Here is what I would have posted had I been able to...

November 5, 2009

Had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel, then met a guide named Nancy for a tour of the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. The trip to the summer palace took about half an hour, through a very crowded and foggy/smoggy city. We are amazed at how many people live in Beijing (approx. 17 million). The Summer Palace is where the Chinese Emperor and his family moved in the heat of the summer. Originally outside the city, the area is still an oasis of parkland and beauty in this city. The longest corridor in the world, over ½ mile long, was originally built so that the Emperor, or his concubines, could walk along the edge of the lake, sheltered from the elements. Every post and beam is individually hand-painted with images, including 999 separate images of cranes. We also saw beautiful statues, rocks, and buildings, and a 100-meter-long marble boat built by the last Empress of China.
We “enjoyed” lunch at a restaurant meant to replicate the Chinese Emperor’s palace. It was included in the tour, but the food was unremarkable, the plates were inexpensive plastic, and the décor seemed a bit overdone. Anyway, on to the Temple of Heaven.

Back from China

We're back with Moriah Elisabeth Ao Hui Pockras. It was quite an adventure, and I will post more later. She is quite the girl. The transition was easy, and she has been a joy. God has richly blessed our family!

Leaving tomorrow for China. I guess that is why I am posting at 4:00 a.m....too excited to sleep. Keep us in prayer for a safe journey and a peaceful, joyful, and loving meeting with our daughter. We will be with her for 12 nights in China before we return home. God blesses adoption; Jesus was adopted by Joseph, and it is by God's grace that all of us are adopted into His family.

Thanks for all the support, gifts, advice, and love. We have less than a week before our "forever family" is united. Words from the Methodist hymnal come to mind:

"This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
This is my song O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine."