Journey to Liana

January 29, 2009


We are grateful to Abba Father, who has adopted us into
His own eternal family, for giving us the great privilege of
adopting one of His precious orphan children. We are very
thankful for all who are faithfully supporting us through
prayer as we journey to Hefei, Anhui, P.R., China to bring
home our precious two and a half year old daughter Liana.

Journey to Liana...

Morning came early! We got to the Birmingham Airport
around 3:30 AM. We checked in at the United Airlines
terminal, and we were on our way around 6:00 O'clock.

One of the passengers was Bonnie Lovejoy, a United Airlines'
stewardess on holiday for the weekend. She was on her way to
Beijing as well. When the plane landed at O'Hare in Chicago, we
had to claim our carry-on luggage on the cold runway as the snow
gently fell. I (Tina Marie) was grateful to have on fur lined boots.

Guy accidentally picked up another person's red bag. As it turned out,
we were still in sight as the owner of the red bag I was pulling,
discovered the mistake. We apologized for the error and thanked God
that it turned out well. It would have been a nightmare trying to correct
our mistake in that humongous airport filled with multitudes of people.

We were blessed to see Stewardess Bonnie, after making the swap
of carry-on bags. She took us directly to the terminal from which we
would depart. Thank You, Jesus! It was refreshing not having to seek
which way to go! We were reminded of God's promise..."All things work
together for good to them who love the Lord..." Romans 8:28
We ate a quick lunch, then began our long wait.

We were delighted to meet a Christian author Lisa Gallington. She was
on her way to Beijing to visit her friends. She has written several books
including her newest Friendship's Promised Land. Time went by quickly
as we visited, and the four hour layover didn't seem so bad.

The trip to Beijing was the longest fourteen hours we could remember. We
flew into the night where we met the next day. We saw nothing but ice as
we flew over Siberia and Mongolia.

The time went a little more quickly once we were in China. We had a four
hour lay over in Beijing, and then we flew another two hours to Hefei. Tina
Marie: "My eyes misted as I exclaimed to Guy, "Liana is here!" We smiled
and happily hugged each other.

We were met at the airport by Jane our guide and interpreter. What a great
relief to see her smiling face as she held up a sign with Guy's name on it. We
knew that we were in our daughter's provincial city and would see a bed soon!

Jan has such a sweet spirit. She greeted us with big hugs , then off we went
for a twenty minutes ride to the Downtown Holiday Inn in Hefei. Jason our
driver got us there safely, and we were checked in within ten minutes. Once
we were in the hotel room we spent about forty-five minutes going over some
details for our meeting at the CCAA on Sunday. Jane also gave us instructions
to REST on our "day off", before we start the process of receiving Liana.



day turn to night saw