A New Journey Begins

It is now 11:15 pm on Friday night, we are less than 7 hours from starting our journey home. This is Sophia's last night in China and she starts a completely different life tomorrow. We can not thank you all enough for logging in each day and taking this journey with us. Thank you for your prayers and comments on the blog. Our plan is to fly directly to Tulsa and spend 3 days there and return to Atlanta on the 11th. We are facing 4 different aircraft changes and over 20 hours of flying. If all goes to plan we will be in Tulsa Sunday morning. It is sad that this is our last blog entry on what has been a fantastic time together as a family, meeting wonderful people that are now a part of our lives and we are all now part of a new community. This has been a journey of faith and hope and now love and we can't wait for you all to meet her.

Please keep us in your prayers as we are traveling and we will see you in a few days.

In love
Michael, Elizabeth, Ali, Matt, Maggie and Sophia

Journey Day 13 - The Famous Red Couch

For all of you that know about the red couch picture day this is it! If there is one thing that Elizabeth has watched group after group before us do, it is the red couch pictures. Of course our picture tour guide (Elizabeth) convinced all of the parents in our group to buy a traditional Chinese dress to take this picture in, some took some convincing but this is Elizabeth we are taking about. As you will see from the pictures it was well worth the effort. This was the hardest day to select pictures to place in the blog because we have so many. After the pictures, we walked about 5 blocks to take the girls Visa pictures for entrance into the USA, then we had to have another round of doctor visits. We all ate dinner together, this was a long but great day.

Breakfast at our Hotel

I wish we could find some nice places to eat!

In the center of the hotel

Red couch group photo

And here they all are, almost

Nothing more to say

Outside of the Visa photos

The doctor visit

You are going to stick what where?

Yes I can hear it already!!

It has rained everyday and we got soaked walking back

Dinner together

You got chicken in my muscle sauce

Can you find the chicken head?

Journey Day 12 - Sophia's First Flight

After 8 days and 7 nights we leave Nanning. We left the hotel around 10:30 and took the 1 hour bus ride to the airport. Got through the airport with no problems and took a 1 hour flight to Guangzhou. The babies did great on the flight, it was really bumpy landing and some of them started crying then. Sophia did great! It took almost 2 hours to get all of our luggage and get loaded and out of the airport once we arrived. Another 1 hour bus ride to our hotel but this is the nicest hotel on our trip. We are staying on Shamien Island, this is a small island on the bay of Guangzhou that used to be owned and controlled by England so it is very westernized. There are a lot of people from around the world staying here adopting babies.







Sophia saying goodbye to our hotel in Nanning










Our bus driving Mr. Lee











Checking in
































Saying goodbye to our guide and friend Michael


















waiting to board










In flight

On the bus in Guangzhou

Our room in the White Swan Hotel

Journey Day 10 - Trip to Guigang

This posting is a catch up day due to leaving our camera on the bus and getting back as we where leaving Nanning.

We took a two hour trip out of Nanning to Guigang, the town where all of our daughters were found. The highways are very good and the time went by fast. This is a small working town and has some areas that are in very poor condition. All of the girls that were matched in our group were found in this town and we spent time stopping at each site so that families could see the place their daughters were found and take some pictures. We all received the official police record of the event and what happened. The orphanage they were placed in is also in this town. We stayed in Nanning because it is the capital city of the province and we had to do all of our paper work there.







On the bus







This is a truck stop on the highway










The truck stop store



















Lunch









Matt trying squid









This is the place where Sophia was found, out side of the bus stop








She was placed here by her parents










and God handed her to us

Outside the orphanage

Across the street from the orphanage

Sophia's last look at her former home town

We stopped to take a close look at a rice field on the way back

Journey Day 11 - Last Day in Nanning

Today was our last full day in Nanning and it was a free day. We did not take the bus anywhere so we did not get our camera back, lucky we have several with us. We took a group photo today, we then took a cab and went back to the Wal-Mart area for some shopping and McDonalds for lunch. Came back to the hotel and had some finial paperwork to look over and started packing for the our trip to Guangzhou tomorrow. Had some dinner in the basement Chinese restaurant, went for a walk along the lake and then found a coffee shop to grab a late snack in. Time has gone by fast here in Nanning but we are all ready for a change. This was the kids last full day in their province and tomorrow will be their first plane ride.







Matt and the girls





























Who is watching Sophia?








OK, who's been holding out on me?!








Just keep it coming!!









Chicken Feet?









uh








GROSS!!

Hanging out in the hall before dinner

The basement Chinese resturant

Looks like a coffee shop back home, but try to read the menu.