Shout To The Lord

My Jesus, my Saviour

Lord, there is none like you

All of my days I want to praise

The wonders of Your mighty love

lyrics by Darlene Zscheeh

Today's adventure was the Great Wall. On the way there, Chris pulled out his bag of M&Ms while Ian was looking out the window. As soon as Ian heard the crinkling of the bag, he leaped across my lap to Chris so he could have some candy. If I had any doubts that he could hear, that eliminated them.

We have been to China five times but have never been to the Great Wall. Chris thought it would be too hard to climb with Ian because it was very steep where we were climbing. I knew this would probably be the last time we would ever see the Great Wall so I really wanted to give it our best shot. Some of the steps were huge so it made it difficult to hold Ian and climb at the same time. It didn't take long to realize that Chris was right but I still wanted to push further. I was breathing so hard climbing up that we had to stop and take a rest. Soon four Chinese women probably in their eighties walked right by us without any trouble. We were so impressed that it gave us that second wind we needed to get down the steep stairs with Ian. By the time we made it back to the bottom, our legs were completely jello.

If that wasn't enough excitement for one day, our guide took us to the largest Jade Market in China. I think it was the most expensive one, too. Ian wanted to play with the jewelry but I was afraid he would break one. The Lord reminded me that I had the Chinese bracelet with the five wooden beads in my bag. The five wooden beads that represented my five children from China. When I gave it to Ian, I wanted to cry. I realized we had climbed so many great walls to bring home our children from China. Some walls felt steep and hard to climb but, with every step, God carried us because He "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). Through it all, He has taken our breath away and left us where we can no longer stand but only lay at His feet and praise Him.