Methuen resident Nancy Farelli's brother left for China last month to adopt a little boy, and she feared the worst when she couldn't reach him after a powerful earthquake killed more than 12,000 people there.
Officials at the U.S. embassy told her no American citizens died in Monday's 7.9-magnitude quake, but she remained anxious because her brother, John Lang, 46, of Londonderry, N.H., didn't answer his cell phone for days.
Farelli didn't think to write down the name of the hotel or even the name of the city where Lang was staying with his wife, Cherie, and mother-in-law, Anne Parkhurst.
"I didn't ask," she said. "The reason they were going was a happy occasion. They were waiting two years to do this, if not more."
So for two days, Farelli was consumed by tears and anxiety. But this story has a happy ending.
The Langs and Parkhurst stepped off the plane at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport at 10:15 last night with their new 13-month-old son, Joseph.
"Our cell phones weren't working well," Lang said, after his sister and her family greeted him and his family with balloons and hugs.
The quake may have disrupted cell phone service, Lang said. The Langs visited Bejing and traveled to other parts of the country.
"We didn't feel nothing," Lang said, adding that the Chinese government responded to the disaster quickly.
The quake's epicenter was in Sichuan province.
The Langs left for China on April 30 and adopted their son May 5.
When Lang didn't return his sister's voice mail messages, Farelli left about 20 messages on his home answering machine, thinking he might call home to check his messages.
Lang did end up checking his messages at home and called Farelli yesterday at work to let her know he was in Chicago and would be home late last night.
"I screamed when I heard him," Farelli said.
Before yesterday, Farelli hadn't heard from her brother and his wife since Saturday.
Farelli was angry he didn't call her sooner, but relieved to hear they were safe.
"They weren't even near it," she said while waiting for him at the airport. "Thank God."
Farelli went to the airport with her husband, Chris Reardon, son Mike Reardon, 15, and daughter, Kelli-Ann Farelli, 23.
Lang and his wife named their adoptive son Joseph. The baby was abandoned at a police station when he was only a month old and raised in an orphanage until they adopted him, Lang said.
Farelli and Lang are originally from Lawrence. Farelli is the protective big sister in the family. Aside from Lang, she has one other younger brother.
"We lost our mother 10 years ago, so it's just me and my two brothers," she said.
Farelli learned a lesson from the experience, and she advised anyone with traveling loved ones to "make sure you get information" about where they are staying.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
