Thursday, March 2, 2006
GREAT WALL DAY

Other than Tian An Men Square, this was one of the places I was most anxious for Faith to see. She was a little more excited than your average teenager (who might tend to yawn at the monuments and historical places in their nation's capital) and anxiously followed me up all the stairs to all the various vantage points on the wall that mommy didn't feel as compelled to visit. As she looked out over the parapets at the countryside and toward Beijing proper I wondered at what her thoughts must be as she sees this great part of her country's heritage for the first time...just before leaving it for a foreign land and changing her citizenship.

Another interesting thing I noted were all the Chinese character scratchings in the stones along the Great Wall. I looked at them and thought: "It's a universal phenomenon that some people, upon visiting a historical site, feel compelled to scratch their names or some sort of message onto its surface." I'm posting a picture of one of them. If anyone who reads Chinese characters would take some time to post to the guest book and tell us what some of the etchings say, we would certainly appreciate it. (unless it starts out: "There was a young lady from Niger...")

Then came the Chinese acrobats. We didn't want to take any pictures - what if the flash blinded somebody during a difficult stunt and they injured themselves? We don't want to start an international incident.
We still don't have a lot of linguistic communication between us. She is learning new words, but that is a long process. Sometimes it's hard to put these last 2 weeks into context though; it's a kind of binding and attachment honeymoon where the activity takes place on some fronts more than others. We talk a lot through our guide (and friend), Rose, but we also communicate family familiarity and intimacy by walking holding hands or with an arm around one another. This level of comfort has progressed so smoothly it still surprises me. We love to hug our new daughter, stroke her long hair, (I like to touch her very smooth cheeks!), and she smiles at us.

We have explained that soon this "honeymoon" will end and we will fly to her new home outside of Denver where she will soon begin school as well as other activities. I think she knows though that what we have started will continue - We will still hug, hold hands etc., even though we may not spend quite as many waking hours of the day together. But she will also have two meimei's to hug and play with who anxiously await her.

Wenyan will soon start a challenging school environment where she will be pushed far outside her communication and social comfort zones while also enjoying a supportive family and church environment. We kneel together around the hotel bed and pray for her and other members of our family. I know that she hears her name in those prayers as well as those of her sisters and other relatives. It's exciting to be starting on this trail and envisioning the end result of all the aforementioned factors combining to form a good foundation for all of us to continue forward, together, as a forever family.