Good morning all!
I'm sitting in the floor of the bathroom in our hotel room. It is 4:52 AM here and though I should be sleeping, my body isn't listening to my head. I'm thankful that the boys are sleeping.
We had a great trip and are so thankful to God for bringing us safely here. The boys did better traveling than I could ever have imagined! I'm so very proud of them. Garrison didn't like any of the meals of course, so he seemed to be hungry all of the time. He about came out of his seat when we were served a snack and it turned out to be vanilla ice cream and sliced turkey on a bun. That is the kind of snack he is talking about. Simon passed on every bun, but enjoyed the noodle dishes on the plane. They were great compliments to each other. They enjoyed their movies, especially on our second flight from Tokyo to Guangzhou where they each had their own television and could pick what they wanted to watch. I enjoyed that flight because it was shorter (4 hours) and because I found a row of three open in the back of the place and I took a little snooze. Gary met some missionaries in the plane and all around us folks were amused as the boys got excited about the free blankets, pillows, and headsets. They would randomly shout of pieces of discovery much to our amusement too. "Are we over the ocean yet?" "I can have the whole can of apple juice? Sweet!" "I'm naming this blanket blanked." "Are we over the ocean yet." Simon asked the question more than five times--the first being about 10 minutes into the flight. :) He did get to see the Pacific Ocean about 11 hours into the flight. It was blue. He was hoping to see whales jumping and was disappointed that this didn't happen. I tried to explain, but the child learns by doing and seeing himself.
We ran into trouble twice. Once when we went through security and due to a miscommunication between Gary and I, Gary's pocketknives were confiscated. There wasn't anything we could do to keep them as our bags were already checked. The other problem was that we arrived in Guangzhou and couldn't find our guide. He was not here. It is such a helpless feeling to arrive somewhere and really have no clue where to go! We didn't even know the name of our hotel! Thankfully he arrived after about 10 minutes. We praised God for His faithfulness and left the airport with our new friend John.
This morning Garrison is looking forward to a breakfast buffet (we all are after eating airplane food for the past 36 hours) and then we pack everything up and take a bullet train to our province. I'm very excited to do this as it is something I've never done before. We'll arrive in Changsha and then have a free day tomorrow. Hopefully we can find something fun to do together as well as continue to get over our jet lag. Monday morning we'll meet Michael.
We completely missed the Fourth of July as we took off from our house at 8:30 on thursday morning and arrived here at 9:30 Friday night. We did pass over a lightening storm and decided that they were God's fireworks for us. It was beautiful!
I don't have pictures as I'm on the iPad and don't know how to transfer a thing, Gary is sleeping and is the one who knows such things, I'm not even on my blog and am sending this to my friend Karen so that she can post it, and several of our cool pictures were deleted while the Chinese policeman looked over my shoulder. I apparently took pictures of the boys entering the country and I was not supposed to do that! :) I was very kind to the policeman and he was not impressed with me in the least.
I'm unable to access Facebook and it looks like I won't have access to the blog. We will see how all of this goes and I'll update via Karen when I can.
The morning we left, I read a verse with the girls that I read again this morning. We talked about it through our tears as we celebrated God in our lives and that He is with us no matter where we are. I read it again this morning and am so thankful to be walking with The Lord. We will read it together as a family this morning knowing that my girls at home read it at the beginning of their morning as well.
Psalm 16:11
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
I am so thankful that I am on the path of life. God showed me it through parents, teachers, His Word, friends and many life experiences. I find so much joy when I sit in God's presence and look forward to ETERNAL pleasures with my God and King. Noel and I were struggling to leave each other and we needed to know that it isn't about us being separated, but about us being together in The Lord. We will be together eternally!
Thanks for your prayers and well-wishes. God is using them to encourage us and we are thankful.
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