Plans for China

--Hi all--

First off-Papa Petty is off the ventilator! Praise God!

Now, we are on to getting ready for Simon. We officially leave on Thursday November 6 from Grand Rapids to Detroit to Tokyo to Beijing (almost 23 hours total of travel time--gotta wish for business class!). We'll spend one day in Beijing with Angela. We'll stay at her home with her. She is a friend of a family with our agency. We'll tour the Great Wall of China on Saturday. We fly to Chengsa, the capitol of Hunan province where we'll settle in with a missionary family (friends of Kyla our angel missionary who is taking care of Simon!) and the next day we'll get Simon! November 10 is gotcha day. A few days in Chengsa, then off to Guangshou to the Victory Hotel and all the US appointments. We'll leave on November 21!

Don't worry if you can't keep all of that straight. We've had some time to think about it for awhile. We are told that we'll have Internet, so we'll be posting.

For now, we are getting "gifts" for all the officials that we'll meet as well as trying to think about what we might need. . . for us and for Simon. Gary will order the "new" money this week. We need to have a $3000.00 "gift" in new non-folded bills. Gotta love China.

Thanks for all the encouragement and especially your prayers! We are especially enjoying playing with Garrison and Noel. I don't even want to think about saying good-bye to them.