In China
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Sunday, October 31, 2010 I'm going to issue a challenge to all those reading this blog. If you are willing and able, adopt an older child. It will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your lives. I mean it. Stop what you're doing, click here and start working on an adoption. Women, tell your husbands that Sean made you do it; I'll take the blame. If you wait for the "right time" it will never come or come too late. If you wait until you can afford it, forget it. There are ways to raise the cash if you are willing and diligent. It is simply a matter of recognizing what is truly important and changing your priorities. I am reminded of my favorite quote from a man by the name of Sir Ernest Shackleton: “Those that burden themselves with equipment to meet every contingency fare much worse than those that sacrifice total preparedness for speed". Of course, he was talking about survival in an Antarctic expedition but the principle applies to life every day, and especially adoption. The fact is, there are children aging out of the orphanage system in China every day and they need to get into a forever family, pronto. 14 years old is too young to be emancipated in Chinese society. These are tough streets and those years should be the best of a kids' life - a time of intense self-discovery, solidifying lifelong friendships, formation of their belief system, and experiencing true freedom for the first time. A forever family in the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, can make that possible. We are in love with this little girl. She is such a pleasure to be around and so much fun. She delights and amazes us every day as we get to know each other better. We know for certain now that the difficulty of this last year has paid off. We are living proof that God rewards your leaps of faith and your perseverance. We wanted to throw in the towel on a few occasions and there was more than a little stress added to our lives. We know now that was all just the pain being experienced by selfishness departing our souls to make way for generosity and charity. Your year or so of difficulty could translate into an eternity of rewards if you have the courage to make the leap of faith. We're not naive; this is of course the honeymoon. While we don't expect it to, things could take a turn for the worse over the coming weeks, months, or years. It happens in some cases. That's life and we'll work through it if it does. Our commitment supersedes whatever challenges are to come. Thankfully, it's difficult to foresee anything that dramatic. The tour bus today deposited us at the corner of Kangwang South Road and Changshou West Road at the famous Hualin Jade Market. Here we'd spend a way-too-short 45 minutes skimming the market's booths for a few gifts made of jade. Believe it or not, jade is not merely green. It comes in all kinds of colors, lusters, and translucency. Joyce gave us a few tips on what to look for in good jade, as well as a little insight about how the Chinese think about it. The Chinese will readily pay a higher price for good specimens of jade. It is the one thing they may not haggle over because it is important in their minds. The merchants here are almost exclusively Cantonese-speaking. The method of negotiation is to simply pass the calculator back and forth with your price in Yuan. Since locals shop here a lot, foreigners will receive a higher initial price. Your next offer should be 40-50% off the initial price, but to walk away with a price of 40% off is a really good deal. Unless you like amber or resin-based jewelry, the upstairs floors might be a waste of time. We managed to find a couple items but not everything we were looking for. Last time around we ended up with only about 15 minutes here after getting lost in Liwan Plaza so we vowed to come back sometime this week. We met back up with the group and headed across Kangwang Road along Changshou Road to enter Liwan Plaza from the north end. As it turns out, the plaza is only two spokes off a central hub - north and south wings. Still, each wing is 6 stories high. The north wing is entirely shop after shop of precious gems and crystals, while the south wing is fashion and apparel. The south wing empties into Shangxia Jiu Lu. We were only interested in one counter and that was at a particular pearl shop where we'd gotten a good deal 2 years ago. We quickly found it halfway down on the ground floor, east side. It is called Mao Sheng Jewelry and they sell both saltwater and freshwater pearls. We had purchased two strings of pearls for Ava last time and wanted to do the same for Gemma. One string is for their future graduation, while the other is for their wedding. Good quality freshwater pearls will cost just about $200 USD, and that is for one string of black and one string of white. To give you an idea of what saltwater pearls cost, a single black pearl will run about $300 USD. While April haggled over the pearls I looked after Gemma and Gavin. Gavin was having a great time checking out the enormous purple crystals in the amethyst shop. One of many, this store is located two doors down from Mao Sheng and has the largest examples of amethyst I have ever seen (the tallest standing about four feet high). It's unbelievable how many stores are in this place. After the pearls, we only had enough time to walk up one flight of stairs and skim half the second level before heading back to the bus. Gemma had been riding piggy-back off and on several times, holding my hand, and I got the occasional kiss on the cheek as well. She rolls her eyes at her dad like all girls probably do with their dads, but we seem to be forming a good bond now and I love it. We spent the early afternoon back in the hotel. April was napping while the kids kept themselves busy. The TV was on playing one of the 47 derivatives of wilderness survival shows that are in continuous rotation on the Discovery Channel. Gemma will sit and brush the hair of her doll for hours if you let her. She also loves to draw and frequently asks for her drawing supplies. Communication is coming much easier now as we figure each other out and for the tougher things, we still have the translator on the iPod. Although we've never found any live lice, we've continued to be vigilant about caring for her hair. I sat her down and went through her hair once again. After sifting through pretty much every hair on her head, I'm confident now that we've removed every nit. We still gave her a shampoo treatment tonight, but I think she has a clean bill of health now. At 3:30 we went down to the restaurant for "High Tea". This is something the White Swan does in the afternoon for adoption families, in which they serve all kinds of food and desserts, and of course excellent coffee and tea. We purposefully didn't eat much for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed this. It was wonderful to relax while sharing stories with the other families. One story I could have done without was Leda's story about taking Faith swimming that afternoon. I'd known the outside pool was not heated and while it is quite pleasant in the summer, it is only about 55 degrees or so right now. Leda had taken Faith swimming and Faith loved it even though her lips had turned blue. Faith was getting Gemma all excited about the prospect of going swimming, or "yuo yong". In fact, Gemma could hardly contain her excitement and kept asking to leave so we could go jump in the pool. We quickly changed into swim gear and headed down. While she giggled in anticipation, I gritted my teeth in dread. Since losing weight, I feel cold more acutely and I was definitely NOT looking forward to this. Arriving at the pool, Gemma inched her way in, giggling and squealing the whole time. I neither giggled nor squealed nor inched my way in. I stood on the side above the 1.5 meter mark silently contemplating my method of entry into the pool, figuring that the best way to go was all at once. I imagined bracing myself for the shock of the cold water on my skin, but then once I was able to get used to it, I might actually stay in for a bit and play with Gemma. Before I could work up the courage to jump in I was suddenly flying through the air toward the center of the pool. It was not quite the graceful swan dive I had pictured in my mind's eye. It was more like the uncoordinated flailing desperation of a doomed man. Everything had abruptly slowed down and as I descended toward the pack ice that was this swimming pool, my life flashed in front of my eyes. I hadn't really wanted to join the Guangzhou Polar Bear Club, but in another instant I would become a card-carrying member.

