OK, so now my mind has cleared somewhat. I will try to put a few things in perspective. First, I cannot type worth a flip on this tablet, so if there are crazy words, please overlook.
God is so good. What more do I need to say? He brought us down this adoption road, and He ain't done yet. First, He was there for the beginning leg. When we arrived in Nashville kinda late in the evening, we were worried about missing the last shuttle to the hotel. You guessed it... The shuttle was loading immediately in front of us when we exited the parking deck. God took care of it.
After arriving in Beijing, we felt lost as the signs were difficult to follow and my southern drawl must have confused the people at the airport. I was trying to figure out where to pick up our luggage for the connecting flight to Nanchang (rhymes with man sang). The poor security guard did not understand me. When I showed him our ticket, he said 'Ah, you go to Nanchang (rhymes with man song). Now shouldn't that be spelled Nanchong?
Anywho, now headed in the right direction for baggage pickup we jumped on an automated shuttle that goes like 5000 miles per hour. Still shaken from breaking the sound barrier in a bus travelling backwards, we stumble into baggage claim to be told our bags got left behind in Chicago. Not one, but both. This is the part where God stepped in again. While the baggage claim people were frantically trying to locate our luggage, off it rolls onto the belt. Cindy and I grabbed the two peices, and flagged down the baggage guy. He was very apologetic for the confusion, and insisted on helping us get to our connecting flight.
So God made the luggage appear, but he went a step further. This airport employee put our luggage on a cart, dragged us half a mile to a bus that drove to the other terminal, which I believe was on the other side of Beijing. The employee escorted us through the China Southern ticket station all the way to customs to get our luggage checked. I truly believe we would have missed our connecting flight were it not for the young man God placed in our path. It gets even better.
When our guide, Mary, met us in Nanchang (chong, remember), she was amazed that our flight was on time. Apparently, bad storms had delayed every flight by several hours, except the one we were on. Ours was only 10 minutes late.
Every travel guide I read about Nanchang(chong) said to pack for rain. Some adoption travel guides suggested multiple shoes so the other pair could be drying. How many times has it rained on us since we got here? None. It stopped raining when we went to the local market, police station, notary, government adoption agency, everything. Mary took us to the famous Tengwang Pavilion, and commented she had never seen it so empty, and been able to tell the whole story of the pavilion without interruption. Must have been the rain keeping people at home, but I never got a drop on me.
The cool thing is, I believe all of these are just more confirmation that we are following God's will in our lives. Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. A few more days in Nanchang, before flying to Guangzhou to pick up Joanna. If I can figure how to get pictures off my camera, onto the tablet, I'll post. Otherwise those will have to wait until we get home. God bless each of you!
