WE'RE COMING HOME !

Hey everyone! We are SO excited to be on the last leg of the trip. It was a free day for us again in Guangzhou. Yes, I found more things to buy. We needed to be out of our rooms by 2pm. We left for the American consulate around 2:45pm. We all checked in our belongings because we couldn't bring anything in there except our personal items on our bodies. We took an oath to state that all the information that we gave was accurate to the best of our knowledge. We then took a train to Hong Kong. It seems a bit different from China. It was originally founded by the British so they drive on the opposite side of the street and the cars open the opposite of ours back home. It has been an emotional day of good-byes to all the families we have become so close to over the last 2 weeks. Some families will be on our flight back to O'Hare to catch connecting flights so we will say good-bye at customs back in Chicago. When we got off the train in Hong Kong, we could smell the good old greasy smell of McDonalds. We all sat at the train station savoring every bite of our hamburgers and fries. It was so good to taste food that is familiar to us. Mikenna has totally adapted to American food. They usually feed the Chinese children this rice mixture called Congee. She gave that up after the second day. She loves chicken nuggets, fruit(which was abundant in Nanning), toast, juice, fries and pizza. That is about the extent of the foods she has tried. Mikenna has slept the last 2 nights which has helped me out a lot. She'll wake up about 2 times just to make sure I am touching her somewhere. She had a crying time for her foster mom on the train tonight. Everyone around us knew what she was saying and it was breaking all our hearts. Someone said to me that she really must have been loved and well taken care of for how much she is mourning her loss of her foster mom. I know she has been loved because sometimes she just gives me tons of kisses and hugs. I wasn't sure a week ago if that would ever happen. Oh me of little faith. God has created us so wonderfully and He knew that Mikenna was created for our family. I can not wait for our girls to meet her. She is so loved already. I don't know what will be more exciting for Paul and I- to be home or for Mikenna to meet her new "Gigi's"(big sisters). God has been so faithful in supplying all the strength to get thru these last 2 weeks. With all of Mikenna's crying there was only 1 time that I really felt frustrated and we all made it thru that first week. The next time I write on this blog, we will be back in St. Charles. Thanks to all who prayed so much for us. Many of you were such an encouragement with your notes on the blog or the emails that you sent. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Good night from Hong Kong-