(One year ago this month, Pa and I made the trek to China to adopt our sweet Sister Susie. I am going to take the first seventeen days of February 2008 to revisit that trip. Hop in for the ride!)
I was told it was Sunday morning, but you could have fooled me. I hardly knew what hemisphere I was on, let alone the day or the time.
But since it was Sunday, we headed off to church. At this point, we had no children with us, so our "going to church" experience was totally out-of-body and not the norm. I felt like I needed to holler at someone before we all piled on the bus, but alas, I just shuffled along with the rest of the travelers in a weary, comatose state.
So this church service, while enjoyable, was not "true China." Instead, it was a mix of international folks living in Beijing, worshiping together. So the service was quite American-churchanized, complete with lyrics on the screen:
Okay, so the crowd was singing in at least two different languages, to the same tune, at the same time--so there made for a wee bit of difference.
Oh! And there happened to be 100 or so people visiting the service that morning, ALL WHO WERE GOING TO BE GIVEN THEIR BABIES THE NEXT DAY.
Little detail there.
This snippet from my journal gives you an idea of where my mind was that Sunday morning:
(A year later, we still marvel at the miracle we call "Sister Susie" and how she ended up with us...how grateful we are just to simply know her and love her.)
But back to China.
So after some good churchin', we headed out for shoppin'--oops--I mean, "learnin'." So off to the educational jade factory we went.
As you see, my deviant nature was not yet under control:
I was told it was Sunday morning, but you could have fooled me. I hardly knew what hemisphere I was on, let alone the day or the time.
But since it was Sunday, we headed off to church. At this point, we had no children with us, so our "going to church" experience was totally out-of-body and not the norm. I felt like I needed to holler at someone before we all piled on the bus, but alas, I just shuffled along with the rest of the travelers in a weary, comatose state.
So this church service, while enjoyable, was not "true China." Instead, it was a mix of international folks living in Beijing, worshiping together. So the service was quite American-churchanized, complete with lyrics on the screen:
Okay, so the crowd was singing in at least two different languages, to the same tune, at the same time--so there made for a wee bit of difference.
Oh! And there happened to be 100 or so people visiting the service that morning, ALL WHO WERE GOING TO BE GIVEN THEIR BABIES THE NEXT DAY.
Little detail there.
This snippet from my journal gives you an idea of where my mind was that Sunday morning:
Much of this morning's service at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship church was in Mandarin Chinese, but as the worship leader was praying, my heart quickened when I heard him say “Xie Xie...Xie Xie” (pronounced “Shay Shay”), which means “thank you.” That was all the prayer I needed this morning...as we are overflowing with gratitude that we get to raise this girl as our daughter. Many people will say that she is the lucky one--but we are the ones who are blessed. The paperwork, the payments, the pains...it all fades to the background as we step into that civil affairs building tomorrow.
(A year later, we still marvel at the miracle we call "Sister Susie" and how she ended up with us...how grateful we are just to simply know her and love her.)
But back to China.
So after some good churchin', we headed out for shoppin'--oops--I mean, "learnin'." So off to the educational jade factory we went.
As you see, my deviant nature was not yet under control:
And neither was my spending:
So we walked out with some jade (paid for, of course!), and once we arrived back in the states, found out that our JCPenney store at home carried many of the same items for about one-third of the price.
So we bought some of that, too.
Lovin' it.
