We Made It!

Since Wednesday, we have travelled from Birmingham, to Chicago, to Hong Kong where we stayed overnight and finally caught a plane to Changsha where we will meet our girl!!

 

 

We didn't think we would ever get to Hong Kong!

 

Once we got to Changsha, our guide Wendy was waiting on us!  She has been wonderful.  I feel like we are long lost friends.  Wayne and I have both had an absolute blast with her!  The laughing has  continued and Wendy has joined right in!  We have already learned so much about the Chinese culture from her.  She laughed at one of our questions and said we have watched too much Jackie Chan!  :)

 

One thing she taught us that has really stuck with me is the measure Chinese people will take for good luck.  Most people know that Chinese people love red and believe it to be good luck.  I've seen several cars with red ribbon tied to their side mirrors.  She told me that was supposed to get the spirits to protect them.  They also believe their first president to be a god and many have little statutes of him on their dash for good luck. 

 

On a side note.  This is the year of the goat, and supposedly it is very unlucky to have a child in the year of the goat.  Also, the Chinese believe if you have a child that is not perfectly healthy, that child is the cause of bad luck.  This is another reason for abandonment.

This is a country that desperately needs Jesus.

 

This is our hotel lobby.  We are so fortunate.  I've seen some people really miserable at the week stay in their child's province and in some really not nice places.  That is not the case here.  There are 7 million people living in Changsha alone.

 

Here we are ready to eat at our first real Chinese restaurant.  It was actually surprisingly pretty good!

 

We went to Walmart today.  It is freezing here and raining, although it wasn't supposed to be!  Wayne wanted a thicker jacket.  Unfortunately this is how a men's XL fits him.  He wears a M/L in the states!

 

What a meat department!

Remember how I told you our hotel was nice?  They have a spa, and we got a ridiculously good (and cheap!) foot massage!  They put the TV on the only English channel, and we got to watch The Lego Movie.  We all thought that was pretty funny.

 

 

We are so very thankful for Wendy.  We wouldn't be able to go anywhere without her!  She has been wonderful!  Another cool thing about her is she was Steven and Mary Beth Chapman's guide for their second adoption.  We talked for a while about him, I showed her pictures of his family now, shared how his foundation had a huge part in making it possible for us to be here, and it opened up a small conversation about Christianity.  God is so in the details.  What are the chances of that?!?!

Monday morning at 10:15 (Sunday night at 8:15 in the states) she is picking us up to get our daughter!!!  We are so ready, and anxious, and excited, and slightly scared, and thankful The Lord has us on this journey....