No More Lost Bags!!!

As most of you know, our bags were still off in China after we had arrived home.  We filled out a request with United Airlines to find our bags, but after waiting for their five day waiting period, they still had no idea where they were.  I emailed our agency to see if they could get us the email of our facilitator in Guangzhou to see if she might be able to help us.  They didn't have Helen's email, but they said that since the founders of our agency are Chinese, they may be able to help us by calling China, etc.  I talked to "Lily" and told her the story of our bags.  She said that since they were on China Southern Airlines when they were "lost" that United probably wouldn't be able to help us.  Over the next few days she made many calls to China to see if she could locate our bags.  They finally found out that they had been sent back to Guangzhou from Beijing.  Our facilitator in Guangzhou went to the airport to see if she could find out what had happened to our luggage.  Because of the bad weather and missed/cancelled flights, there were many people who had missing bags.  The line at the missing luggage counter was huge.  No wonder the people there didn't answer the phone calls that Lily had made to them.
We are not exactly sure when or how our bags were located, but on Sunday morning I received a call from Lily.  She said that she had an email from Helen that said our bags had been sent.  They should be in the states soon!  A few minutes later another call said that she had misread her email and that the bags were already in the US!  She told me that I should call United and see if they were tracking them for us.  Before I had a chance to call United, Brian got a voicemail saying that they were in Milwaukee and were being delivered to us.  That afternoon while I was putting Lydia down for her nap, all three bags arrived at our door.
Brian and I enjoyed looking through them together and got started on laundry right away. : )  I'm really not sure how they got to us...One bag had a tag that said it went through Chicago and another through LAX.  I don't know how they arrived, but I do know that the Lord had His hands in the details.  Both Brian and I had come to terms with the fact that our suitcases and everything in them were probably lost forever.  I laid awake for a few nights worrying about them, but as I was agonizing over where they were and what we could do to get them back, the Lord brought a thought to me.  I had lost suitcases.  I left them at an airport and filled out the forms to get them back.  They had things in them that were precious to me, but nothing that I couldn't live without.  This loss I was feeling was just a tiny glimpse into the feelings that my precious little girl's birth mommy feels every single day, hoping and praying that her daughter was found and taken to a safe place.  That someone is helping her and loving her and caring for her.
If the Lord cares about the details of our lives like our luggage being lost, how much more He cares for each of the little ones who are lost from their families.  He brought Lydia into our lives and we don't know all the details of how he worked things out for us to be together.  We don't have to know everything, but He does and He is already there at the end of our lives knowing how the pieces fit together.
We have all had a great week.  Lydia is an early bird...we're hoping this is just more jet lag...5:30am is still night time to both Brian and I. : (  Today it was 6am, so hopefully we can work our way back to 8am. : ) 
Lydia had her first play-date on Wednesday.  She had so much fun with Eva.  She learned a little more about playing with some of her toys and learned a little about sharing, but that could use a little more work. : ) 
On Wednesday night we were out of yogurt and bananas - the new staples in our household.  We decided to head to the store after dinner.  When we got out to the garage, Lydia went over to the wagon and gave Baba "the look".  He decided that we could walk to Piggly Wiggly instead of driving to Pick-N-Save.  Lydia loves her time outside and I think if we let her would live in the wagon or stroller.  Since the route to the store takes us right through the park, of course we had to stop and show Baba how Lydia can go down the slide by herself now.  So much for an early bedtime! 
On Thursday, I went to school for the day to teach.  Before we left for China, Brian suggested that I go back and teach one day a week and he and Lydia would "hang out" together.  They had a good day with only a few accidents. : )  They came to school at the end of the day to meet my class.  Lydia LOVED the attention and my students thought she was sooooo cute.  We had gotten bookmarks in China with each students' name and Lydia passed them out.  The kids wanted to know "thank you" in Chinese and were saying that to her.  She put on a show for them.  It was really cute. 
I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend.  Hopefully we'll all sleep in tomorrow!!!

Enjoying a ride in the wagon!

Captivating the audience of 4th Graders at LCCA!

NOODLES : )



The bags have arrived!!!