Before I write about our plan, I thought I would show you our little Miss Bed Head. It takes me half the day to get that snarl out of the back of Eliza’s hair!

Today we sipped some of these….. What do you think that says on the side of my cup? We think it says “Sir,” because when they write it in English it will say “Miss” or “Sir,” and Blake was the sir who got that for me!

We also watched some cooking shows on the lap top. Which is really like pure torture for someone who is so hungry. But it passed the time.

We watched life go on outside our room. Like fish in a fish bowl.

We ate a lot of these. I pretended they were steak. And cake.

Sweet Addie is not well. She has the cold that half of everyone we know in China has.

All of that sums up our day. Except for the plan.

We have spent the rest of our day today in meetings and in prayer as we try to make a plan for all the families that are waiting on the computers at the Consulate to be up and running again. Our latest update from the consulate was at 3:45 p.m. that nothing has changed and they have no idea when things will change.

As far as our family is concerned – we have made a plan.

Blake and Addie Mae will be going back to Wisconsin. If they can get a flight out on Saturday, they will wait until then. If not, we have seats on hold already for tomorrow’s flight, and they will leave first thing in the morning tomorrow morning (Friday). We will be talking to our travel agent at 9 p.m. tonight to see what the options are for flying out on Saturday to finalize that plan.

There is another family here that is part of our plan. The Dad and daughter from that family will be going with Blake and Addie Mae until they reach O’Hare in Chicago where they will part ways.

Eliza and I will be gaining some new roommates! The Mom and new son of this other family will be moving in with us. We will stay here together until we get our visas and then we will travel together as well until we get to O’Hare in Chicago. We love this family and feel SO blessed that they are part of our plan.

Now, there still is a chance that the computers will work again tomorrow and we will get Eliza’s visa then tomorrow as well. If that happens, Blake and Addie may already be gone, and my new roommate and I will fly out on Saturday together. OR, we will all still be here and all fly out together on Saturday, which is our prayer.

If we do not get Eliza’s visa tomorrow, our next earliest chance will be Monday, allowing us to fly home on Tuesday.

Tonight will be a flurry of activity as we finalize Blake and Addie’s plan, figure out what they need to leave behind for me and pack everything else up for them to take home.

I would be lying to say these decisions have been easy. They have not been. Our hearts are very heavy, but we are resting in the Lord’s promises and trusting Him and His will for all of us right now. It will be very, very hard to say goodbye to Blake and Addie Mae. Please pray for us. Please pray for Eliza. All of this change is going to rock her world. Again.

“And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.” Job 11:18

We received a call this morning that the computer is still down at the Consulate. We are all meeting at 11:30 to get our next update.

Please continue to pray with us!!! Praise the Lord for the people He has blessed us with here in China!

We enjoyed our trip to ShaMain Island SO much even though the heat index was 110 degrees today, and seriously almost unbearable. We did pretty good by ducking in and out of the air conditioned shops, and by stopping to eat lunch at an air conditioned American style restaurant called Lucy’s. The Island is beautiful, and SO different than downtown Guangzhou. We enjoyed sight seeing, eating (I got a garden fresh salad with lemon as the dressing!!!), and shopping. It was a great day!!

Lunch at Lucy’s!

We bought Eliza some new shoes…..this girl is quite the shopper!

A quick stop for some traditional photos near the statues – except Eliza wanted nothing to do with that!

It has been my prayer that Eliza would bond with Blake before we headed back home to all the kiddos. The progress we are seeing is so fun to watch! She is letting him hold her!! What a blessing to see answers to our prayers!!

This afternoon we started packing up. Not sure how much of it we will unpack again….I guess time will tell! Keep praying!!!!

We found out around 4 p.m. this afternoon (Wednesday) that Eliza’s visa was NOT issued as planned. There is a world-wide problem with the U.S. Consulate computer system. We will not be leaving China Thursday (tomorrow) morning after all. We have no idea what this means for us, or when we and the other families with us will be able to return home. It could be as quickly as 24 hours or many days past our original plans.

Our guides are AMAZING. We love them so much! They are at our sides, have secured our rooms so we do not have to move, and our laundry is being picked up in just a few minutes.

I have plenty of food for me and medications to last one more week or more.

Please pray for this situation to be resolved with the computer system. We are ALL disappointed in the change of plans, but it is what it is. We feel blessed to be able to spend another day (at least) here in our daughter’s country, with our dear adoptive friends, knowing that the Lord’s plan prevails!!! Pray that we will bring glory to the Lord in our responses right now and show God’s love to everyone we come in contact with!!!