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Thursday, March 21, 2013 A Goodbye and Thank You to China I am writing this final entry from China as Anne packs Sam and Ellie’s backpacks for the flight home. We are incredibly excited to be leaving today and heading back home to Abby, Adam, Mia, and Will. As we leave China, we want to take a moment to remember and thank the many people who have played a role in Sam and Ellie’s life up to this point. We recognize that their story did not begin two weeks ago when this blog did. Their entire lives have been in China, and that includes a lot of people who have loved them and whom they love. We are thankful first for Sam and Ellie’s biological parents. In a world where kids are often abandoned in the days or hours after their birth, Sam and Ellie were abandoned at the age of two. We see so many evidences that they were cherished during that season. We believe they were left in the waiting room of the Changsha Children’s Hospital that day with the hopes that they would ultimately be adopted and receive the medical treatment they needed. It is sad to realize that one of the great joys of our lives was likely born out of another family’s great tragedy and heartache. We will always love and pray for their first mama and baba, and we promise to do all that we can to honor their selfless sacrifice and give these kids the abundant life we are certain they wanted for their children. As we leave China, we are also thankful for our dear Australian friends in Christ Dr. Sam Vidler and Dr. Julie Mallinson, as well as their fantastic staff at ELIM- a Home for HIV Kids in China. The vibrant children you see in all of these pictures do not look sick… because they’re not. And they’re not sick because of the excellent medical care they have received. I should probably be thanking 1,000s of research scientists whose life work is contained in those syringes and capsules, but I am choosing to think of Sam and Julie as the face of that work in my kids’ lives. Without their ministry, I truly do not know where Sammy and Ellie would be today. And we definitely want to again thank the foster mama and baba who obviously loved them so well for the last year and prepared them beautifully for their forever family. Yesterday, we had the privilege of calling them and helping Sam and Ellie say goodbye to their foster family. I do not speak Chinese, but I did not need to understand the words to know how loved these kids were. When Anne took the phone at the end of the call, I could hear tears on both sides of the line as she tried to talk to Mama. It was an extraordinary picture of two people without a common language but united by the love of a common Savior. Heaven will be so beautiful.

Sam and Ellie getting ready for a trip to the US consulate. Ellie talking to her Foster Mama. Sam talking to his Foster Baba. Sam and Ellie trying not to run in the lobby.

Ellie and the "Happy Goat"


Two Happy Goats... and Sammy.


Ellie at the playground.


Sammy at the playground.


A bonus shot of Ellie from the playground.


For those on the prayer team, we want more of this on the plane...


And a lot less of this.
(This photo and my reaction are both real.
I asked Anne to take a picture of me holding a precautionary bag,
but neither of us were prepared for it to become an action shot.
And yes, Ellie then vomitted as well.)

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