Last Day in Guangzhou

Oh, how bittersweet it is to say that this wraps up our time in China...

We have fallen so in love with this country, the homeland of our precious Li Ming. These amazing people have shown us nothing but warmth, love, and hospitality. The people of China live under some very difficult circumstances, but their spirits do not show it. We have learned much from them, and are truly humbled to have lived among them, if even for such a short time. We will be forever grateful for the GIFT we've been given by this country. She is "exceedingly, abundantly above all we had hoped or imagined!"

We have witnessed God's Hand like never before. The minute details that we've been praying for over the last 3 years have ALL been answered beyond our wildest dreams. We BELIEVED GOD, and the mountains moved! We stepped out in faith, and He led us every step. I remember my fear back in the summer of 2005 when I was wrestling with God over whether or not we were to pursue this...and I remember how I told God that He really didn't want us ordinary little ragamuffins to do such an extraordinary thing as adopt....and I remember how I prayed, and wrestled this all out with God...and I remember that Sunday morning, August 21st, 2005, while sitting in the church service when I clearly knew that this was what God was calling our family to do...and I remember going to the end of the 11th chapter of Hebrews and writing: "Hebrews 11:41 (adding my own last verse) By faith, Phillip and Rhonda believed God when He called them to adopt..." I knew He had ordained the time and I was sure of what He'd called us to do.

Today, almost 3 years later, I sit here at my computer at 1 am in China while the most angelic little cherub on the planet sleeps securely 4 feet away. She is no longer an orphan. She is ours'...forever. She has a mommy, a daddy, 3 awesome brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and a whole community of people who have hit their knees interceding for her since before she was even conceived. In just a few hours, she'll board a plane headed to the United States of America where she'll be welcomed and embraced by these people who will love her and pray for her, and ultimately show her Jesus. I am in awe. I will forever be in awe.

The extraordinary was accomplished, but it was THROUGH us; not BY us. This is His story; not ours'. We're simply the vessels He's using to accomplish His purposes. God's heart is FOR the orphan. If you are praying about adopting, please e-mail us and let us share with you some of what we've learned in this process. We have been stretched, and we have discovered a deeper love we'd have never known without this journey.



A couple notes about the pictures above: Several are just random shots of us today. One is Peyton standing in front of a Uighur Restaurant. This is a muslim people group in Northwest China. Our new friends, Lesli and Rusty, took us there for lunch today and it was a hit! They've had the privilege of spending some time with these people and it was fun to hear Rusty order our food in their native tongue. This has definitely been an educational trip. Another picture is of all 4 of us standing in front of the U.S. Consulate today. You can see in our hands the MOST precious packet of papers, the famous "Brown Envelope" (all you China adoptive families know, don't you?!). This is the packet of info. we hand over to the immigration people in the U.S. customs tomorrow when we land in Chicago. Without this, little Miss Li Ming can't enter our country. At the consulate, we all raised our right hands and swore that all our information was true and correct....They wouldn't allow cameras of any kind in there, so it was a bummer not to have that moment captured for Macy Li to see one day, so we just took this shot as we left the building. That appt. finished up our official business here in China. Tomorrow, she flies home on her Chinese passport as "Gan Li Ming." She becomes a U.S. citizen when she passes through Customs in Chicago! We can hardly wait to show her off to you when we get home. We'll be arriving into Nashville at 9:30pm on United Flight #7884 from Chicago.