It's a bittersweet moment as we are packing to leave. We are all anxious to get home, but at the same time it has been hard thinking about leaving China and taking May Lee from the only home she has ever known. Graham and I (Lynley) took May Lee for a walk this morning before breakfast, where most of these pictures came from. It was a beautiful day. The warm breeze was nice coming off the river as we strolled by. The scenery here is gorgeous as they have such healthy vegetation and flowers. I took many deep sighs as I was thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere and culture I was soon leaving. I will even miss the odd no expression stares at us and our Chinese baby we often received from the Chinese people here. Everyday we have been out we see many brides and grooms having their pictures taken. It is obviously a popular spot to be photographed for your wedding. Yesterday, when this photo was taken, we saw at least 20 different couples in various spots being photographed.

This couple had 8 photographers and we wondered if they were competing for the job, best photos gets the sale? Or maybe, a very wealthy Chinese family with lots of influence?

This morning we saw all these people in their various activities and many more doing the same...

Others played hacky sack, played cards, and some even swimming in the river which because of the pollution we were told was illegal!

I will miss our R.A., or Hall Monitor, as we called them. Their desk happened to be right between our two rooms, so we could stick our head out the door to get what we needed, hand off dirty diapers, etc. They were always there to let you in the room when your hands were full and only a couple of times did we beat them to the elevator before they could push the button for us and hold the door. I will miss having my room cleaned everyday and most importantly our chocolates at night. We got to the point where we didn't care if they turned down our beds at night, we just wanted the chocolates. They caught on, and would just bring our chocolates at night.

I'm curious to see what happens at the airport tomorrow. We had quite an experience our last intra-China flight. You are not allowed ANY LIQUIDS AT ALL in carry-ons. I took Coleman's inhaler and forgot about hand sanitizer. They made me take it out and motioned, "What is this for?" I was trying to explain each item, then security pulled out Coleman's deodorant. They couldn't understand my motions and so motioned for us to show them. We put on the hand sanitizer and held our hands out for security to smell them and see how clean they were. Coleman actually had to do his inhaler twice (the first time security didn't see the mist come out). The funniest was when Coleman had to pull up his shirt and put on his deodorant. We were all laughing hysterically. Of course they didn't think it was funny at all. Our show worked though, as he gave back all our items.

We went to the United States Consulate today (no cameras allowed). I teared up as we recited a pledge to teach our daughter to uphold the laws and constitution of the United States. As soon as we land in L.A., she will be considered an American citizen!

We would love for anyone that can swing it, to meet us on our arrival flight back to Nashville. The last leg of our flight from China leaves Denver at 6:50 p.m., and arrives in Nashville on Wednesday, April 9th, 10:15 p.m. United Express, Flight #6438L. PLEASE PRAY for all of our four flights, as we will be traveling for 30 hours (including layovers), for patience, safety and endurance.

We have so enjoyed posting our entries to our “Journey to May Lee” journal. You all our very important to us and we wanted you to be a part of all of our experiences in China. This has been such a unique experience for our family with many highs and very few lows. We would encourage anyone who is reading this journal to prayerfully consider how they could be a part of the adoption process, whether that is praying for orphans, financially supporting families who would like to adopt, but have limited resources, or by growing your own family through adoption. God will surely bless you for any effort on your part in caring for orphans (James 1:27). We hope that you have enjoyed the postings as well, and we look forward to introducing you to our beautiful “jewel from the Orient,” May Lee.

May God bless you all, as he has blessed our family...