Hey, how did I get the big white guy?

Wow, tomorrow is the day we get Noelle! She is 9 months old this week and she is going to go from zero to sixty in the family department tomorrow. As we look at the poverty, pollution, and hopelessness for especially the poor in China our passion to hurry up and bring our girl home has increased in the last couple of days. We had to see and experience all of this to feel that urgent "mission" feeling again like we did at first.

I can imagine what happens to orphans when it is time to leave the orphanage because we have seen glimpses of the challenges of poor and disadvantaged people. We see people begging on the streets frequently. I saw one older man with his blind Down Syndrome young son begging on the street and saw that there was just no hope for them. We gave him something and tried to tell him about God loving him in the few seconds that we had but even giving a little love and money you just feel such compassion and urgency for them and you worry about them when you realize they have no one to help them. Those at the bottom of the social and economic ladder even if they do have a job often find themselves in menial labor under difficult conditions. There are many difficult circumstances these people are facing. The pollution is so toxic and visible in the air that it is a fresh surprise when we wake up each day. So, for a young girl leaving an orphanage with no family name, no education, no support, no skills, and the challenges of these surroundings- what is she going to do? What can she do when there are 1.3 billion Chinese to compete with and the majority of them have had a family to love, guide, teach, and help them? The orphan girl may be little more than a statistic to this society.

So, we are feeling pretty emotional right now about going to get her and take her to her new home. However, the "rescue" feelings are just a temporary reaction to what we are seeing. We really have just viewed this for a long time as picking up our sweet daughter we have prayed for and thought about for 16 months! She is much more of a blessing to us and her big sister than we could ever be to her! I wanted to communicate the above to share some of our recent emotions and paint a picture of what is going on in China to provide possible opportunities for others to consider China adoption.

Today we had our big trip to the Great Wall. On the way North of Beijing to the Wall we stopped at an awesome jade factory. These factory owners are smart because they educate you before you go shop so you know the value and background of what is being sold. This raises your interest in what they are offering- works every time. I'll post a picture or two of some jade items that were hand-carved and really just amazing. Jade comes in more colors than green which you will see.

Then, it was on to the Great Wall. Construction on the Great Wall began around 1400 A.D. and took 200-300 years (can't remember exactly) to finish. At one point of time during construction there were 5 million people in China and the Emperor had 1 million people working on the wall. Human life was not valued and many people died while working on the Wall. They were not even buried so the workers actually put many into the wall making it the world's longest graveyard as well as the world's longest wall. The wall is full of stairs which right now for me is a "painful" subject if you get my meaning (this may be an even more "painful" subject in the morning..). The stairs are strange in that they are uneven. One stair will be a huge 15 inches high and the next will be 8 or 10 inches high. The Wall is full of defensive towers that are built right into the wall with large square windows archers could shoot arrows through. The Wall runs straight up the side of the many mountains it spans so while you are climbing it almost feels like rock climbing at moments because it is so vertical - and can be a little scary (so I never looked back). It was exhausting but rewarding as I climbed higher and higher and near the top looked down the thousands of stairs and down the mountain and took pictures. The colors of the Wall are mainly hues of grey and white and they contrast with the grass and dirt colors across the mountain ranges they are built into. Jamie climbed a little but has been battling a cold so she decided to not push things too much. That's good- she can help me walk tomorrow. :)

There is a historical protected area in the old city center we were able to tour today called the "Huotong" area. In this area people live as they have for hundreds of years in extended family homes of a unique style. They are all one-story which is unusual nowadays in Beijing and they have ancient looking grey roofs of some type of artfully crafted interlocking hoop-like tiles. All Huotong dwellings are joined by narrow alleyways and have a private courtyard with a single door to enter and exit. When you enter from the alleyway through the door into the private courtyard there are various rooms for people to sleep, study, congregate, cook, and eat in all around the center courtyard in a "U" shape. An extended family will live there with parents, husband and wife, children, etc- multiple generations. These are regular people who have jobs and bicycles or sometimes a car and simply live in this traditional setting in this special historic district and pass their homes on to the next generation and keep the dwelling in the family. As part of a tour we got to visit with a Huotong-area family in their home. It was a really rich experience.

Also as part of the tour I got to ride in a real pedal-powered rickshaw through the Huotong alleyways. It was one of the most unbelievably cool things I have done. However, as I walked up to my rickshaw my driver who did not speak any English smiled and was nice but I was sure he was probably thinking, "Hey, how did I get the big white guy?" I was just sure he was going to go over to his supervisor and clutch his heart and pretend to have a heart attack to get away from having to cart my big tail around. It was 30 degrees outside and I swear he broke out into a sweat when he saw me walk up.

enjoy the pics, you can see me in my rickshaw- tomorrow we will have pics of Noelle!