Wednesday in Guangzhou

Whew, what a day!

After breakfast, Pat and Megan took a taxi to Beijing Road to do some quick shopping for my sister (and me, too). They took our friend, Millie, along for some help with interpreting, etc. I didn't go along because my job (as usual) was to pack while the little ones slept. Packing is overwhelming, to say the least. We have so much "stuff" to bring back with us and I have no idea how we're going to make get it all organized into suitcases.

This afternoon we went to our consulate appointment to swear the oath and then get Mei Lin's visa to enter the US. The oath is so anticlimactic....after you sit there while the coordinators are busy doing their thing, someone (consulate general?) comes out and has all the parents stand and raise a hand and swear that everything on our child's paperwork is true and blah, blah, blah....no one really heard him because of all the screaming babies in the room. There were about 55 US families in the room.

After the oath, they dropped the bomb on us. Because of a big communication snafu in DC, we weren't receiving the baby's visas that day and so, we weren't leaving China the next day as planned. Well, actually there were about six families that did get visas, the rest of us were going to have to wait until the next day.

Anyway, details were whirling through our heads....change flights, need hotel rooms for extra night(s) (and rooms are few with the trade fair coming to Guangzhou), have to call Matt and let him know....argh!

We stopped at the Northwest office immediately after leaving the consulate. The bus dropped a few of us off and we each took turns trying to get reservations for flights out on Friday now, instead of Thursday.

I had difficulty convincing the guy at the NW office that we didn't need to pay $200-some dollars to change each ticket because we had bought transferrable and refundable tickets (through the NW adoption services). I couldn't convince him, and didn't know what to do at that point, so I let the other families go ahead of me while I talked to Pat and decided. By the time they got back around to me, there weren't any tickets available on Friday. In fact, they told our travel companion, Gene, that there weren't seats available for them for WEEKS because of the class ticket they'd booked!! I must admit I began to panic a little. The only option for them was to pay for entirely new tickets for FIVE people...can you say "unexpected expense"? I saw the look on Gene's face and I immediately said, "We need to start praying!". A few minutes later the man found seats for Gene and his family! Praise God!

It was early morning here in the states so we couldn't speak with a Northwest representative that could help us explain to this man that we would not need to pay to transfer our tickets, but we had him hold the seats and we'd work on it that evening.

When all the Northwest office employees left, except for this man that was helping us (it was well past 5 PM - this was taking quite a while), he asked us if we were religious. Three of us said, yes, we are followers of Christ. The man said he heard me mention praying about the flights and asked us if we believed in miracles. We all said yes and he went on to explain that suddenly seats were available and he couldn't explain why he couldn't see them before or how they opened up....he, too, believed it was a miracle.

It was so wonderful to see God work in that way and have an opportunity to hear of this man's strong faith. Hopefully it was a testimony to the lady that was working on our flights with him at that time, as well. God is amazing!

We took a taxi back to the hotel and Pat and the kids were waiting for me for dinner at the restaurant. We were to meet with a Chinese pastor of an underground church and his family. It was an amazing opportunity to meet them and learn a little about the underground Christian church in China. I can't say much more, but let me tell you that their faith and strength are so encouraging and humbling. Please pray with me that God continues to use them and protect them and grow their ministry.

While we were finishing dinner, we got a call from Elsie saying Mei Lin's visa was ready early and she was heading to the consulate to get Mei Lin's visa!! We were so excited, but now it was nearly 8 PM and we needed to get our original flights back and PACK!! I hadn't even gotten close to finishing packing. Plus we hadn't bought our suitcases to pack all our things in and I still wanted to get some last minute shopping done.

We were (supposedly-read on to tomorrow's post) able to get our seats back on the flight we'd canceled a few hours earlier and then headed over to one of the shops to buy two medium suitcases and a few other odds and ends. It was 10 PM and I was still shopping, calling my sister at home to ask her what she wanted me to buy exactly. Needless to say, I was up late packing that night!

Always a new adventure!!