The Long Awaited Day

It's finally here. We're leaving for China to bring Hannah home. As I reflect back on the roller coaster of emotions I have experienced while waiting for Hannah, I realize how much God has taught me. All those bumps in the road that seemed huge and very stressful at the time don't look so huge in retrospect. God's perfect time to get Hannah has come. He had it planned all along. He is faithful. He has taught me more about patience and peace, trusting and joy despite circumstances than ever before. Sadly, I am a slow learner and I'll probably have many remedial courses in the future, but I am grateful that God has chosen to keep working on me so that I may be conformed to the image of Christ.

We head out on Thursday morning very early. It turns out that we actually get Hannah on Monday, August 31 (not Sunday as we were originally told.) I've put a brief itinerary in the sidebar. We are meeting Hannah on the exact same day as the family from the Netherlands are getting her little friend. God worked it all out so that neither Hannah nor Emil would wonder why their friend left them behind. God planned for us to meet this family and hopefully begin a relationship. Awesome!

On a lighter note, packing for this trip has been a hoot. We have all these gifts, toys for Hannah, stuff to do in our down time, medicines for whatever ailment befalls us, computer and camera equipment, and oh yeah, a few clothes for each of us. We can only bring 1 checked and 1 carry-on each and they must be under 44 pounds. Sounds like a lot, but it isn't. We weighed and shifted, weighed again, shifted again, and finally found the magic combination. Let's hope our little bathroom scale and the airport scale agree. Here's Eric performing our final weigh-in. Since he hasn't had time to work out this week, that should help.

We covet your prayers for all of us. Thanks for your encouragement. Our next post will be from China!!! Love you all.