All is well with the Scotts!

The only reason I am even up right now is because Tanner keeps waking up at 5! Luckily, we have two rooms that adjoin, so Tanner is in here playing Ben 10 on his nintendo with headphones while everyone else sleeps...except me of course! Baylor wanted MJ's crib next to her bed, so we put them all down together last night and Mj seemed just as content as she could be! I haven't heard a peep all night! I really had no idea she would take to us this well. I have heard so many difficult stories of transition and attachment issues, especially in the children who are 2 and older. I am trying my best to get some pictures while she is laughing, because you have just got to see it! In all of the pictures we were sent by the orphanage, we had never seen her smile. So yesterday when we saw her actually laugh so hard she was red in the face at something silly Tanner had done, we were overjoyed! Tanner of course keep doing it over and over just to see her laugh because it was so cute! Tan told me yesterday, Mom, I really like China! We are fortunate to be on this island just over the bridge from Guangzhou on the other side of the pearl river. Traffic is kept to a minimum over here and there are a lot of public parks and little shops and restaurants. When we had to go into Guangzhou yesterday to the civil affairs, we couldn't wait to get back to the island! Our driver looked like he was going to flatten one of the bike riders any minute! The bikers drive straight into traffic and they are usually carrying some huge load on the back. It seemed like total chaos to us, but not once did we see anyone with anything that resembled road rage! The city of Guangzhou has 9 million people now! We are told that it is a very prosperous place to live. (Tanner has now moved on to watching a Disney movie in Chinese on the portable DVD! It will be a miracle if I can keep everyone else asleep!) Just peeked in on Myra and Baylor and they look so peaceful. Want to take a pic, but wouldn't want MJ to wake up this first morning to us with a flash in her face! We are headed back to Civil Affairs this morning for some paperwork. Will post some more pics. Was having trouble last night posting more than one at a time.

I must share this also, because it is such a testimony of how God works in amazing ways. Before we got our final approval to travel to China, Shawn had a fellow Gideon in the dental chair one day. The man asked when we should be traveling to China. Shawn told him we were still waiting to hear. The man suggested that Shawn take some Gideon Bibles with him. Because we had been so warned in filling out all of our paperwork not to mention God, Shawn said "you know, I really would be scared for anything to come in the way of getting this child we have waited so long for. The man didn't press it, but Shawn told me later that he felt this overwhelming since that he was letting God down. That very night Shawn had a dream that he was sharing the Gospel with an athiest and he said it was so real and so emotional. He asked God the next morning what it all meant while he was pouring his coffeee, and he said he looked down to see the front cover of the National Geografic which simply read CHINA. He said he knew then what God was asking him to do. He told me,"how can I ask God to give me this beautiful gift, this perfect child, when I am unwilling to stand up for Him in a foreign land?" Then fear filled me, of course, because I know Shawn Scott, and Shawn Scott listens to God no matter what, and I immediately had this mental picture of Shawn being behind the bars of a Chinese prison for sharing Christianity in a communist country! He assured me that he was not going to step off the plane handing out Bibles! But he did want to take them in case he was approached or given the opportunity to share. That very night, we got the call from our agency that our final approval had come in! That was only the beginning of a really cool story! The night before we left, Shawn asked me to find his box of Gideon Bibles and I could not find them anywhere! He finally went on to bed that morning at 2:45 am. I told myself, after all this there is no way I am going to let Shawn or God down! I told myself that I was not going to bed until I found those Bibles. I found them about 5 minutes later! Anyway, do you know that Shawn started to be approached from the minute we stepped on to the plane?! A Chinese flight attendant approached Shawn on the flight to Tokyo and shared that he was a Christian! Shawn wrote a special note to him in one of the Gideon Bibles and this man was so greatful that he wanted the address to our blog and even gave Shawn his cell phone number! So it began! We went on to meet a Chinese shop owner yesterday who is a Christian, and he told us he attends church here on the island! Shawn gave him a Gideon Bible as well! He also painted us this caligraphy picture of Myra Jane's name with its Chinese translation for free. Shawn leaves the others on the nightstand for the hotel workers to see. But he always has one with him as well to share if given the opportunity! I don't tell you this story to sing the praises of Shawn Scott, but to show you how God can do amazing things through ordinary people. Ash