We flew from Beijing to Gansu this morning. Our flight was about two hours long. Once we arrived in the airport and gathered our luggage we were greeted by a man wearing a suit jacket. Right away I knew who this guy was. We had met on Gotcha Day in August when we met our daughter for the first time. Most of the ladies in our group assumed he was the van driver.. since he was assisting us with our luggage. Once we were in the van, I asked our guide who the man in the passenger seat was. Our guide Joan told us that he was the orphanage manager. I had her relay to him who I was.. and that we had adopted from his orphanage in August. He looked back in surprise and mentioned that he thought he had recognized me. I passed up a few photos of Ella for him to look at. During mid-point of our three hour drive we stopped at a rest stop. I crawled out of the van over mounds of luggage. The orphanage manager was waiting outside of the van. We exchanged smiles and he shook my hand. He told me that he was glad to see me again, and didn't expect to see me so soon.
Once we arrived in the city and at our hotel.. we unloaded all of our luggage. That evening the orphanage staff treated us to dinner at the hotel. I had a taste of pretty much to all of what that area had to offer. The nurse from the orphanage and our van driver filled up my plate as new dishes circled the lazy-susan. I was a bit fearful of getting sick from all the foods I had sampled... but God was gracious to me that evening. Even as I was sampling fish that still had its head in tact! That night we felt like true guests of honor. We felt like the orphanage had rolled out the red carpet just for us. Though we were exhausted from the long trip to our destination we had a great time celebrating together.
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