Hailee's new friend

This is Lacy Rose Quigley. She is a baby-doll...

Mother and Child...

Take a look at this sweetheart. ...and the baby ain't bad either!

We've discovered that her care-giver must have held her all the time. She pitches a fit if we lay her down at naptime. So, today will be filled with crying, as we renegotiate her contract for nap services...

Pray for us!

Friends Forever.

OK. I'll break down and use the one word that I have heard WAY too many times in the past year - "Precious!"

This is Hailee and Lacy Rose playing together. They are suite-mates at the China Hotel in Guangzhou.

Return Plans

In case I forget to post this later, here are our return plans:

We will arrive at GSP at 7:09pm on April 5.

Lots of folks have been asking, and this is the only way we can get the word out to everyone.

So, any Internet criminals out there who might want to use this information for evil purposes, be warned: my God made you - He can take you out and make another one that looks just like you - with better manners!

Playtime!

Is this not the cutest baby on the planet? (well, with the exception of the Quigley's baby - her dad is reading this as I type).

Did I mention the Quigley's - Marc and Megan? They have a high coolness factor. We are sharing an apartment with them in Guangzhou. Their baby is just a few days older than Hailee, and from the same orphanage. And they live in SC as well - who'da thunk it?

Even more mind-blowing: Marc knows the Blumer family from our church, who are in the adoption process right now! God leaves no detail to chance, does He?

But, back to my beautiful daughter. Ain't she something! We went to the park today, and were almost mobbed by Chinese grandmothers who wanted to poke, prod, and question... It was fun - and the park was absolutely beautiful!

Nap Time

It's 4:00pm on March 29 in Guangjhou, China - and Hailee just went to sleep after an hour of fighting to stay awake. Now is the time that I enjoy: just watching her and her mother sleep peacefully as the whole world fades into the background. There nothing in this time except quiet contemplation of what we have been put on this earth for.

...and when I look at my son Seth and Hailee, I know that my time is invested wisely. God wants one thing from us - that we would worship Him by reflecting all of the glory for everything in our lives back to Him. Seth and Hailee are a great opportunity to do just that. He created them, He brought them into my family, and He is perfecting them. What more could I hope for in life?

She's a Dream! (in spite of our schedule)

Hailee is a great child - even if I do say so myself. She's quiet, cheerful, and happy to have parents...

Today, we went back to the Adoption Affairs office to complete the adoption in China. It was when we were being interviewed that we all realized that it was my birthday. I was thinking that it wasn't until tomorrow - but I forgot the time difference!

So, I officially became Hailee Noel Jin Driskill's father on my birthday! The entire adoption group sang happy birthday to me immediately after our interview. What a present - a beatuiful baby and great people to share the experience with!

GOTCHA!

She’s in our hands now! We went to the Guangzhou Office for Adoption Affairs, and were the third family (out of twenty-something) to get our Hailee…

She’s curious, inquisitive, and very, very quiet. I wouldn’t say compliant, but quiet nonetheless. I’ve heard her cry a total of one time in the past 24 hours!

She hasn’t had any problem connecting with us – and she smiles a lot. Here’s a picture – I’ll update you on the details later!

(Note the deer-in-the-headlights look...)

1536

1536…

That’s the number of steps I climbed on the Great Wall today.
1536 up, 1536 down.
Big steps.
Shaky legs.
No guard rails.
Five towers.
…need more oxygen…

I heard at least six different languages as I was coming and going.

All the while, I wondered – how will they hear?

Do they know that Christ died for them. The wall we were walking on sprang up from man’s fear and greed. The same fear and greed that leads us to build walls of isolation from God. He did not push us away, we ran away from Him as fast as we could – and we still run today.

But the running will end one day. Hopefully, for Hailee, the running will end soon. Her heart is set against God today, but His intentions for her are far beyond anything that she could ever think or imagine. She has been prayed for – by many of you who are reading this right now. If she has been placed in your hearts, it’s only because she has been set apart by God to be one of His children.

That day can’t come soon enough for me…

Tourism at it's best and worst

Saturday was tourism day. i.e. take the Americans to all of the tourist traps and get them to spend their money! And spend our money we did...

First, there was a warm-up at the Forbidden City/Tiennamen Square. This is where the emporer lived, and where communism in China was born. It is quite a sight to see. Vast expanses of space in the public square (about 150 acres), followed by several "gates" that are entrances into new courtyards surrounded by huge traditional Chinese buildings.

