The Old City Wall & Chinese Starfish:July 1st

This morning after our "hurry up and wait" at the police station, we went to the old Xian wall. Most cities in China were built with a wall around them for protection. After new China was formed (i.e. Mao's Communist China) most of the walls were torn down to create easier access in and out of the city, since in modern times most of these cities have grown far beyond the boundaries of the old wall. Xian is one of the few exceptions. The first wall was built in the Tang dynasty around 1000 A.D. At this time Xian was the end of the silk road, the major city in China for trade, the country capital and it boasted over a million people. The wall was later expanded, and fortified in the Ming Dynasty around 700 years ago.

Derek & the kids rode bicycles, but since I had Seth we rode in a pedi-cab, definitely the comfortable way to go. It is 7 miles around the wall. You can see it is very wide and they used to parole the wall on horses. My pedi-cab driver was so cute, and had to stop and tell me the history of the wall as we went. We haven't heard much from Siyuan thus far, but he much prefered the bike ride to stopping and listening to history. After a very long history lesson at one point he turned to me and said very impatiently, "Ma-ma, Ma-ma jou-ba!" which means, "Mom, Mom, let's go!" This is the first time he's called me Mom and it tickled me so much.
Siyuan love- to sit on his Dad's lap while we drive and then have Derek tell him what we're passing. "Bus" "Car" "Motorcycle" or "Taxi". If Derek slacks off then he'll start pointing out the window so he'll start again. When we're out and about he particularly loves the expensive shiny cars. It's funny because he's spent his whole life in the orphanage and had little if no exposure to the outside world, but he's soaking it all in. He is still such a Daddy boy, but doesn't fight with me to feed him or rock him to sleep at night. He is such a delight.








This afternoon we went to Amanda's Chinese starfish home. She takes in children who are not thriving or have severe medical needs, nurses them back to health and then submits their paperwork for adoption. She has about 20 children right now. She has Chinese nannies to help her, and many people come from the states and volunteer at her home as well. We had the priviledge of going to dinner with her and then she came back to our hotel room and we talked until 10:30 p.m. (hence I didn't get this post out last night). I wish every person could have the priviledge to listen to her joys and triumphs, her frustrations and struggles, her heart breaks and losses. What a remarkable woman. She told us when she was 33 she realized she probably wouldn't marry. She prayed, "Heavenly Father, if I'm not going to have a husband, please at least give me an interesting life so that when I'm 80 I won't be in my rocking chair saying, 'I waited for him all these years'. Well her life, is most interesting. Our lives were enlarged from being with her. Thank you so much.

(Christie, p.s. Jade does not have d.s. She does not look like Han Chinese, and may very well be one of the minority people in China. I took pictures for you)