Nanning, Guangxi, China

We are really Here! Did you know that Chinese airlines serve full yummy meals on one hour flights? Our guide met us at the airport and our driver was the slowest, most careful driver in China - and not just cuz the X was still working, Jerry thought so ,too. Tomorrow we will meet him in the morning for a 25 minute drive to meet Rosie. She will have left Luizhou about 3 hours earlier to make what will possibly be the longest trip she has ever taken. Please pray that God makes us look and smell at least moderately good to her. After meeting her we will probably do a little shopping and go to lunch before we have to go to sign documents at two different govt offices. Tomorrow night for us, Monday morning for you we will have pictures! I am going to try to add a picture of the backpack we will give her when we meet her.

Test

We will probably not be able to access our blog in China so I am trying to post from email. This is a test.
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Sent via the WebMail system at email.dnet.net

Hardships

Lest anyone spend too many moments feeling sorry for all the hardships we have had to endure to bring home Dominic and Rosemary I need to show you our six dollar breakfast buffet options.
In addition to the traditional American breakfast option where the chef cooked eggs per your specification, there was a chef cooking crepes, another cooking noodle choices, another keeping the fruit bar filled, others stocking the pastry rack and the dozens of hot choices that I didn't recognize. So much for hardships. Of course this is Hong Kong. :)

ARIEL is my Hero!

We said our farewells and drove down to Atlanta last night to prepare for an early morning departure. As I was stepping out of the shower this morning I had a panic attack, remembering that when I made last minute copies of our passports yesterday,I had left the pasports in the copy machine. At close to 9:00 I called Ariel to tell her to throw the little kids in the car and get them to us at the airport asap. Atlanta is a 2 hour drive from where we live , the traffic is horrendous, especially getting to the airport and I have never let 18 year old Ariel make that drive before - especially alone. I am so impressed that she managed to rouse 2 sleeping children and throw them in the car fast enough to get to us on time. We had alerted the Delta people so they were also watching out for us.
So our trip began with me spending the morning crying at the airport. Partially over my stupidity at leaving the passports but mostly over my worry about Ariel and the kids having to make that awful drive.
God was gracious. We don't always get to see God bring good out of bad things but this time we saw it almost immediately. As Ariel was driving home we got the second call of the morning from Ric who was misreable and crying. His mother had taken him to Gainesville to visit his dad and cousins for the weekend and he was not doing well (he threw up last night, so maybe he was actually sick).
I told his Mom that Ariel was passing through Gainesville at that moment and she could take him back to Franklin if she wanted. He was happy to get to go home with her although he spent yesterday and today so far laying around. Ariel is off to Splash Country today so Joyce and Lindsay are managing the kids.
Our flights were uneventful. X@n@x is a miracle drug for those with FOF. We are now in a luxurious Marriot about to crash. We get Rosie on Monday and Dominic on Wednesday and the real adventure will begin. Goodnight. C

Approaching the Goal

For the entire last year, we having been pressing toward the goal of going to China to bring home Dominic and Rosemary. Amidst all the busyness of our lives, the thought of them ,and the trip to get them, has never been far from our thoughts. We have completed a veritable mountain of paperwork, sent money to agencies everywhere, debated about clothing sizes, filled drawers with new clothes , repainted bedrooms, refinished furniture, struggled to choose names, bought new dolls :) , electronic toys, backpacks, bedspreads, you name it, and doing all that we could to prepare a place that we hope these children will like.
And them? Until just a few months ago, they did not even know we existed. One of them has lived in an orphanage since being abandoned on a bus at age 5, the other has lived in an orphanage or fostercare for 10 years. It is what they have known. And now they will be asked if they would like to leave all they have ever known to come with us. Will they be brave enough to do it? At their age, they have a choice. As an orphan in China, they will have no opportunity for education and most jobs are not open to them. But, at least they know what they can expect. They know nothing about us.
I love the Biblical parallels in adoption. I love that God left a comfortable place to come to us, although we were not mighty, or worthy, or even good, and by the power of His 'love He predestined us to adoption as sons, according to the good pleasure of His will' (Eph1:5). I love that Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us. I love that He has allowed us to experience, in a small way, what He has done for us.
If the children knew all that we have done /planned for them surely they would be eager to come. (Do you think that is just what God is thinking about us? )
How will they respond?
For us, at this moment in time, that is an unknown. But it is already known to God. I love that , too.

July Birthdays

With four birthdays within eleven days , we get our fill of cake and ice cream in July.

The kids took Jerry for a ride on Thomas for his birthday again this year.

What to do ?

We have been waiting a year to get travel approval (TA) from China so that we could bring home Dominic and Rosie. We heard yesterday that we had finally received it and that we could travel from Aug 8 to the 21st. So why am I not rejoicing? We had expected to be back before the 15th when: my parents are arriving from Florida, Clara (our first granddaughter) is supposed to come out of Lindsay's tummy, and we have tickets for Steven Curtis Chapman (right here in Franklin, greatmountainmusic.com ). Add to that the fact that tickets are mega expensive in August (worse because our agency has us traveling on weekends) and in September they plummet to only $1200 person. So. We told the kids that we thought we would get them in July. Do we wait until September? We are checking to see if we can use our FF miles. Inspite of all we would miss here that might be the deciding factor. Or not.