial environment for the children: classrooms, playrooms, dining facilities, nursery for infants, dorms for the toddlers and the older kids. The orphanage director is a lady of middle-age, whose radiant smiles and aura of loving kindness could certainly invite anyone to call her "MaMa". Her staff also seemed to have been carefully selected to provide the loving care to all of the children.

Following is the Mission Statement of the Alliance for Children Foundation : "The Alliance for Children Foundation is an international relief organization dedicated to improving the physical and emotional well being of abandoned children living in orphanages in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The Foundation's projects in medical care, basic needs, and education seek to heal, strengthen and empower the world's most vulnerable children, especially those who are less likely to be adopted due to age or special needs. Our programs provide these children with an otherwise impossible opportunity for a better future".

The Ma'Anshan SWI is just one of their many beneficiaries in China. You may click on either one of the links to see detail stories and photos of their endeavors.

Beam me up, Scotty... If you have the Google-Earth software installed in your PC,

you're only a click away: Google-Earth Placemarker;

otherwise, try this Google Maps marker via satellite,

to stop in and say "Hi" to Harrison...

If you can see the semi-cloverleaf interchange on the highway, take the major thoroughfare to the East, then a first left-hand turn on a road that runs in a north-easterly direction, follow by another first left-hand turn. That is the driveway leading up to the compound of the MAS SWI on the right.

Sweet dreams Harrison... Sweet dreams, Daddy & Mommy, until we meet.

Visitors to this blog are encouraged to leave a comment, as a mutual exchange of good cheers and blessings. If you have an adoption blog and wish to share, leave us an URL.

The Rest of the Story... of the "Black Cat"

Sam and I have been friends forever. Though we were classmates for only a year, our 6th grade in HK; we met again in the City of Edmonton in the late 60's. Each of us got married and had children of our own. We'd watched each other's children grow up. Eventually, I moved to the West Coast; Sam & his family stayed on the prairies; but we kept in touch with each other.

Shorly after my wife, Eva, and I started our adoption process about a year and a half ago, I made sure that Sam was the first person to know. He was perplexed, as we're both fast approaching our early-retirement years. It was then I'd offered the story about the "Black Cat" to Sam. (please refer to the bottom of the Prologue page)

Don't get me wrong; Sam and I are best of friends, however, friendship evangelism with him was to no avail; perhaps it was the inadequacies of my own testimonials, or perhaps it was the emptiness for want of prayers.

Thursday, merely two days after receiving the news of Harrison, as I was preparing the library for the larger-than-life-size of the Lion King logo (the Disney on Broadway musical) on the feature wall; it was a time of solitude, a time of reflection. My thoughts were, once again, on the "Black Cat"...

"Am I really on the floor in this dark room, on my hands and knees, looking for this very same Black Cat? And what might this "Black Cat" be?"

Just then, I began to hear a voice,

"Alexander, just because I allow "Harrison" into your life, do you really think that I gave a passing grade to the approval rating for your fatherhood, so far, to your four grown-children? Think again."
"You have failed miserably, for you have been singing to the tune, 'I Did it My Way'"
"For want of prayers has been the Achilles' heel in your life."

The voice continued...

"I'm giving you this second chance to do it once more;
once more with commitment; once more with passion;
and once more with MY HELP, talk to me about it!!!"
"And remember, to bring up this child shall not be your #1 priority. It is only secondary, for I wish to know you; and you to me. I wish for you to make use of this renewed fatherhood to fully appreciate how your Heavenly Father feels about His children on Earth!

And this, my child, is the Black Cat you've been looking for."

I can hardly wait to share this with Sam.

Visitors to this blog are encouraged to leave a comment, as a mutual exchange of good cheers and blessings. If you have an adoption blog and wish to share, leave us an URL.

It'a Boy!!! First Glimpse of Harrison

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." [Isaiah 43:5]

"你不要懼怕，因為我與你同在；我必把你的後裔從東方領回來，又從西方招聚你。" 【賽43:5】

The news couldn't have come to me in a more dramatic fashion:

7 Nov. 2006, on the day of the most adverse weather conditions for this time of the year--a torrential downpour of rain for over 3 days, causing mud & rock slides, flooding, washouts, and closing down railway operations on both sides of the Fraser Canyon. It was after a 20-hour away-from-home layover, and having been ordered to operate my train over unfamiliar territory (CP Rail), due to track closure on our side (CN Rail) of the river. It was exactly noon when my cell phone rang amidst the thundering roar of the locomotive, as I was at full throttle pulling through the last of the ascending grades out of the Canyon, heading onto the gentler, kinder grades of the Fraser River. It was Eva informing me that our adoption agency had just called, and she has to go and pick up our adoption-proposal from China.

Neither one of us bother to ask for any further details, on both of our receiving phone calls...

It was almost an hour later when she'd called again, after she was taken totally by surprise, that we're virtually the winners of the-luck-of-the-draw, in a 2 percentile probability, that the Lord has blessed us with a BOY from China!

By the time I arrived at home, all I had time for was to change quickly and head for our church, for the weekly Alpha Course. The good news certainly brought joy, laughter, hugs & kisses from all around, asking for his name-to-be. I was up to the challenge from Brother Roger who'd said that since our family name starts with the letter "H", his (or her) initials should be "HRH", initials befitting regal stature; therefore, his name shall be Harrison Robin Hui, with a homophonic Chinese name. (“Har-ri-son” 許禮信 - 中國的 “禮義廉恥” The virtuous gentleman: Propriety, Justice, Honesty, and Honor，和基督的 “信望愛” The pious Christian: Faith, Hope, and Love) The attached photos are provided by courtesy of the SWI (Social Welfare Institute).

