coming home

For those families who have traveled to China more than once, the final leg of the journey in GuangZhou, can feel like coming home. Since Lily is from Guangdong province, we spent almost all of our time in GuangZhou on our first trip. Then, when we adopted Jadon, we spent the last few days in GuangZhou, finishing up the U.S. side of his adoption. For this third trip to China, we again ended our time in Guangzhou to complete Grace's adoption. While there, we met two more AAC families. We already had an incredible group, and these two families simply added more fun and good conversation. Here's our group photo, taken at the White Swan.

We had stayed at the White Swan when we adopted Jadon. It was beautiful, but we were actually glad to be back at the Victory for this third trip (we stayed at the Victory when we adopted Lily). We had a very large room with 3 comfortable beds, filtered water in the room, and a great breakfast buffet. Here are Lily and Grace after a shower in our very clean bathroom (aaahhh...so nice!).

The restaurants in GuangZhou are incredible. What a beautiful view off the balcony of this restaurant. We were so blessed to have Morgan order for us!

We went to the zoo outside of GuangZhou and Lily got to see her pandas.

One of the highlights of our time in Guangdong province was visiting Lily's orphanage in ZhaoQing. God worked some incredible miracles to bring this about. First of all, Lily had a high fever the night before we were to go to the orphange. We all prayed (and some of you prayed!), and she was totally fine in the morning! God is so good!!

Here we are in front of the old ZhaoQing SWI (this is where Lily lived).

We also visited the new SWI. Here's our precious girl, outside the gate. We waited and waited while our incredible guides, Morgan and Judy, tried to get us into the SWI.

They were successful! Here's we are with some of the nannies and the old director. What an emotional time for this mama. The nannies were loving and kind to our girl, and we were so very grateful.

A very special spot for our family.

There is a beautiful park in ZhaoQing. A perfect setting for our beautiful girl. We hope to be back to visit again some day.

Back in GuangZhou, we did a little shopping. Here are Grace and Yana outside one of the little shops.

We spent a lot of time at the playground in the middle of the island. The boys had a good time!

So did Grace!

And no trip to GuangZhou is complete without a visit to Lucy's.

Or maybe two visits...or three, or four...

After a busy few days in GuangZhou, we boarded a plane to take our little girl to her new home in Colorado. She did great on the flight, and charmed us all with her smiles.

She's still charming us today with those same smiles. Thank you, Jesus, for this amazing journey, and thank you for this amazing little girl! We love you, sweet Grace!