Headed to Hong Kong

Today is the day!  We're heading to Hong Kong where we begin our trek home. We're SOOOO ready!

 Grace's last view of Guangzhou

We've basically been free today just waiting for 4 o'clock check out. Grace's Visa won't be ready until then, so our Guide arranged for a late check out and she'll bring it along with a sealed envelope that we give to immigration services when we land in San Francisco.  At that time, Grace will lose her Chinese citizenship and will become a United States citizen. She will not have dual citizenship.

So, at 4:30 we load up on a van with two other families and drive 3 and a half hours to Hong Kong with no Guide. We'll have to go through customs there and then we'll check into a hotel at the airport. Tomorrow morning we'll talk to the airlines to try to get seats together on the first long flight. PLEASE, please pray with us that Grace does well as we leave and through the 13 hour flight, and that the airline gives us favor with seats together to help console her.

We are about to finish packing and weighing our bags now, so this will be my last post before we get home. Not sure we'll be able to connect in Hong Kong and have time to communicate. We love you all and are so blessed to have had your prayers and support the past two weeks. We've also made some new lifelong friends with the same passion for adoption on this trip. Grace will especially miss Yaya and Jian (pronounced John) two little friends from the same orphanage who have been with us and their new parents this whole trip. We also learned yesterday that she gets car sick so we're hopeful that she doesn't have any sickness over the next 36 hours or so.

My heart is full as we prepare to leave. I wonder how Grace will do in her new homeland and her new home. She's very smart so I know she knows at least in part what's going on. It will be a challenge no longer having an interpreter. God be with us!

Last night, I finished a book called "Orphanology. Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Care." I loved this quote:

"There are hundreds of thousands of 'human beings'...'real people' who live out their childhood years with no mom and dad. Not having a mom and dad is just a small part of being an 'orphan.'  The real pain of being an orphan comes from living your life under a banner of being REJECTED, UNWANTED, and OPTIONAL. These scars are worn deep within every orphan child, and the hurt does not go away when they turn 18. The value and self-worth issues continue...for life. Our most effective response is to LOVE THEM."