Hello from Guangzhou, China...

Well, hello friends. It has been such an adventure since I last posted. I'm going to have to take this by days to explain all that we've seen and experienced. So here goes...

The Flight: I am convinced that God answered prayers about our flight. DELTA rerouted us through Atlanta and we ended up on a 777 Boeing Jet... Huge. And we got the front row seats in our section. We had lots of legroom and it was bearable. In fact, it didn't get miserable until somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. The inflight tv screens connected to our seats allowed us to watch unlimited movies and had interactive maps which showed us where we were along our route. We enjoyed a couple of meals... lots of rice, and we watched several movies. I smocked for a few hours and Griff read. My mom read and watched movies too. Once we arrived at Tokyo, we began to feel the affects of over 24 hours of no sleep. Your brain begins to feel a little fuzzy. The flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong was another four hours and we all three slept a little during this. I also watched a movie...:) When we landed in Hong Kong, we took a train out of the airport and it put us out at Kowloon station. From there, we took a van to the hotel. The van driver charged us $100 US dollars for the taxi ride to the hotel. At that point, we were beyond exhausted and couldn't find any other means to get to our hotel, as it was already getting close to midnight. He kept trying to assure us that we were getting a great deal... "good car, good car"... Yeah, right. Oh, well. He received a blessing from us that evening. I'll chalk it up to that. But my dad always used to ask me after a mishap... "Now what have you learned from all of this?" Well, in this particular case... do not trust any cab drivers and ask the concierge what a fair price is for cab rides. Lesson learned.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong is a city in the middle of the ocean... much like New York City. Lots and lots of people. Mass transit is the name of the game. We left our hotel Friday morning and went to the train station. It was very frustrating trying to learn WHERE we needed to go, WHICH train to take, HOW to buy a ticket, HOW to change paper money into coins, and HOW to get on the train. Crazy. But we did it. I was so proud of us. We went to Ocean Park, which is a popular tourist attraction in Hong Kong. It is very similar to a Six Flags... a little like a zoo, but with amusement rides and attractions. Griff loves roller coasters, so we went so he could do that. Let me just say that July heat in Hong Kong is brutal. I rode one roller coaster with him, but the heat got the best of me and took a pass on the second one, as I felt I might lose my breakfast. So, Griff rode the second one, The Dragon, solo. We enjoyed the bucket ride and I got some awesome pictures of the ocean. We then took the bus and train back over to the Kowloon side of Hong Kong and then took a train to the Tram, which took us up the side of a mountain. At the top, was Victoria's Peak, another key attraction for Hong Kong. We made more beautiful photos of the city skyline and ate dinner. Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to collapse. We were having difficulties with internet connections and were frustrated to the max. We were very much looking forward to getting to Guangzhou where we would have a guide to help us manuever around.

Guangzhou: Well, this is just the beginning of our time here. Our hotel is gorgeous. Since we've been here, our housekeeper has brought in freshly cut roses and a fruit plate. We received our itinerary and met our guides, R and M. They are going to be an enormous blessing in this foreign world. So... the most important thing: We will be leaving the hotel at 2 pm on Monday to go the Civil Affairs to get Mia. That is such a surreal feeling to know we are so close to meeting our daughter. I'm looking out of our hotel window over a city and I honestly cannot believe that I am here. She will be with us in two days. Wow....

We are about to venture out and find dinner. Please continue to pray for us, but most importantly for Mia. She is about to be taken from the only home, the only people she has ever known and be placed with strangers in a city she's never seen. EVERYTHING will be a new experience. God will protect her... but we must continue to lift her up in our prayers.

Much love,
Ashley