Journey to Lili
December 26
Greetings from the Land of Oz. We have been here about two weeks and are certain we are not in Kansas anymore. Although we have met some people from there. Seriously, it has been a wonderful journey through many many trials and temptations . We are alive and doing well although we have not been able to stave off the cold bug. Whether it is just getting exhausted by the travel and different locations, the variety of food, just not getting enough sleep or whatever, we have fallen prey to the runny nose and cough. Please pray for us that our little ones don't get it as we will be travelling on the loooooong plane ride in just a few days. Thus one of the reasons for not posting on a regular basis. Just too plain tired. Not that two kids are wearing us out, just the whole package. Those of you who have been here know what I mean and you also know you wouldn't trade it for anything.
When we last shared our journey, we were experiencing the joy of our little Lili and Aly. We are the proud parents of beautiful daughters and they are both so full of life and energy and strong will. God certainly matched us according to His will!! We met a very nice couple who were staying at the Lake View Hotel and adopting too. They were having a little problem with their Emilia pooping so Nurse Shelley came to the rescue and we had poop within a few hours. They were so appreciative and we sat a talked for hours sharing our adoption stories. It was very soothing and much needed. God is good all the time.
AND as a reminder of God being good, I must pause right now and say a word of appreciation to our travel companion, Babs Walker for all the help she has been on our journey. Without a doubt the trip would have been near to impossible without her. We also offer a big thanks to her hubby Henry for giving her up for this trip. I know she has added to her rewards in heaven for putting up with yours truly and adjusting to all the discomforts this type of travel supplies. She has a cold too and asthma so please put her in your prayers. I guess if I had posted about what was going on more often then you would have been prompted to pray for us. Consider this a serious apology and request for serious prayer as we are in a spiritual battle that is evident all the time. Prayer is the battlefield and we are undera barrage.
As far as updating, I would love to go back and tell you all about our visit to the Great Wall, and Shelley's & Aly's cab ride in Beijing and my ambulance ride in Guangzhou but I want to bring you up to date so I will try to post that later.
So let's see, we are in Nanchang (thanks again Val ;-) and haveing a fun time with our guide Mary who sees to it that all of our needs are met and that we have a great time while we are in her city. We visited a really cool Buddhist temple thingy and got to pray all the evil spirits away and still enjoy the architectural splendor. Aly, Shelley, Babs, and Lili climbed to the top of the Teng Weng pavillion and we have the photos to prove it. Ok so Shelley and Babs have secretly read this post before posting and determined that I am wrong about the pavillion being a Buddhist temple. I am sure you all are worried about the specifics. Let's just say it was an interesting place and full of beauty and craftmanship in the buildings. Also as usual we had a lot of people come up to us and ask questions and try to communicate. They were all very nice and appreciative of our interest in them and the fact that we were adopting.
But I digress. I am sitting here in our apartment, yes I said APARTMENT in Guangzhou. In our living area. I was going to sit in our sitting area but it is a little more comfortable in the living area. Of course I could have sat at our formal dining room table that seats 8 but I am comfortable here. And when I go back to our MASTER BEDROOM I am just so drawn to our king size bed that is much softer than normally has been here in China. I have to pass the empty bedroom that we have but no one is in. Alas, we are spoiled. I am saying all of this to say that our Agency has done an EXCELLENT job of providing for us all the way around. The China Hotel is great and we really loved their rooms last time we were here but the apartment has spoiled us and we love it.
We are ordering lunch from Danny's bagels, which is excellent too I must add and just taking it easy today. We went to our consulate appointment yesterday and swore that everything was true and that we were in fact Looney Toons and so were all of the other people in the room. I think you have to be a little tilted to go through the whole process anyway. Forget the fact that most of us Christians are weird anyway, it just depends to what extense our weirdness reaches. Can you tell I am on cold medicine? Good.
Maybe I should just stop here and just put a bunch of pictures up. I hope Danny's doesn't get here anytime soon because then you will be reading this after we get home.
Enjoy. We sure are.