The First Trip  --  June 1996

The first trip for Family Outreach International began on a warm spring day in Vancouver in June of 1996. Three couples waited anxiously at the airport, ready but naturally nervous as they embarked on the journey that would unite them with their daughters. The flight could not have seemed longer as, a world away, three cherubic infant girls awaited their arrival. Touching down in Beijing brought little reprieve from the tense excitement as the parents were still a day away from having their children in their arms. 

After a restless night at the stunning Xiyuan hotel, the group set out en route to Hangzhou, the home of the babies they would soon meet. Later that day, at long last, an end came to the pain of waiting and wondering卪others and fathers first gazed upon their girls, eyes moistened by the tears of dreams realised! The children who had for so long played in their imagination were finally theirs to hold and cherish. 

The remainder of the two-week trip, half-spent in the beautiful Zhejiang Province completing paperwork and doing a little sightseeing, was decidedly more relaxed. The gorgeous weather added to the calm ambiance as everyone enjoyed China抯 famous tourist attractions: The Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Stone Boat, Forbidden City-each remarkable to see. As the trip drew to a close, amidst a flurry of mixed emotions, parents and daughters prepared to go home. Everyone bid a fond farewell to their children抯 homeland and headed to a new life, together as they had for so long envisioned they would be!