Day 4 - Beijing - almost there, ahna....

8:15 p.m. Beijing time.

As I sit down to write this, my heart is nearly beating out of my chest and my fingers are shivering, just thinking of what the next 24 hours will bring. I don't know how well I'll do with a blog post, but hopefully we'll at least have some great photos for you to look at.

Today, we have attended a Christian Church service, had 2 more Chinese meals, and scaled the Great Wall of China. OK, maybe just a bit of the wall. In addition, we spent a little time learning about the importance of jade to the Chinese people, were given the opportunity to purchase some of this jade, and went to the Friendship Store in Beijing, where we were also given ample opportunity to buy every kind of trinket you could think of.

The church service we attended this morning was not held in a traditional church building, but in a theatre. We were told by Maggie, our trusty guide, that by order of the "police station," this can not be called a church. It is a place open only to foreigners of China, so Maggie has never been inside. We had to show our passports twice, and I was wanded by the security personnel. The service itself included some worship songs, one of which was sung in English, the others in Mandarin. They were beautiful songs, and it was touching and humbling to be part of that multi-cultural experience. The message was given in English, then translated to Mandarin.

On to the Great Wall... We had less than two hours to spend there, and the heat of today equaled that of yesterday. Actually, Bill will tell you about our fun time at The Wall a bit later.

(Ok its later -- There is not much I can say about The Wall. A few thoughts. Its steeper than you think. There were not as many people as we thought. It was worth seeing for sure. And the pictures that are on the link, say it all. If you want history on it, look it up on Wikipedia. You don't need me. Enjoy the photos later; after all, it's all about Ahna at this point!)

Maggie told us that the Great Wall is usually much more crowded and "very loud," but since people are having a harder time getting Visas into the country because of the Olympics, the crowds were way down today.

I will close for now and start going through Ahna's bag. All her things are separated into different ziploc bags and have been closed up in the duffel bag we brought them in. We have had a bottle sitting out, her little diaper tote, and one of her blankets. Everything else - put away. Until now. I opened the bag when we first came back to the room tonight, and that's when the butterflies started and the inability to concentrate. I want to have beautiful, meaningful words to describe what this is like, so that I never forget this feeling. But, words seem to fail me now. My heart is full, and my eyes are open to this blessing that the Lord is giving. He is so faithful and He is so good. Every bit of what He has done has been good, teaching us patience and trust and contentment, while we waited on Him. And now to have this gift at hand, to feel so lavished with love by my Father in heaven, is more than can be described.

So, I'll get our little bag ready for Ahna. We'll take a bottle, water, a formula pack (I purchased the single-use type), an outfit, a blanket, some Gerber snacks, a toy. Hopefully, when we receive Ahna, her caretaker will have some of her Chinese formula to give us, but we will be prepared, just in case. We and 5 other families leave this hotel at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, and will arrive in Nanchang around 2:30 p.m. From the airport, we will go directly to the Civil Affairs Office - we think it's about a 45 minute drive. And at the Civil Affairs Office, we will receive our daughter. Ahna will placed into my arms (or Bill's), and she will instantly be ours to hold forever.

Today, she spent the day with her little friends for the last time. To her, it was an ordinary day, no different from all the other days she had spent in recent times. This evening, she had her last supper at the orphanage, probably congee or some sort of soup. She was readied for bed, given her bottle, and laid down in her crib. I hope she was given extra hugs and kisses and some tender loving care. Tonight, she sleeps for the last time in her orphanage crib, probably with her crib-mate.

And tomorrow, Ahna's life, our lives, will change forever. She will never be an orphan again. I can't begin to write that story yet, but I'm so thankful that God already has.

It means so much to have friends and family along for this journey.... thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and for your kind comments on this blog.

Today's Photos - The Wall