Adoption is beautiful. But with adoption comes grief and loss. Today was about our daughter and this is her story to tell.
BEAUTY IN PAIN
In the midst of pain, Kathleen had a beautiful reunion with her former foster parents who lovingly cared for her prior to us adopting her. We spent today allowing them to reminisce of their time with Kathleen and gave Kathleen the opportunity to ask many questions about her first years. Today, a void was partially filled. Partially.
Here is a glimpse at some of the beautiful moments we shared together.
We travel next to Nanchang, Jiangxi, Jonathan's hometown. Hopefully more questions answered.
Education Abroad
So many people were shocked we planned to take our kids out of school for a whole month. After teaching overseas, though, I became an advocate of travel being a great educator.
While we were in Hong Kong, we had our social studies lesson on world religions. Just during breakfast, we had Hindus, several different sects of Muslims, Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns all sitting around us. Being from Idaho, this was an education to my children, but it made this city girl feel right at home. We discussed the basic beliefs and history of each faith and why they wore different clothing representative of their beliefs. We were also able to walk around the buffet and talk about why different faiths have different beliefs about various foods. (And we tried so many new things!) When we walked out of our hotel, we were able to see various places of worship. Real life experience is just better than simply reading a textbook!
Over the course of the trip so far we have seen fish farms, shrimp boats, fishing boats, rice paddies, dragon fruit and banana plantations, corn fields, small family farms growing a variety of greens, sugar cane plantations, tree farms, citrus farms (for mandarin oranges, pomelos and another small orange which tastes like a combination of a Cutie and a lime) and plants we could not identify. China grows a LOT of produce!!! (I realize there are a lot people here, but have you seen the magnitude of their cities? We're talking HUGE!) In visiting Nanning after eight years, the city has managed to triple in size, add a subway line, a bullet train station and railway line, and massive amounts of skyscrapers to it's landscape. It almost seems impossible, but it has happened. (And all the while I-90 between Ellensurg and Seattle is still under construction!)
