Teaching English in China...the digs...

This post is for Janet et al back at home as I know there will be some interest in the pictures I share...they are of the digs for our dear friend who's beginning her year teaching English in Wuhan...

Check out the awsome view out the huge window! I was really impressed with the set-up as I imagined it might be much more "limited."

Enjoy Janet!

More Pictures of Day 5 in China

A few pictures of today...for full explanations...make sure to read the next post:

Pictures 1, 2 & 5 - the common outdoor restaurant where we ate our meal today...the girls acting as though they've done it a thousand times...

Picture 3 - The Bug with our dear Chinese family member

Pictures 4 - a potty...see full explanation below

Swirling Thoughts...and laughter along the way...

I'm bone tired...in fact, everyone is busy snoring...but today was yet again another defining day...

We are absolutely LOVING reading your comments that are posted to the blog...please...keep them coming...you feel so close to us when we read your words and hear your voices in our mind's ear...

We got up early and ate breakfast then headed out for a day of touring...in the typical Chinese style...not Westernized touring...it was an adventure!

We took a small tour boat along the Yangtze River. This river runs along the cities where both our Chinese children hail from...Isaiah from Yichang and Potato from Wuxue. It is special to us because it has touched their experiences early on.

Though I don't like to dabble in "potty" talk...we had some awesome potty experiences today. The one on the boat was pretty humble...and very aromatic. I had awakened this morning with a little upset tummy...so you might imagine the joy I had during that 3 hour boat ride and the NUMEROUS trips to the bathroom I had to take 4 girls on! Then, at lunch...I'll post some pictures of the common Chinese, open air restaurant where we ate alongside the river...we had another experience with a more rudimentary potty. I'm going to post it for those of you who've never experienced a typical Chinese bathroom...in the countryside...not influenced by our Western ideas of sanitation.

(I should mention that all my girls are excellent about the "squatty potty" opportunities they have in each day...it lends to their sense of adventure...and they're developing such skills! I never have understood people that come to a foreign land and then complain that it's not like America....save the money...it's NOT like America!)

Upon reaching the Three Gorges area, Busy Bee once again felt the call to visit a potty and so we shuffled over to the water closet and as she came inside she said in a most humorous, demonstrative and dramatic was "Oh man...squatty potty???...you got to be kiddin' me!" I nearly fell into the potty myself as I was racked with laughter!

Everywhere we go we are assailed with friendly Chinese who want to take a picture (or 10-20) of the girls...Busy Been in particular is growing a little sour on the whole deal...but NOT THE BUG...on the tour boat today she was honest to goodness, mugging, posing and performing on the front of the boat to the delight of clicking cameras everywhere! (Where did this kid get her sense of drama?) I've determined...from now on the kids should ask for 10 yuan for every picture...they could use some spending money! :)

On after our day of touring (10 hours of it) we then boarded a highway bus and settled in for the 5 hour trip back to Wuhan...we were exhausted and swollen up like tics! Water retention...not the friend of the traveler!

The plan had been to go to a supermarket an purchase food for dinner that the kids could eat on the bus...however the best laid plans...we couldn't find a market in close enough proximity to the bus station so we went to a tiny little shop and bought anything we thought that the kids, who were quite hungry, might eat...So 4 bags of chips, three rolls of Oreos, some experimental cracker purchases and several bottles of water and we had our dinner...oh, and I forgot...some little green oranges..

Funny Daddy comment today upon seeing the green oranges I had purchased..."Green,you know, is the new orange." Delivered in the usual understated fashion...laughter abounded.

Good parenting on those food choices?...no...good for laughs on the bus? ...yes... I actually said to the girls "You cannot eat your Oreos until you finish your chips!" (Good thing I've got that approved homestudy in hand and I'm only three days from our boy!)

I've been really thinking on this trip about our lives in America...about the typical Chinese life...and I've come to the conclusion that I really need to buck up a little bit. All of the conveniences...the prosperity...the self-indulgence that I experience in America has made me soft and spoiled. We've had the wonderful privilege to step off the tourist track and get into some "real" China and we've experienced how hard most Chinese must work to live...and I can feel grouchy about "not enough legroom on the bus."

Trying with all my might to beat down that "Ugly American" inside...and to be grateful for this chance to learn about other lives that are rich and difficult and bittersweet and content...content...that's where I want to be...

Pray for our sweet Isaiah! He has only 3 days left in the only home he has ever known. He will live the wonderful city of Yichang in 3 days for a life he could never imagine...we'll be scary...he'll be grieving...pray, please, for a peaceful transition for him.

It was very difficult when Potato came to us...such guttural grieving...yet look at that girl in the pictures I post tonight...bossy, confident and in love with her forever family...I know this too will come for Isaiah...but tonight...just a little overwhelmed at the pain and struggle in the very near days to come...

Please lift us before the Lord...we are in need...

