Leaving for Guangzhou

February 29, 2012

Dear Lucy Hope,

Today, we finally began the last part of our journey to bring you home, traveling to China. We packed our bags and left Athens on the first leg of a long, long journey. In fact, some might say that this is the longest journey that anyone could take without leaving the earth. You are on one side of the world and we are on the other. When it’s morning here, it’s night where you are. We speak English, you understand Chinese. But none of that will prevent us from coming to you now. We should arrive in Guangzhou, China on Friday night, March 2, around 10:00 pm. That's about 28 hours of traveling, including layovers. We'll be able to rest up for a few days and then on Monday, March 5, we'll get to see you and become a family together. We're so excited!

Granny came by the house to bring a few toys to Lily and Lia for the airplane ride. She’s so excited about you too. Then we went to church, the very same place we started this journey on December 24, 2010, and prayed with our pastor, Bro. Eddie Gooch. He prayed for our safe travel and for your transition to your new family. Memaw cooked spaghetti for us tonight before we left. It was delicious. She also made a new cake recipe – you are going to love Memaw’s cooking.

After that, we hit the road toward Birmingham. It took about two hours to get our hotel just by the airport. There we slept for the night (if you call 1 1/2 hours the night!) before waking at 3:00 am to catch our plane to Chicago. On a funny note, when we got to our hotel, we noticed a sign asking for forgiveness in our room for the infestation of … ladybugs!!! The hotel said they had adopted the ladybug as their official pet and explained the benefits of what the ladybugs provide. They even noted that the ladybug actually brings you good luck. How funny!

Upon checking into the hotel in Birmingham, we learned that the airport shuttle from the hotel did not start running until 5:00 am – an hour too late for us. We had to quickly develop another plan for someone to pick up our van at the airport. Thanks to Martha Chumbley for agreeing to come to the airport and get the van. And thanks for paying for the parking fee - Connie gave me the cash to leave in the van, but I misunderstood and gave it as a tip to the shuttle driver. Mental note, no more financial decisions at 3:00 am!

Lucy, we're on our way to get you now. Just a few short days filled with lengthy travel and excited thoughts!


Love,

Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, Lia Faith, and Lucy Hope
Green, Party of Six