This is the reality of our flying together...Dave takes beautiful pictures like this out of the plane window, and I desparately try to convince myself we are not going to crash during the take offs OR the landings :)
I did not find much to enjoy during the take-off to Nanning (I even shuddered going over the beautiful mountain range around Beijing...again, as Dave photographed!). Mid flight, however, I got out a book that I have been meaning to read for eons, but never seemed to make time for, "Knowing the Heart of God" by George MacDonald. I enjoyed Chapter 1, underlined a bunch and annoyed Dave by making him read all of my underlined sections :) But when I came to Chapter 2, I came across the following:
"Do you want to live by faith? Do you want to know Christ aright? Do you want to awake and arise and live, but do not know how?
I will tell you:
Get up, and do something the Master tells you. The moment you do, you instantly make yourself His disciple.
.....Do you find it hard to trust Him? Hard it will remain, while the things He tells you to do, things you can do, you will not try. How will you grow capable of trusting Him to do His part by You, as long as you do not do your part by Him.
...Have you or I today dismissed, even once, an anxious thought for tomrorow because Jesus told us to?"
Oh, boy...that is sooooo me. How can I say that I have felt God leading me throughout this adoption and then panic every time I see an airplane taking me closer to my daughter? If I truly believe God has a plan for us, than who am I to worry about the future? Whether the take off and landing are successful really shouldn't be a concern for me, just the fact that I'm doing what I know God wants me to do. I may wish them to be successful, but I shouldn't be letting fear rob me of the joy I could be experiencing.
Will I get it right all of the time, of course not. But as MacDonald says a page later...
..."no man or woman can yet do what Christ tells him aright. But are you trying? Obedience is not perfection, but making an effort."
Believe it or not, when that plane touched the ground, it was with me sitting there with a smile on my face thinking "Mylie!!"
Love,
Kris and Dave
Nanning is easily the most beautiful city Dave and I have ever seen. We are truly in awe. I didn't know a city this beautiful and well kept even existed. We traveled 50 miles from the airport and the entire time, on both sides of the highway, workers kept beautifully tended landcape, lush flowers, and carefully trimmed shrubs. Dave and I both kept thinking that the beauty had to stop at some point, but it truly didn't. Everything about the city looks clean and vibrant. According to our guide, most of its 2+ million inhabitants live in apartment buildings, but the apartment buildings are well tended and there seems to be a great community among the people who live there.
We arrived in Nanning on Chinese National Day, and to celebrate they have a gorgeous lighted float display down on the lake in front of our hotel. There are huge crowds of people; old people, young couples, and families, all roaming around enjoying the sights. There are street vendors selling cotton candy, local fruit on a stick, and helium balloons. The whole experience was unbelievably beautiful (have I used that word in this post before?!)
We are looking forward to seeing more of the city tomorrow and meeting our daughter for the first time. She will be traveling from her orphanage in Beiliu, which according to those who have been there, is light years away from the prosperity we are seeing here.
