Lessons

Today I was reflecting on the many, many lessons to be learned along this journey.  This morning, we learned a lesson in adjusting our plans and expectations.  When I had learned we were going to be here for a week, there were some people I wanted to try to see. One is a family that has been living here for the past couple of years. However, we learned they are actually about 3 1/2 hours away by fast train. We decided not to try to make that visit since we have been asked to stay in Beijing specifically this week. The other was a visit to Harmony House. We had learned from another family that visited last week, that they were in need of desitin for the infants. The night before we left, Pete went to two different stores buying as much as he could find.  (This would be part of the reason our bags were overweight...)  We had made arrangements to spend today visiting the children there and yesterday had purchased some treats at a Walmart type store to combine with some gifts my boys had accumulated for the children here at their birthday party last fall.  We were very, very excited about this visit. However, all week, I was feeling a bit of uneasiness about it. The situation with illness is being taken very, very seriously by the adoption officials in our province and we've learned, by the officials here in Beijing as well. After spending some time praying about it this morning, Pete and I decided making this visit would not be worth getting ourselves or this ministry into trouble if any of us or any of the children there should happen to show any signs of illness in the next week. It was a very, very difficult decision and a personal disappointment.  We were able to send the desitin and our gifts with their driver. It was a lesson in holding our expectations loosely and keeping focused on our mission here.   Another lesson in expectations is about meeting our son. We received a call last night letting us know that the officials in our province will require us to wear masks to all of our meetings on Monday.  We, of course, have said we will do whatever they require of us. It is hard to imagine meeting our son for the first time with all of us wearing masks. If things go as they did last time, once we are finished in the civil affairs office, we will be whisked off for passport pictures.  Since our photo will be taken with him, that may be the first time he gets to see us with our masks off. Please pray that this will not be too frightening and unsettling for him. I'm not sure how they will explain it all to him. It is even more important for me to not get too emotional and cry when we meet since he will only be able to see our eyes!    Mark has learned a lesson about home sickness. He was very disappointed about not getting to go play with children today and that led to expressing great sadness at missing his brother, James. We were able to talk about how Joshua might feel sad at times when he thinks about his friends from the orphanage.   Lessons in Chinese culture.  I think I've learned that there is a lot of competition that runs deeply in this culture.At the Forbidden city, we learned about the great scholastic competition that occurred for the Emperor to select his officials.  I think this deeply held tradition of competition might explain some things about the aggressive driving and aggressive sales people. I'm posting a picture taken inside the pearl market . We never saw any pearls -- we were looking for backpacks for Mark and Joshua. Any visitor to China must experience these markets at least once. They are completely overwhelming to me. We were only there about 20 minutes and made at least 50 "friends" who all wanted to give us a "cheaper price" on everything we could possibly need. Pete did negotiate a good price on two very nice backpacks for the boys. She started out telling us she had sold one to her other "friend" for 650 yuan, but would sell one to us for 350.  He ended up getting both of them for a total of 130 (about $10 USD each). I can't stand the whole bargaining thing and really do want to make friends with each person who drags me by the arm into their little booth. I just have to walk away while he talks, but then I'm dragged into another "friends" booth...  Good thing I have no money to spend!  Another thing that seems to be a competition is the architecture here. The buildings are incredible.  I keep trying to take pictures for James (our future building engineer/architect) of all of the interesting buildings. I'm attaching a picture of a building that is completely unbelievable.  Behind it was a high rise hotel that was COMPLETELY charred. It had burned on Chinese New Year.   We saw some other amazing architecture when we visited the Olympic stadiums. When Mark was so sad this morning, we let him choose how to spend our day. He decided the stadiums sounded more interesting than the zoo.  He was really hoping to swim in the water cube. The Birds Nest is really incredible. So huge and unique. We just sat inside for a long time. They are setting up an elaborate stage for some production. Workers were busy sewing together the turf. We watched some acrobats on pogo stilts rehearsing with fans. There is a picture taken outside the Nest to give perspective on JUST how huge those bird's nest twigs really are. The area between all of the stadiums is an immense walkway.  It is really pretty and relaxing with nice music playing all of the time. The other picture is taken inside the water cube. The water cube is covered in an interesting facade.  Inside we could touch a sample of one of the "bubbles" that surround the building. Mark was not able to swim at the Cube, but he and Pete are off for Mark's daily swim at the hotel. It is the nicest indoor pool I've seen at a hotel.   We were on our own today since our guide had to travel to Guangzhou to meet up with the rest of our travel group. Did you know we are part of a travel group from our agency? It is hard to tell -- since we haven't been with them at all. They all left the day we arrived here to meet their children in various provinces. The rest of them flew to Guangzhou today. Half of them will still be there when we arrive next Thursday -- so we'll feel like part of the group for at least the last few days...   Thank you for continuing to pray for us and to follow our journey.  Tomorrow will be our last day to see Beijing.