Harrison was born on 21 Feb.2005, in the City of Ma'An Shan 馬鞍山, along the Yangtze River. Ma'An Shan is a prosperous city in the middle of the industrial heartland of China, which is known for its iron & coal production. The city is located in close proximity to Nanjing, Shanghai, and Hefei 合淝市 (the provincial capital of Anhui 安徽省). May I salute her diligence, for Eva was quick to locate the phone number of the orphanage, working with only the name (Ma'Anshan SWI) of the institution on the proposal. Contact has already been made with the director, and local support upon our eventual arrival has also been secured.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. Now, may we pray for the blessing of parental wisdom, discernment, love & patience to bring this child up to be a godly person.

Visitors to this blog are encouraged to leave a comment, as a mutual exchange of good cheers and blessings. If you have an adoption blog and wish to share, leave us an URL.

An Inspiring Story of International-Adoption

As part of my early-retirment ('07) celebration, one of my friend's got a 27' C class Winnebago motorhome which will be our mode of transportation for a cross-continent trek to visit the Maritimes & the Eastern Seaboard. Starting from Vancouver on the West Coast, the 2 of us will make our way to Toronto, where our wives will then fly out to meet us for the eastern half. During this trip, we will be making a visit, by invitation, to a special acquaintance in Nova Scotia.

There is a story behind this "special acquaintance": During the summer, as Eva was finishing her reading of the Canadian Business magazine, she pointed out to me that the cover story has a familiar ring to it: The headline reads "Retire Happy"; and the sub-title reads "How to Turn Your Life's Second Act into Prime Time". The cover is a photo spread of a family, a caucasian couple with three adopted daughters. As I read on, the husband is the recently retired CEO of a national corporation. This couple is in their early 60's, with 4 grown-children, 8 grand-children, and 3 adopted-daugthers from China, whose ages range from 2 to 8. Furthermore, this couple had been foster-parents for the most part.

This man had a very humble beginning, started as an underground miner in northern Ontario; however, he never gave up on his own education, amassing degrees in political science, history, business, and an MBA. He and his wife have moved 26 times in their married life, usually at the request of employers offering new challenges and bigger paycheques. The man's enthusiam for adoption is not confined only to his daughters. He serves on the board of directors of Children's Bridge, and also as president of a related non-profit organization, the Children's Bridge Foundation, which funds are aimed at assisting orphans in China and Vietnam who are unlikely to be adopted. The funds have been spent on libraries, computer labs, sports equipments, and musical instruments for orphanages, sponsoring the education of teenage orphans, and surgeries for Vietnamese children with cleft lips and palates. With his experience & connection in the corporate circle, the fund-raising efforts will be sure to benefit.

My admiration for his energy, enthusiasm, and love inspired me to pick up the phone, after a successful Internet search for his telephone listing. He was delighted to hear of a similar pending-adoption story, and promptly invited us for a visit when we arrive in Nova Scotia; of course, with our soon-to-be adopted child/children. The story has also inspired me to write a series of memoir of my own retirement, which will be titled, "ACT II"; hence, the title of this weblog.

Visitors to this blog are encouraged to leave a comment, as a mutual exchange of good cheers and blessings. If you have an adoption blog and wish to share, leave us an URL.

Local Adoption in Rural China

During our trip in early 2006, when we were visiting a remote mountain village in China's Yunnan Province (just to the North of Vietnam), we were invited to be the dinner guests at a local taxi-driver's home for the Chinese New Year celebration. Before dinner, we visited with his wife, who was busy chopping up some kind of veggie, which I thought was part of our dinner. To my complete surprise, the veggies were used as feed to the family's three pigs, who are constantly pacing back & forth in three separate concrete pens just outside the house.

During dinner, the conversation turned to our pending China-adoption. This couple promptly pointed to their healthy, happy, 5-year old daughter, and shared with us a story: This little girl was found along the roadside, left forsaken, in a cardboard box with a $5 Renminbi (the Chinese dollar, $5 Renminbi amounts to about 80 cents US). She couldn't have been more than 2 days old. Their son, who was 11-year old at the time, pleaded with the parents to keep this tiny infant as his sister. Subsequently, the family had to post a declaration of the finding in the village square. After a 30-day no-claim period, the family was then allow to keep the infant as their own.

The little girl was somewhat embarrassed by her parents' storytelling of her history. As an attempt to save face for herself, she had this to say,"my brother was born by my father; and I, by my mother!"
This 5-year old girl then proceeded to put on a show of song & dance for the guests. We were also told that she can actually speak better Putonghua (or Mandarin, the official dialect of China) than her parents, thanks to the national TV programs via satellite dish. We'd noticed TV satellite dishes, and cell phones are commonplace in rural China. The reason: Since there wasn't any other infrastructure in place, and in view of the sudden technological leap forward, the installation of satellite dishes and cell phone towers made much more sense.

This was a first-hand look at how local-adoption is done in rural China.

The father of this little girl, the taxi-driver, jokingly offered to take us for a ride around town and see what we can find along the road; for it might shorten our long waiting period!!!

Visitors to this blog are encouraged to leave a comment, as a mutual exchange of good cheers and blessings. If you have an adoption blog and wish to share, leave us an URL.