5 Days to China!

Mark 36 He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

I cannot believe that after all the hurrying up that we are this close. Grace and I say back and forth, I can't wait to go to China. She can't wait to meet her sister.

It is beginning to sink in for Grace too, to return to your homeland, her birthplace, where we think her foster mother still lives, and where a big part of her future waits.

It will also be the end of a family of two and learning to share, to adjust, to compromise. Grace is concerned about how that will work.

I asked her to promise that she will come home with me from China. She will always be my first daughter, though not my oldest. You can see where that could be confusing.

I tried to explain and finally decided that colors would be one way to describe the changes. The two of us are blue, not sad, but the brightness of the sky blue, and when Gillian and Darcey were here, they were red. The first couple of days we were still red and blue, but after about the third day we fell into a routine and our world became purple. But when they left, it took a while, but we became blue again.

Some additions are more subtle, like the people we see each day. And so each day our world is sprinkled with the colors of all these different people.

But with Anabel, it will be different because this is a permanent change. So if she is yellow, then it might take a long time for us to become green. But that's ok, we can work on it together.

So then she decided she is not sure if she likes change. But if we had stayed in bed all day, then she never would have helped her Poppa put her new bed together and now she has learned how to use a screw driver and a power screw driver. An accomplishment she is very proud.

We talked about compromise and maybe Anabel will want her to play a game she doesn't want to play, but if she plays then, maybe the next time she will choose.

Then we end it with our prayer and say again that we can't wait to go to China! She can't wait to get a sister!