Pictures of Three Gorges & Yangtze River Cruise

BIG tour day...so exhausted...must post pictures...

The first two are depicting what we did for 3 hours this morning...we rode on a small boat, a tour boat on the Yangtze...and looked out the window at the amazing sights outside...

The next is of the famous Three Gorges Dam...I believe that it is the biggest Dam in the world and the span of it completely boggles the mind.

The next one is a sight out of that tour boat window...who build that bridge??? NOT ME!

The final shot... a few monkeys at the highest point on the Three Gorges complex...hamming it up once again for not only our cameras...but anyone who would take a picture of them!

Day 4 pictures...Yichang...

Our "twins" sporting their "ponies"...it was too cute a picture not to post...

The second shot is of a typical Chinese home in the countryside of Hubei...

The third and fourth...standing at Isaiah's "Finding Place"...with tears rolling down our cheeks...

The fifth...a regular occurrence...making friends as we walk around town....

We stood today where she stood...

There are so many newsy things that I can report about today...but the heart of what I want to share has to do with our connection today with one woman whom we will likely never meet...who loved our boy...her boy...and gave him a chance at a different future...

We started the day with a 5 hour bus ride to Yichang...the city where Isaiah has lived for the past 19 months. We marveled at the countryside as it passed by outside the windows. The girls slept for most of the trip and we had some very meaningful discussions with our dear friend here who is guiding/escorting/hanging out with us...this was an answer to prayer! We hope to continue with much more discussion in the weeks to come!

China is changing so rapidly. Even for the Chinese people, they are happy about what the change is bringing to their lives for the most part, however, they have NO IDEA what China will be like in 5,10, 20 years. The Chinese people in general are very warm, relational and genuine people. They love their children and they are very proud of China's history.

We've also begun to understand how very industrious they are. I mentioned the foot massage workers in my last post...but school kids once they reach the High School level are in school 6 days a week for 12 hours a day studying.

Passing by the countryside today we were amazed not only of the beauty...but the stewardship of the land. Every inch of it is used for growing, harvesting, fish farming or for living. Every field well manicured and hundreds of people out working in those fields for 12 hours a day. We find this to be most admirable.

But, the incredible reality of this trip is striking both Daddy and I...we are getting to see China in a way few other adoption families will...we feel privileged and at a loss for words to describe our appreciation for the experience and our respect for the Chinese people.

After arriving in Yichang today we set out to locate Isaiah's finding place. For those of you who don't speak "adoption-ese", this location is the place where our son was found by the authorities after his mother/father/grandparents left him there. (I must take a moment and speak to the misplaced horror and judgment we place on these Chinese families who make this choice to "abandon" their children.) In America, if a mother feels that she cannot parent a child, for any reason at all, she can put that child up for adoption. It is a wonderful thing.

However, in China, you cannot surrender your child for adoption as it is against the law. The economics to raise a child, pay not only for food, medical care and clothing the child...and in China...you are now responsible to PAY handsomely for your child's education. For the average Chinese family...it is a significant struggle to raise one child...it is almost inconceivable to consider raising 2. When that child has a medical need, as Isaiah does...the pressure is immense on these families who often are struggling to feed and house their family.

International adoption is reasonably well known about in China...and I believe that many mothers/fathers make the VERY BEST decision that they can for the child in a situation where they cannot afford to raise the child...they leave the baby, wrapped warmly, in front of a busy place, risking detection of their offense, and walk away. They must be praying on that day and in the years to come for a bright future for the child they couldn't raise.

So today...we found the spot...we visited the location where Isaiah was left to be found. And I cannot express in words what that experience was like...

We stood today where she (his birth mother) stood just a little over a year ago right before she kissed him good-bye.

As we approached the building my heart was beating uncontrollably...and I felt that I might faint.

When I walked up the stairs where his report says he was found, in front of a busy government building...I was overwhelmed with ache, sadness, a grieving for his birth mother.

My grief for her and him was mixed with gratitude for her and for the Lord above that we will have the privilege of parenting this precious blessing from God!

It is likely that today is the closest we'll ever come to her...

All day Daddy kept saying..."any one of these faces could be his mother or father..."

The impact of the day escapes my ability to communicate.

Then, this evening, after walking through the children's park, dancing on the sidewalk and doing a tiny bit of shopping....we had a most satisfactory meeting...another opportunity to marvel at God's plan and how He goes before us to make the way "exceedingly, abundantly more that we can ask or imagine" Ephesians 3:20

Tomorrow we're off to see the "mother river" to our children and we will sail on the Yangtze...it is running by just outside my hotel room now...

Then an evening bus will get us home very late to Wuhan where the final wait to hold our darling boy in our arms forever will begin, we should receive him on Monday, Sept 10...with ears that look like Busy Bee's, hands that look like Potato's, strong in build, big for his age and a smile that can melt a Momma & Daddy's heart...

More from Wuhan tomorrow night!

The pictures from today...