Super Sunday

Wow! God is good. He continually amazes us with his goodness and
love. Today was another truly humbling day. We began the day with a
trip to the Great Wall with Dean, Megan, Mia and Oliver. Dean and
Megan rented a driver and large van, someone they use quite often. On
the way to the Wall, Mia showed us a Gotcha-Day video that she had
produced for us. Mia is very talented. The video contained video
footage from the time Caelyn woke up, to the time we left the
orphanage last Thursday. What a treasure!

We headed up to the Mutianyu portion of the Great Wall, northeast of
Beijing. A very nice area and quiet. A light skiff of snow covered
the area. Dean and Megan come up to this area often and spend a
weekend in a rented condo. This was the first time Caelyn had seen
this area and seen the Great Wall. We road a cable car up to the top
of the Wall, then we walked about 1.5 hours down and up the top of the
wall. Very beautiful scenery, great conversation, and just in awe
that we were walking on one of the great wonders of the world. At the
end of our walk, we came upon another adventure--the luge. Each of us
road down to the bottom of the hill on a luge. Robin road by herself
and then Caelyn and I road together. What great fun! We certainly
wish the kids and us had visited this portion of the Wall back in
2008.

After collecting all of the medals for our records breaking speeds on
the luge, we headed for lunch to a nearby favorite restaurant. The
restaurant was called the Schoolhouse and it was in a remodeled school
once used by the local village. It served western fare and was
excellent. We especially enjoyed having some hot chocolate after
being outside all morning. Dean and Megan shared with us that they
are in the middle of the adoption process. Praise the Lord! Please
pray for them and pray for the special child God has picked out for
them.

After lunch and a wonderful time of fellowship, we headed back towards
Beijing. Dinner was scheduled tonight at Kim and Cameron's house.
Kim and Cameron are also from Australia, but will be moving back to
Australia within the next couple of weeks. They have three children,
one of which they adopted from China, named Tom. An extremely
adorable 4 year old, who just loves Caelyn. Kim is a special
volunteer at the Fengtai Orphanage and was one of Caelyn's advocates.
They live in an apartment very close to the Grand Millennium Hotel,
which we stayed in back in 2008. Before dinner, we spent some time
visiting a couple supermarkets and had some coffee, tea and soda at a
coffee bar.

Now dinner. Before the evening was over, not a dry eye could be found
in their home. Kim had invited all the special people in Caelyn's
life--all of her teachers (laoshi) from Fengtai, Sue (from Holt),
Teresa (volunteer and matriarch at Fengtai), Leo (Dean and Megan's
Nanny), Phil & Jane (good friends and fellow teachers at the
International School (BCIS)), and of course Dean & Megan. Caelyn was
the guest of honor. Caelyn had a great time playing with her friends
Mia, Oliver, Lauren, Michael, Tom, and Leo. Robin, Caelyn and I were
presented with some special gifts. Among the items...Teresa presented
Caelyn with a hand-made blanket from a group of girls from Hong Kong.
These girls have graduated from a school that Teresa and her husband
are affiliated with. The girls are familiar with Teresa's volunteer
work and want to give something special for all the children who get
adopted from Fengtai. In addition, Kim presented us with a bag full
of Caelyn's school work from over the last couple of years. But the
most priceless gift of the evening was a video that Kim had produced,
which captured pictures, video footage, and special messages from all
in the room. It was just very humbling to really understand how much
all these people loved Caelyn and had been praying for her to have a
forever family. It was a time of celebration, a time of sadness for
Caelyn's friends to say "good-bye", and a time of praise to our great
God for bringing all these special people into Caelyn's life. From
the day Robin and I saw Caelyn's photo and said, "She's ours!" over a
year ago, we started praying for God to prepare Caelyn's heart, to
protect her, and to keep her healthy. As God always proves to us time
and time again, He surpassed and exceeded our desires. We always
think too small for our God. A very emotional evening for all. A
simple "Thank you" is not even close enough to express our gratitude
to all these special people, to Dean and Megan for opening up their
hearts and home to Caelyn these past few months and "preparing" Caelyn
for us, and to our Heavenly Father.

Wow! What a fantastic day! Praise to our great and glorious God!
Now, it's time for some sleep. Good night!