A Final Word From China

Our bags are checked at the front desk, our carry-ons are packed, and as you can see, Emma Rose is ready to say goodbye to her birth place and hello to her home. We have mixed feelings about leaving. We are so ready to go home and get back to Kentucky, but we know we are leaving the place that has given us more than we could imagine and hope for in Emma Rose. We think she knows. She woke up fussy this morning for the first time. We were packing and we think she recognized a change is coming. But after a nap and bottle, she knows we are not leaving her behind. She knows she is coming home with us forever.
We have a great respect for the pride, culture, hard work, and honor we found here in the people of China. We have a heart felt sympathy for their needs in terms of economics, water, environment, and freedoms we tend to take for granted. We found a book at one of the local shops that made us both cry and realize just how much someone here in China, nine and a half months ago, sacrificed and showed so much love for this little girl we now have as our daughter. For that woman, we are and will be eternally grateful for the joy she left on a Chinese orphanage step for us.
We would also like to say thank you to all who have followed our journey, whether in prayer or in comments made. We feel we are bringing our daughter back to a home and community of love. We will continue to share the next few months with you as Emma Rose adjusts to American life. US....here we come...a family!