Merry Christmas From China!!

Merry Christmas from China! We're here and getting settled in to our beautiful digs for the next two weeks - the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou. Our trip here was thankfully smooth and uneventful! All bags made it here, fairly unscathed, and we made all of our connections - a success! We were initially a little concerned about how our connection in Beijing would go, since we had to pick up our bags, get through immigration and customs, and then check in for new boarding passes and re-check our luggage. But as we were waiting for our bags to come out, we kept hearing an airport worker asking everyone something about Guangzhou (our final destination). I flagged her down and she graciously told us to get our luggage and follow her. So we did - and thank goodness!! She was like a little guardian angel running (literally!!) us through the Beijing airport, from one end to the other, through customs without incident, all the way to the check-in counter. It was a 10 minute RUN through the airport and we were soooo grateful to her - we still only had a few minutes to spare before our flight began to board. God was watching out for us!

Christmas in China is a lot more Christmas-y than expected! Our hotel has an enormous tree beautifully decorated and displayed both in the lobby and outside. Christmas music plays in the elevators. We've even been told "Merry Christmas" several times today. ;) So, although we're missing Austin, Jackson and all of our family terribly today, we've had many great reminders for what today actually is. And even if the Christmas celebration is completely secular here, they're also great reminders of the true "reason for the season". 

We leave tomorrow at 2:00 to finally meet and get our precious Amanda - we're crazy with excitement and anticipation! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers - I can't even imagine how bewildering tomorrow will be for her. We love her so much already and hope we can somehow convey how safe and cared for she'll be with us. We will begin to know more tomorrow (!?!?!)!

So tonight, to celebrate our Christmas in China, I think we'll hit an Irish Pub! Who'd have thought???
Merry Christmas!