Next Stop - Chicago, IL U.S.A.

Home sweet home. Ahh... a universal phrase yet so personal in its application.

This afternoon after the swearing in of 40 little Chinese girls as US citizens, the representative at the US Consolate in Guangzhous said, "Congratulations, you have just made it through one of the toughest bureaucratic processes known to man." Well, I don't know if it was that bad, but I am very thankful for the Children's Hope International Adoption Agency. They are supremely efficient and competent in their work. Our personal assistant, Elsie Chen was amazing, and there is no way we could have done it without her. Elsie- Thank you, and God Bless you as you continue your great work. Please come visit us in Chicago soon.



Tomorrow morning we embark on the end of this part of our journey. It promises to be a very long day. In fact, with the time change, it will be a 38 hour day for us. The most challenging part will of course be the 13 hour direct flight from Beijing to Chicago. But it is the beginning of the next part of our journey that I look forward to the most. The introduction of Gwen to the rest of our family. Caleb, Seth and Madelyn - you are going to absolutely love Gwen. She is such a happy little girl. She has been studying your pictures in the album we brought. She loves to point at each of your faces and jabber away. I am convinced she will recognize you instantly... and you are going to love her smile. Thank you for the way you are each opening your hearts to her. It is so worth it! Mom and I can't wait to see your smiling faces when we walk through the tunnel at O'Hare.



So we say goodbye to our new friends here. Matt and Kerry and their new daughter Emma, Steve and Jennifer and their new daughter Kate, Dean and his daughter Jessica and their new daughter/sister Alia, and Carol with her new daughter Kimberly. We will miss you, but hopefully only for a short while. We look forward to a reunion sometime next year. And we say goodbye to China. A country for which many people have strong opinions, both good and bad. As for us, we now know you for your sincere and gracious hospitality, your hard working spirit, and for the incredible gift you have afforded our family. We say thank you for the precious daughter you have given us. We will love her and we will let her know of the good in the country where she was born. We look forward to returning one day when she is older and can understand more fully the unique circumstances that led her to us. For now, our humble prayer is that God will extend his gracious hand to the country of China. Our hope is that one day when we do return that it may be a place that is able to provide more hope for its people, and that they will have made great progress toward their toughest social challenges.



Have a blessed Christmas celebration. We look forward to talking to everyone soon. Thank you to everyone that posted comments to our blog over the past few weeks. While we were not able to view them while here in China, we do look forward to reading them all when we arrive home... sweet home.