Beginning the final leg home ...

Hello all, David here. We have made it safely to the Marriott at the Hong Kong airport. Wow, it's hard to believe we've been in China over 2 weeks, and we have had Hannah for over 1 1/2 weeks - where has the time gone? Tomorrow we start the marathon ~24 hour journey back home ...

We left our hotel in Guangzhou at 2:30 and our guides were able to get Hannah's Visa and top-secret, sealed brown envelope in time for us to catch the 4:15 train out of Guangzhou for Hong Kong.  It was a 2 hour ride and Hannah did well, though she really started losing interest after the 1st hour or so ...

For tomorrow's flight, Lois has all kinds of snacks (food is a great distractor, at least for Hannah), toys, books, coloring books, stickers, ... Is it enough to entertain her the whole way home? We shall see ... At least they have us seated in the back of the plane. Lois has already decided that we will take turns letting Hannah walk all over the gate area until we board, hoping to tire her out (or at least get her to the point that she would like to sit for a while). Our new friends, the Varns, from Southern Illinois are also on the same flight as us, but they are up in Economy Plus (the somewhat expensive seats :>) - so we may or may not see them. They elected to start their journey in the morning - they will fly to Hong Kong from Guanghou, layover for a few hours, then get on the flight for Chicago.

We arrived in Hong Kong about 6:15 and decided to go ahead and eat at the train station instead of waiting until we got to our Hotel (it was about a 45 minute ride out to the Hotel). There was a McDonalds, it was quick and easy ... I do understand now, how McDonalds makes money off of families (the quick and easy part is pretty tempting after a long day; and in China the added benefit of familiarity just kind of seals the deal). The room is clean and comfortable, but a far cry from the Suite we had in Guangzhou.  At least it is a king-sized bed.  Hannah is in a portable pack-and-play, and seemed especially excited about getting in it; I guess anything new peaks her curiosity ...

Our flight leaves around noon tomorrow (around midnight Atlanta time) and goes direct to Chicago where we are supposed to deliver the top-secret sealed brown envelope to the immigration officials there. Apparently they will unseal the envelope and know what to do with it's contents (I don't even know what's in the envelope ...) We have been told to prepare for a 1 - 3 hour adventure through US Immigration, we'll see ... We have a 5 hour layover, so we should have plenty of time.

It will probably take me a while to process all that has transpired over the past 2 weeks. What an amazing journey - at approximately 4:15 PM, on Sunday, 5/30, Lois and I became parents, and Hannah found her forever family. How unbelievably blessed Lois and I are! The transition thus far, has not been without it's bumps, but it has been amazingly smooth. Thank you for sharing this journey with us, for praying for us and for encouraging us - we could not have done this without all of you. And there is no way we could have done any of this apart from our Father in Heaven who adopted us into His family.

With that, I bid you all good night as we say good bye to our daughters home land ...