A Quiet Day

At least, it has been a quiet day for Mark and I.  Pete has a friend from work that is here on business this week. The two of them went out to take a bicycle tour.  He checked in a couple of times and theyhave had a great time. Now they are back at the Pearl Market to see if he can purchase another of those nice backpacks so Anna can have one too. We discovered they have really nice front straps that will work well with her shoulders. Hopefully, he can negotiate another $10 purchase. We'll see. Mark was feeling a bit weary and didn't want to spend another hot day walking around Beijing. He and I have had a quiet day here at the hotel. We tried making balloon animals -- I think I need step-by-step instructions. We took a stroll around the hotel, visited the gift shop, played ping pong, got a soda from the platinum lounge, sat on the sun deck and now he is watching National Geographic channel -- bug wars!  I spent time this morning getting our bags ready for the flight tomorrow. We've been very comfortable here at the Sheraton for the past week, but we're ready to move on.  I also spent some time reading a great book a friend loaned to me - "Parenting the Hurt Child."  It is a great book. We don't really know what issues we might face with our new son. Our motto in adoption has been to prepare for the worst and expect the best. Today feels a bit surreal to me. With the quiet day, there is more time to think about the coming days. We have waited, prayed and prepared SO, SO long to meet our son. It is hard to believe that day is only two days away.  I'm not sure what else to do to be ready. I sort of feel like I do the day before a half-marathon.  I know all of the training and preparation will be put to the test soon.  I'm resting today and trusting in that preparation and trusting that our gracious God, who set us out on this journey to begin with, will fill in any gaps we may have missed. I'm sure there are things we've done to prepare that weren't necessary and will be other things that I will have wished we had done.  This has been a journey of many steps. Sometimes they have felt like they have gone backwards.  We are so thankful to have so many people praying for the steps of these next days. Tomorrow, we will meet up with a colleague of our Beijing guide who will make sure we get checked into the airport for our 5 1/2 hour flight to the far corner of China. Another guide will meet as at the airport and get us checked into our hotel. The next morning, she will pick us up and instruct us for the meetings with officials in the province and meeting our son.  In most provinces, meeting the child and conducting the official paperwork happens over two days, however, in this province it will all happen on Monday. The remaining days will be spent waiting for his passport to leave the province and getting to know him.  We haven't made definite plans for our two free days there and hope to find out if there are things he would like to see or do. We are scheduled to fly to Guangzhou on Thursday provided there are no issues with getting his passport. Your prayers for that detail would be appreciated. Thank you also for praying for Mark.  He is a bit weary today, but has been doing very well on this trip. We've been able to find food for him and supplement it with things we packed along with us. He has been a very good sport and has gotten quite good at saying "Ni Hao", "Xie Xie Nie" (Thank you) and "Tsai Jian" .. to the delight of all. I can tell this experience is really helping him to have compassion for his new brother. His prayers for him this morning were so sweet. A couple days ago, he crawled up next to me on the couch and said, "I really think Joshua is going to like having you for a mom."  It was so sweet and was what I needed to hear in that moment. Today was Anna's 5th birthday!  We stayed up late last night so that we could talk with her when she woke up and say happy birthday. This morning (her evening) we called to sing happy birthday to her. She seems to have had a good day. Grandma Shirley was making her favorite - Orange Chicken.  The kids seem to be doing well...the long separation is hard for all of us.  What a great moment it will be when we are all reunited again. There is another family here in China that I became aquainted with over the past several months.  Another mom of 5 that home educates, runs and was adopting a boy with a limb difference...  We won't cross paths because they leave Guangzhou the day before we arrive. I just checked in on their blog and read that they received a phone call two days ago that her mother-in-law had died in a tragic accident. The same day, their new son had a bad fall and injured his affected leg.  Please pray for the Wong family.