Last Night in Jinan (August 18)

We made it!  We survived our time in the province!  This, in my opinion, is always the hardest part of the trip.  Tomorrow, we will wake up, eat, pack, and head to Guangzhou.  We do have to make one little stop at the passport office and then we are on our way!  Once we get to Guangzhou we will be one step closer to home.  When we adopted Grace I was very sentimental about her last night in her homeland.  The thought has crossed my mind about Lyla, and her spending her last night in her home city, but now I think about what all is awaiting her instead of what all she is leaving behind.  She is getting Aunts, Uncles, grandparents, cousins, and tons of love from friends of her Mommy and Daddy.  A lot of love has been lavished all over this baby and she hasn’t even met all of us yet.  So no sadness here tonight.  Only excitement about being one step closer to home!  She did not cry tonight.  Probably because we let her fall asleep with that cell phone.  But who cares!  There was no screaming.  When we adopted Grace, I began singing the song, Jesus King of Angels by Fernando Ortega to her everynight.  Tonight Grace asked if I would sing that to them.  I sang it along with Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Be Thou My Vision, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and was halfway through God of the Ages when Lyla, eyes barely open, said, “Mommy, shhhhh”.  With that finger on her lip!  Ha!  I was never so happy to be quiet.  Bless her.  She fits in this family perfectly.  God is good!  He perfectly knitted together every single detail of this adoption.  And his timing has been perfect.  So goodnight, one last time from Jinan!  Hello Guangzhou!  Here come the Bettertons!