Apologies all, not trying to cause more heartache in an already maddening process.
After the news from Hong Fu, I did a quick Google search and did find some confirmation that there have been windows of time, like any other Holiday Season, where shipping has been delayed during the Spring Festival, but nothing like what the Hong Fu rep described, no shipping EMS Express UNTIL Spring Fest is over. Maybe it was just a translation issue, but that's what sent me to other suppliers and to Aliexpress and Alibaba. Nobody else even mentioned any EMS shipping issues at this time.
Really, just curious if anybody else had been told this or, even, had worked with Hong Fu recently.
Thanks!