Leaving Guangzhou

It's Wednesday....or very, very early Thursday morning and we're all packed up and ready to go. Leaving China is always bittersweet. We really do love China, but it'll be so nice to get home to see Matt and get into a normal routine.

We leave in about four hours so I really should be sleeping. I'll have to post a picture of our room a couple of hours ago. I've never seen such a mess. Let's just say if I ever have to pack a bag again it will be too soon!!

(YIKES!)
Thank God we're even able to leave tomorrow. When we got to the US consulate this afternoon to swear the oath, we were told that there were communication problems between the computers at the US consulates around the world and the US government in the US. SO, Mei Lin's visa was not going to be ready until the next morning. Since our flight left at 8:20 AM, we couldn't leave on Thursday. We were scrambling to make airline reservations for the next day....but there weren't any seats on the only flight that leaves Guangzhou for Tokyo that day. We ended up booking flights for Saturday even though none of the seats were together, dreading the idea of missing Matt for two whole days more!

Then tonight Elsie called and the consulate had Mei Lin's visa!! Praise God! We were so excited. We were able to get the original flight rebooked and then had to scramble to pack. God is so good!! We prayed that things would be fixed and He answered our prayer. We have been so blessed to see his hand faithfully work throughout this trip. We have some great stories to tell of how God has worked; some of them we can't write about here, but we're once again so blessed by this amazing country and its people!

Anyway, we'll be arriving home at about 4:15 PM Thursday night (from Minneapolis) if anyone wants to briefly meet Mei Lin.

We are really looking forward to being home.

HOME SWEET HOME HERE WE COME!!

We can't wait to see you, Matt!!