After this, we went to a pearl "wholesale" store run by the government. We listened to a lecture bya pearl expert - who was there to explain to us that Chinese pearls are the best in the world, and his prices were the lowest in the world. The sales pitch wasn't all that great, but I did learn more about pearls than I knew before.

Next was a trip to a silk factory. Knowing how the textile market in the southeast US has fallen apart due to cheap labor in China, I was most interested to see this. Sure enough, everything was done by hand at the factory, and the silk quality was very high. It's hard to argue against low wages and attention to detail. CHina is simply better setup to produce things like this that are labor intensive. They actually "unwind" silkworm cocoons to produce their silk - with eight strands of cocoon silk wound together to form a single silk thread. We parted with too much money here...

Next, it was off to the Summer Palace. A very beautiful place, but surrounded by beggars and peddlers of every kind.

The most striking thing about this place is the spiritual darkness. They are very preoccupied with spiritual things, but reject the truth very aggressively. I sometimes think that this is the direction that the US is heading. The end of this path is human beings that are just shells - the outside is functional, but the inside is dead. Lord, I pray that You keep us from every going down this path to its conclusion.

The food here is great - a mix of spicy and mild, but all very tasty. Cindy had a bit of a hard time adjusting to the duck that was cooked with it's head still attached - but it tasted great!

Today is a worship day - light in the darkness. Tomorrow, if God wills, we will receive Hailee...

Sleepless in Beijing...

It's midnight in Beijing, and we're wiped out! 28 hours or so ago, we left Greenville for China. We just checked in to the hotel in Beijing, and sleep is only a few moments away - we hope... This is good prep for the lack of sleep that quite likely comes when a baby enters the family :-)

In less than two weeks, if God wills, we will be holding our daughter. Right now, she is most likely in a crib in Guangzhou – probably sharing the space with another baby. As far as she knows, this is everything that life will ever be: sustenance enough to continue living, but isolation and lack of love that makes death seem inviting.

That’s the same way I was.

Surrounded by people, yet utterly alone in life. No hope. No focus. No prospect of meaning in life.

But, on the other side of the gulf that separated me from hope, someone was intent on reaching into my life and turning me around. He couldn’t erase the wrong that had been done that led me to this place of self-loathing. So, He created an option where none had existed before. He took my isolation upon Himself, and carried my pain on His shoulders – even though He didn’t have to. His intentions toward me couldn’t be stopped, even by death itself. How could I not respond to such an amazing love as that? That’s why my life is subject to the control of Jesus Christ today. If you think He’s a fake, tell Him so – and, with honesty and sincerity, ask Him to show you that He’s not. Then prepare yourself to meet the ultimate authority on everything – including your heart.

Soon, our daughter will know the love that reaches across a great gulf to give hope to the hopeless. My prayer is that she will one day see that it wasn’t our love that saved her from a hopeless life, but God’s love – and that she will also be saved from the hopelessness of life without Christ. We will meet her physical and emotional needs as best we can, but Christ will meet the real need: the need to be forgiven and to worship her creator in freedom.

Baby Shower with no baby?

The wierdness has begun!

Can you have a baby shower with no baby in the vicinity? Cindy is on Saturday...

Can you buy cute little baby stuff when you have no idea what size to buy? We are...

Can you assume that your as-yet-unmet 9 month old daughter will love shooting sports, and go out and buy her a new high-powered rifle? ...well - no, I didn't, but I thought about it :-)

At the moment, we have a total of three options on-hand for simply communicating back to the US while we are in China. A rented Chinese GSM cell phone, a calling card, and a broadband phone ala Skype. Oh, and we're taking our Vonage broadband phone adapter with us too... Theoretically, you could call our home phone number, and we will answer it as a local call, even though we will be in China. Cool...

So, if those are the comm options, you can imagine how the clothes, luggage, and food piles are growing. We're supposed to get all of that on one 747? Impossible! Where will all of the other people put their stuff? ...Or themselves, to be more specific?

...and - terror of all terrors - I've heard that they have a Wal-Mart near our hotel in China. Please - say it ain't so!!!

Headed for China!

It's official! We're going to get our little girl!

We expect to be back in early April, and then the daily routine of "Oh my goodness, we have a baby" begins.

There are lots of details that we never considered that are suddenly filling our minds. How do we buy clothes for someone we've never seen? What have they been feeding her? Do they wear diapers in China? ...and on and on...

Lots to prepare for... ...little information...