No matter what country you're in, poop is poop. Cerys has familiarized us much more than necessary with her particular brand. We started the day out with the beautiful little princess baptising her mom with the mid-diaper change blast. I quite enjoyed regaling hte rest of the group with the fine details of the story. Later that afternoon when we were waling through the very fancy and nice jade store, I was holding my delicate little flower of a niece when suddenly I felt something warm running down the front of my skirt, and looked down to see that particular brand of newborn poop all over me, all over the floor, all in my shoe, all over my niece. And the words payback is a bitch went through my head. And out my mouth went, quite loudly, the word "Becky, Becky, Becky!" quite loudly. Once Becky and I stopped laughing, we did a fairly miraculous job of cleaning everything up. I had thought those days were over for me, but since this little princess is primarily a bottle feeder still, I get to relive those early days of parenting once again.

Probably, you're more interested in the Jade Store part of that e-mail, or are wondering how the heck our China experience is going from a cultural perspective (tho there's soemthing very telling about how people handle baby trials and tribs in every culture - for instancve, yesterday at a little European style bakery next to our hotel, a Chinese woman proceeded to change her 16 month old son on her lap on the pirch surrounded by other diners. We have yet tp see a changing station in a restroom, and rejoice when a restroom boasts regular toilets rather than the squatting pits that are ubiquitous instead). The White Swan is really and truly boot camp for parenting. It is a huge hotel, and the size and client base is most obvious at the breakfast buffet which, like our otehr two hotels, boasts a bizarre selection of AMerican, European, and CHinese cuisine. I could have, had I been so inclined, had a breakfast consisting soely of mini fried chicken wings, hot dogs, ham, sausage, carpaccio, smoked salmon, dried fish, sliced fish liver, pate, and Iknow I'm missing one or two other meats. Or french toast and deep fried cheese sticks with congee (millet porridge) with scallops. Or aged eggs in congee with smoked pork soemthing or otehr. It's random.

We visited, after breakfast, teh local FOlk Art Museum housed at the historic home of a prominent family from one of the later dynasties, learning about feng sui, warrior lore, and seeing soem of the sculpture, woodwork and so on from the later periods of Chinese history - beautiful, and again, I love the contrast of old and new China: the gorgeous gardens, replete with sculpture, bonsai trees, intricate garden details, and int he background, the skyscrapers, maybe thirty years old but stained with teh smog and exhaust of the insane traffic, laundry hanging from all available points, and evidence of the crowding of the masses of humanity rising in a tower of modern chaos. What I fidn amazing, and so rewarding is how many CHinese people we have seen at every museum, gallery, park, etc. we've been to - how in touch they stay with their culture adn history and how a part of life celebration is - right now, the mid-autumn celebration time is heating into full frenzy,a nd heading towards the moon festival where families coem together - no mater where in teh world they are - to celebrate with each otehr with feasts, the most importatn part of which is sharing moon cakes. The festicval is of course at teh full moon, adn the families all eat frm teh same moon cake, signifying the origins and unification of fmailiy.Beautiful. Most amazing is that all these Chinese people we come into contact with at these places are so interested in why these "big nose" - Europeans are holding CHinese babies (think every manner of stroller and baby bjorn and carrier ever invented). Our group has cards written with teh story of the adoption, stating teh babies name and so on - and every time the subject is broached, the Chinese people show no anger, embarrasment, nothing - only gratitude and warmth and congratulations. Becky was in tears at teh museum from the beautiful words spoken to her and sentiments expressed to her by a group of 20 or so older CHinese women - a wonderful affirmation.

After this, we went to a Buddhist temple - outside teh gates, all manner of disabled people asking for alms. OInside, a beautifully serene place, people lighting incense, honoring their ancestors, praying at altars, leaving offerings and asking fro blessings. In a gorgeous temple with three golden Buddhas on the back wall (each at least 40 feet tall) with flowers, food, adn bizarre mini towers of soda as offerings on teh tables, those who wanted knelt before a monk who blessed the babies and parents. I sat next to Cerys and Becky, holding out a picture of my beautiful babies, tears falling from my eyes with wonder, gratitude, and the ache of the distance between us. It was a powerful and intensely simple and beautiful moment. About 4 Southern baptist families from the group chose not to take part, which I thought a bit sad, but it certainly didn;t distract. No matter how it is expressed or celebrated, we all feel blessed by the wonder of parenthood! Of course, I hadn't yet been pooped on...

I know I'm forgetting to put down the things we did days predeeding, I will when I have my notebook and when a poor backpacker from Finland or somewhere isn't patiently waiting to use the only decent and decently priced somputer in all of Samian Island, Guangzhou.

Love to everyone, and thank you for adding to my feeling of being blessed in this world.

love,
H