Addie and I have been in Beijing for 3 days. The flight over was painfully long. We arrived at our hotel and crashed hard. Yesterday we toured with a guide Tiennamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. What did I take away from this day? 1) Beijing is scorching hot in August, 2)being white we were asked several times for people to take their picture with us. 3) people here still revere Chairman Mao and make a pilgrimage here and wait in a line that you have never seen, all day, to see Chairman Mao’s body lying in state. 4) there are cameras EVERYWHERE. 5)China has soooooo many people and everything is shoulder to shoulder crowded...and sweaty hot. 6)How to use a squatte potty successfully (we read a tutorial online before we went out, thank goodness! Still, you can never really be prepared for that experience.)We were still heavily jet lagged yesterday, so we cut tour short, came back to hotel and showered and tried to stay awake! We slept heavily and awoke free from jet lag today, and today we went to the Great Wall. Addie turned 22 today, and visiting the Great Wall will be hard to beat in the future, as far as birthdays go! First we rode a ski-lift up to the top, it was soooo far off the ground, it was magical. It smelled so so fresh and good and clean. It was stunning there, and you just keep saying to yourself, “I am standing on the Great Wall of China!”, it was unreal. And there were poisonous giant (!) millipedes all over it. And so many beautiful butterflies. To get back down they had this great toboggan ride, it goes on forever, it was so fun! We are so overwhelmed by how beautiful it is here, and how ancient it is. Tomorrow we leave early for our flight to Lanzhou. 3 more sleeps before Elsie is with us! I cannot comprehend that, I can say it with words, but I just cannot believe we are this close. Thank you for your prayers, they carry us through the rough bits!
You see this beautiful, worthy, wonderfully made child?
She has 14 days left as an orphan!!! On August 20, she will walk out of her orphanage and into her family. Forever. Beloved daughter, sister, grandaughter, neice, cousin.
Adelaide and I leave Omaha next Monday, the 13th, to drive to KC for our flight out on Tues. We arrive in Beijing on the 15th,Wednesday. We acclimate to the time difference and travel to Elsie's province during the next couple days. We rest up on the 18th and 19th. Then we meet our beautiful girl on Monday the 20th. We have more paperwork in her province for the remainder of the week, and then we will fly down to Guangzhou to complete the necessary steps and paperwork and her visa to bring her home. On Aug 30 we will take the train over to Hong Kong, where we fly out on Sept 2.
I havent posted for awhile, but basically all you missed was my whiny drama about how long this wait is. So its probably for the best.
Elsie's Gotcha Day is Aug 20. Last year on Aug 20 Neil and I asked for Elsie's file to begin this crazy wonderful HARD-but-oh-so-worth-it journey.
God is so so good. He blows me away with His deep, profound, tangible love.
So it's a big prayer request with this blog post, obviously. Safe flights, prepared hearts all around, and good health. Please pray for a hedge of protection around Addie, Elsie and me. And please pray for Neil and Oscar, Finn, and Zinny that they survive well while I'm gone for almost 3 weeks (!) 😢
Thank you for all your prayers that have carried us this far, may God bless you well.
And keep your eyes out for a soon to be orphan-no-more!!
It's official! It's final! It's really finally happening after exactly 1 year of reams of paperwork, the official adoption decree was signed in Lanzhou, China just moments ago and Lan Shi Qing is officially part of our family! Praise be to God! Less than 24 hours ago Katie and Addie finally got to meet little Lan Shi Qing and she melted their hearts. They called at here at 3:00 in the morning and we were able to video chat for a while and while there wasn't a lot of talking (some "ni hao's" and some awkward attempts at saying her Chinese name properly) there were a lot of smiles and laughs. It was so cute to hear her little voice say 'ni hao papa', talk about a melting heart! It was truly amazing to see her in 'real life' (across a digital communication channel, but it was live!) and not some dated pictures or video - she was actually with Katie and Addie, and no longer in an orphanage! She has a family, she has a home, she has our hearts...we are so blessed!
