The most amazing Thursday in GZ!

I love a lazy morning, every now and then.  For the first time since we arrived, we have no where to be first thing in the morning, except for breakfast which closes down at 10:00.  I decided not to wait for Dean and the boys to wake up and got myself and the babies ready to go.  Dean and Riley woke up in the nick of time because I would've left them in the room!  I've pretty much narrowed my adventurous eating in the morning down to a fried egg, two slices of bacon, a hashbrown round and a glass of grapefruit juice. There's no reason to be a creature of habit here.  There is such a variety (and not just traditionally breakfast foods) on the breakfast buffet at the Garden.  Still, I just had the usual today.  Maybe tomorrow I'll shake things up a bit and throw a croissant or some friend noodles onto my plate.

With no where to go or to be, we took a leisurely walk through the garden and then took Riley to the pool to cool off.  Riley usually asks about 20 times a day to go, but Wyatt and Jubilee didn't have a clue until today.  Both of our sweet babies love the water, which is a blessing.  We love to go to the pool!

We had planned today to catch a taxi back over to Shamian Island to enjoy again a glass of iced tea and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.  I know that seems like a lot of effort to expend for such a small reward, but I promise it would've been worth it!!  At 2:00, I picked up the phone to call Melissa and see if they were ready to head out.  Joey answered the phone and asked me if I had gotten the email.  What email?  I didn't get an email.  Who sent the email, Joey?  THE CONSULATE IS OPENING!!  I quickly hung up the phone and called Rebecca who told me that the consulate was opening this afternoon at 3:30 and we needed to gather all of our families together and be in the lobby at 3:00!!!  I buzzed the other Lifeline families and had the joy of hearing the excitement from each families waiting for an consulate appointment.  What an amazing 5 minutes that was!

I hurried and dressed the babies in their red, white and blue and we headed for the lobby.  We grabbed a quick snack at the deli at the Garden and then headed for the bus.  By the way, the chicken and mushroom pastry at the deli is yummy and if you don't take the time to convert the currency in your head you'll enjoy it much more.  Remember before you convert currencies, it's always easier to spend money that you don't understand.

Riley shared his deli snack with friends on the bus.  He loves sitting in the back.

The consulate had decided to open up for every single family that missed an appointment this week.  Do you know how amazing that is?  Typically, the consulate sees about 20 families each day.  Today, 100 families arrived at the consulate together at 3:30 in the afternoon, and each and every family was processed and interviewed.  Then, the most beautiful moment happened.  Every family took the oath there together.  It was emotional for me (and probably most of the people there), seeing the faces of more than 100 children forever changed by the hope and future of life granted by the love of a family.  Praise the Lord, Father to the fatherless, Almighty God!

The consulate is saying that they will make every effort to have visas for the children in attendance today as early as tomorrow.  They have even agreed to come in on Saturday if they are not all completed tomorrow.  Our flight is scheduled for Saturday in the early afternoon.  We might just make it!!

This is a picture of Rebecca sharing the news that there is a chance that visas will be available on Friday or Saturday this week.  Do you see the hands raised in praise?  LOVE!  Sweet Eliana there may have no idea what this means, but it's pretty good news if you ask me!!

 We celebrated the blessings of today with dinner out with our friends.  We ate a second time at the Paddy Field and had a great time!!

Maybe just two more sleeps in China!!