Dali City

First of all let me say that the photos are in our shutterfly account that you can click on Micah's picture to see. They are labeled as Dali City Friday and Saturday.

Friday we took a taxi to Dali 4 1/2 hours to visit with some friends that have a cafe there and they minister to college students. Our church helps them and is sending a team there this summer to do sports camps so we got some information for them. That is what all the hotel pictures and basketball courts and soccer fields are for so just ignore those :)

And the picture of the gigantic spider... well that was in our 50RMB a night/ $8 hotel last night. Ask me if I am glad to be back at our 5 star hotel in Kunming tonight. I won't even talk about the bathrooms in the hotel in Dali... we went cheap and convenient and boy did we regret it. The beds we seemingly clean... that was the only positive thing... even though the beds we like sleeping on a wooden box... beds here are known for being hard but hard doesn't even begin to decide these wooden boxes :)

We did have such a wonderful, refreshing time visiting with Lori and Shannon though. We got to meet some of the college students they minister with and to. We also got to meet 5 other families that live in Dali and serve the Lord and the people of China in one way or another.

Probably the best part of the trip was meeting their intern. Who by the way we wouldn't have met if we had traveled any earlier ;)!!

She is a 19 year old girl adopted from China to the States at 12. I absolutely loved hearing her story and asking her questions. We rode the motorcycle together. Just to talk to someone who is further on the journey of the complicated things that abandonment and international adoption bring. How she is learning to be content with one part of her heart in the States and one part in China. How she can see God's hand in her life even with the loss she has suffered with not being able to stay in her birth family and country. What Satan meant for harm God meant for good and to see her talk about that and God's hand in her life is such an encouragement to us who long to have their kids see His goodness in the midst of loss. How she can love her foster family and forever family simultaneously.

She came to stay with her foster family on this trip first so that she could share the gospel with them. Please pray for her foster family... that they would be drawn to the Jesus that has enabled Halli to forgive her birth family and has given her such a love for all of her families. Also, Isaac really took to her and she was so sweet to him!

Speaking of Isaac he has been such a joy to have with us. He is SO unbelievably easy going and has had a blast even though up until now we've spent more time in planes and cars than anything else. He has taken it all in stride and had as much fun visiting with people as we have. He and I got to help teach a ESL class for 2 little girls on Saturday morning and they LOVED him.

The highlight of Isaac's trip is definitely the electric motorcycle rides we got to take today around Dali City. We met up with several people within the city to meet their families and rode around the city with Halli, Shannon, Lori, and a worker at the cafe named Mueller (his chosen English name... named for George Mueller). Don't you love that choice?!!

Thanks to everyone who is praying for us. The kids at home are doing very well and we are so grateful!

And now we get to meet Micah Zhi Zhou tomorrow afternoon (China time) at 4:30pm. They will bring him to the hotel (that's the plan anyway) and we are so excited, nervous, elated, scared to death, etc., etc.

Please continue that God would miraculously knit our hearts together. I expect we'll fall in love with him long before the feeling is mutual ;)