Hualin Jade Market The short walk over to Liwan Plaza Inside Liwan Plaza Joyce is explaining things Joyce and her little mei meis <sigh> The first course at High Tea High Tea. Dining, relaxing, and laughing. Goofs! Our little hairdressers braid Mommy's hair

Later, while changing in front of my wife, I might even have some explaining to do in true George Costanza style. As I came up for air, I heard an ear-splitting scream from a voice that I instantly recognized as my own. My assailant had fled the scene, choosing to hide behind the human shield of his mother, some 25 feet away. He knows not the day or hour, but that boy will experience cold water when he least expects it. Gemma however thought that this was about the funniest event she'd ever witnessed. She began to belly-laugh, and didn't stop for the next 20-30 minutes. For the next couple hours, she kept acting out the incident, pointing at Gavin and giving me playful little shoves. Each time she would once again laugh hysterically. April and I were cracking up. In all, we lasted maybe 5 minutes at the pool but the bonding and memories from a moment of frigid torture will pay dividends for a lifetime. After changing into warm clothes, we grabbed a bag of candy that we had brought and went trick-or-treating, sort of. We modified it a little so that whichever door we knocked on, the occupants would receive candy instead of having to hand it out. The first stop was Faith's room and she was of course excited to see us. The next stop was the Downes' room a couple floors down. Their son was excited to see us, especially since they'd had the same idea and came to our room earlier while we were out. We invited him up to play some games and chow down on Halloween candy. We played Uno again. Gemma has an absolute blast playing Uno and really knows how to play well. She's to the point where she's using strategy now and taunting anybody that gets a multiple pick card. Gavin's buddy stayed for a little over an hour and then we started to wind it down for the night. It was another great day in China!

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