Our journey to our daughter: 1 More (Try to) Sleep

3 years and 5 months have led to less than 24 hours. It is still hard to believe that this is our last night as parents of 3 (wonderful, amazing, fantastic, Godly) boys. The road God placed us on will lead us to Lanzhou, Gansu Province tomorrow to meet Wu Ao Yao. He will then start us on a new journey with our daughter Ava Lin-Wu Stubblefield. What an amazing God He has been to us!

Today we were able to do sightseeing with our travel group. The morning started with visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Before we exited the bus we were informed that this trip would take us on an 8K walk which to my best estimate is about 5 miles. Our group was definitely the minority today. One little red headed girl in our group was a celebrity. Everyone was wanting their picture taken with her. I never realized that the Forbidden City is so large. As one man named it, the Forever City. It was very interesting to see but I didn’t know if we would ever see the exit.

Next, we were taken to a local Chinese restaurant for a traditional Peking Duck lunch. I was wanting to stop at the McDonald’s that we passed by but I couldn’t, but I’m glad I didn’t. The lunch was excellent. We were taught by the chef how to properly carve and eat the duck. We were served several other dishes which were very good. The three of us used chopsticks through the whole meal. I (Chris) told someone that I would surely lose weight today between the walking and then using chopsticks. Morgan was a trooper and tried each dish. We never knew that a trip to China would make our son a conversationalist. He has truly shown a side of himself that we have desperately wanted to see for a long time. He is talking with everyone in the group and actually looking at them when he talks.

After lunch we headed to the Great Wall. What an amazing site to behold! Many people have talked about how difficult it is to climb because of the uneven stairs. You truly have to experience it to believe them. Morgan and I made it to the 2nd Tower, but Tammy waited for us between the 1st and 2nd Towers. I don’t know if it was more difficult going up or coming down. For a person like me who hates heights, the climb down was a little scary, but I’m glad that I got to experience this with one of my sons.

We leave for the airport at 6:20 in the morning. Our flight leaves at 8:10am (7:10pm Sesser time) and lands at 10:30am. Since we are the only family going to the Gansu Province, we are going to miss the other members of our group while we are in Lanzhou. Luckily, we will meet up with them again on July 3rd. It is amazing how close we have become with people we just met on Thursday. We know we have made some lifelong friends.

We have meant to share with everyone what we found in our hotel room. Tammy opened the drawer on the night stand and found an English/Chinese Bible. We were so surprised and so excited. We are so glad that God’s word is being placed in a Chinese hotel. Our prayer is that Ava’s homeland will come to know the one true God.

Please keep us and Ava in your prayers. Also, please pray for her foster family as they say goodbye to Wu Ao Yao.