Saying our good-byes

How can it be that the long time away from our kids and "home" is drawing to a close? On the one hand it feels like we've been away forever and on the other it is like we blinked and two weeks went by. Our whole world has taken a turn upside down for the better and very soon we'll be boarding a plane to head home with our precious son!!! While Nathan napped, Keith did his magic and got our bags packed up beautifully this afternoon while I went out and did some last minute gift buying.


This morning was the famous "red couch" picture time for our travel group of 16 families. All of our adopted children showed up in the hotel lobby around 11 a.m. decked out in their traditional Chinese outfits and it was quite the show. My favorite part was when we had all 16 of those little ones on the sofa. Imagine trying to get all of them to look at the camera at the same time.


It was quite an adventure for sure! Doesn't Nathan look like a cutie in his outfit? I love it!!

A highlight for me this afternoon was stopping in some of the little shops that I've been in over the last few days. And I especially loved meeting a dear Chinese woman who owned a shop here and told us she was a Christian. She had a copy of a English Standard Version Bible, an NIV Bible and a hymnal for sale in Chinese/English. They were so cool to look through. It gave me goosebumps! I asked her how she came to know Jesus and she said it was through her church. She told me that she prayed that Nathan would come to love Jesus some day (of course, we're praying for that too).


And I love it that I was able to find something really special in her shop. I've been toying with getting our family traditional Chinese silk clothes to coordinate with Nathan's outfit but could never decide whether to buy them or not. What I found were 3 beautiful red, silk scarves for the Johnson women and two red silk ties for Drew and Keith. That way our whole family can coordinate with Nathan's traditional outfit and dress up for Chinese New Year celebrations, etc. It is really special to me that I found these in her shop.

As we got ready to leave I asked her if I could pray for her family. She has a little boy too...one that is just a few months older than Nathan and if was my deep honor to pray for God's blessings on her family and her business. We took a picture of her with Nathan and I and then she pulled out her camera and took a picture of our family too. It was a very sweet conclusion to our time here in China. I'm renewed in my passion to pray for the Chinese people to come to faith in Jesus. There are many Chinese who know him already and many more that I pray will hear soon about who Jesus is.

P.S. I just remembered that I didn't tell you about our boat ride on the Pearl River last night. It was gorgeous to see Guangzhou at night from the river. There was a meal served and then we went out on the deck and just watched the city go by us. There are 6 bridges in the city and they were all lit up in a rainbow assortment of colors, as were many of the skyscrapers. It truly was a wonderful evening and we're really glad we did it!