Last day as a family of 5

Today is the last day we will be the parents of three and a family of five. Tomorrow we meet Grace for the first time. It really is impossible to prepare for this moment accurately. So much is unknown. So, we wait and trust. Thank you for your prayers. We are doing so well. We have enjoyed our time here in Beijing and feel ready to meet Grace and start the adventure of being parents to a girl! We miss the boys. It feels like we have been here a lot longer than we have and we have many days to go. We will really be needing to see them by the time we are ready to travel home! They seem to have be having a good time with Grandma Jeannie. So thankful for that.

Today we went to the Forbidden City. If you saw "The Last Emperor", it was filmed here, about the last of the Mantua emperors, a boy king. It was an amazing palace that is so large and has so many corridors and courts that one cannot imagine. The rooves were painted gold and are so beautiful sparking in the sunshine. The smog has cleared the last two days and we had beautiful weather.

After the Forbidden Palace, we went to a Hutong village and got to ride on a rickshaw. It was very neat to see how the people of Beijing used to live. Hutongs are clusters of one story buildings surrounding a courtyard. There used to be thousands of these all over Beijing, but many were torn down to build the Olympic stadiums and parks, and many more to build the high rise buildings that are needed to house the 20 million residents of Beijing. Most people in Beijing live in these high rise buildings. Beijing has amazing architecture, some of the most unique I have seen in any city I have ever been.

When I say we meet Grace tomorrow, really for you, it will be the middle of the night Sunday into Monday. We leave the hotel here at 5am tomorrow! Not looking forward to that early morning wake up! We fly to Guangzhou and meet Grace in the afternoon, about 2:30 in the morning your time. So pray for us before you go to bed. And check Facebook sometime tomorrow. I will try to post pics if I am able.

Finally, I was given a verse a few weeks ago about this day. Exodus 3:5 says "Do not come any closer" says God, "Take off your shoes, for the place your are standing is holy ground". I did a little reading about this today and found a few ways in which this applies. First, you take off your shoes to leave behind the "schmutz" of the world, the dirt....to separate yourself from the dross. Also, shoes provide a protective layer so that you can walk without paying attention. Walking barefoot requires one to pay attention to each step. Truly, everywhere we walk is holy ground. Every action we take has a reaction, for good or for bad so you are not off the hook! But these first few moment and days with Grace really feel like holy ground. Moments that cannot be repeated or changed. Pray that we can leave the rest of the world at the door and focus intentionally and preciously.