Last day on Shamain Island

Last day on Shamain Island. Believe it or not, I'm sort of sad to come home. I won't miss downtown urban Guangzhou, but I will miss the tropical-Colonial feeling of this island. I will miss the crazy food. I will even miss the breezy, humid heat. It's strange, I sort of feel like we adopted more than a little boy. I feel like we adopted a country into the family.

One of the challenges I think we will have coming home is knowing how to talk about what we have seen/learned. I feel pretty comfortable hiding behind a computer screen and shooting out reflections on a blog. People can just ignore the whole thing if they want. But when questions start rising in conversation, how do you talk to people about an experience like this? I don't know.

In the past, I've been frustrated watching folks get involved in compassion ministries, then turning those into a venue for self-promotion. I don't know how to really explain that, but it just seems like the person who is being "helped" (the poor, the sick, the orphan) is often used as a stepping stone to help the "helper" get atta-boys.

How do you share the amazing story of what God has done without drawing attention to yourself? How do you give God the glory He deserves in orchestrating something so massive? How do you inspire other people to get involved in an important cause, while maintaining the dignity of a child with a story of his own? How do we honor the remarkable way Moses has flourished despite hard beginnings, while acknowledging the needs still remaining in him and others? How do we respect the man who will grow from our son, with gifts, talents, and purpose? How do we emphasize the importance of adoption while acknowledging that God calls every person to a different ministry? How do we talk about the needs overseas when the needs at home are also vast?

As the time approaches when we will need to tell this story, we are praying for wisdom on all of this. And if you've done this before and have advice, we'd love to hear it.

We get on a plane tomorrow at about 8:00 AM our time. The flight to Beijing takes about 3 hours. Then we have a 5 hour layover in Beijing. The flight from Beijing to Newark takes about 13 hours. Then, we have another 5 hour layover. Finally, we fly from Newark to Charlotte (2 hours) where we will finally stay the night. TWENTY-EIGHT HOURS!!! Uggghhh. This would be a grueling trip even if I didn't hate flying, and even if we weren't trying to occupy a three-year-old. I think we will be thoroughly exhausted when it's over. Please pray for safe flights, that I wouldn't be scared, for the kids to have fun, for minimal turbulence, and for everyone to sleep a lot on the big flight.

Allergies are bad here, but we found out yesterday that Benadryl makes Moses sleepy instead of hyper. (Prayer answered.) So, if he wakes up with allergies tomorrow, the flight might go a little better. :)

We love you all. We'll see you soon!