Friday, March 07, 2008

~ CHINA ON MY MIND ~

I miss China.

After compiling pictures for my last post ~ I got lost in the photos! I love to think about our time in Mia's birth country. It was such a wonderful experience and I cannot wait for the day our entire family can go back. I posted a few photos, most of which were taken by David (he and Michelle adopted Lia, I'm sure you remember them from our China posts!).

Guangxi rice fields
This was taken during our walk thru the Chinese village
(our guide told us this village was similar to where our daughters came from)
Of course, I think Mia's province is most beautiful ~ then, I found out a movie
was filmed here (The Painted Veil) because of its beauty!

It felt invasive as we 'peeked' around at people during their everyday lives.

I often think of these woman, hunched over this water hole, scrubbing their laundry.
These "pictures" never leave your mind.
It's so hard to imagine Mia here
It gives me shivers


Mia will have such a different life than her birth mother
I wish she knew
After seeing this village, her birth mother could not imgaine
in her wildest dreams, where she is at this moment
But, I wish she knew




David wanted to find the beauty
amongst all of the harshness we had just seen

I didn't post about our visit to this amazing cave.
We stopped here after the village and took a loooong walk up and down and all around!
It was dark, but lit up with some beautiful lighting.
The steps were slippery, there were puddles and I was so afraid we'd trip and fall ~
remember we did have the babies at this point!
This is a real monkey!
We were all amazed to see monkeys jumping in the trees!
A funny story: My husband bought some peanuts from a woman,
she had a huge basket with fruits, waters and peanuts.
He started throwing the nuts and the monkeys came scrambling out from the trees.
It was a bit scarey ~ he thought he would be attacked at any minute!
We would take long walks in Nanning whenever possible.
We wanted to see as much as possible.
The heat was unbearable at times and we would find a shady
side of the sidewalk (and drink lots of water!)

You couldn't believe how much they could cram into a store!

Mia and Lia in our hotel (The Majestic)

Lia used to mother Mia
We miss you honey

Guangxi-mommies try for a photo


~ Some more of David's breath-taking photos ~

This is the People's park down the road from our hotel
in Nanning. Remember we met the elderly gentleman
who took classes at the university ~ he was thrilled our
girls would call us "mom" ~ so sweet!
This pathway lead to this bridge:

What a bridge!


Nanning, Guangxi exceeded our wildest dreams.
It is forever etched in our minds and hearts
we miss you
Since this blog is also a scrapbook and journal for Miss Mia. It is very important to me that she knows how I am feeling; how I love her birth country, how I reminice often about our wonderful adventure, how proud I am that she is Chinese.

9 comments:

Colleen said...

I love this! I too miss China and fell in love with it as it is a part of Faith so now a part of me. I remember being so torn as we were leaving...part of me so much wanted to bring Faith home and start our life together, but it was very emotional leaving her birth country. We too hope to go back in the next few years to experience Faith's birth country with her.
Mia's province is just lovely. Thank you for sharing the photos. It's wonderful to find the beauty in places and in the way of living that we are not use to. I remember reading about a study that was done right about the time we came back from China......the study showed that if all of China lived the way that we did here in America ( size of homes, space we use, etc..) China would need 3 earths our size to live that way. Really makes you think. I love the beauty that you all found there.:)It will mean so much to Mia as you talk about where she was born.

Anonymous said...

These pictures are breathtaking!!!
Lisa

Anonymous said...

Lisa girl...you read my mind!_________________________________
What a Enchanted province it is!
Jo - what you have captured in this post is something so,so special for Mia...
What a special piece of her heart and homeland (the photos are just incredible!) she can always look back and reflect on.

Jewels of My Heart said...

Thank you.....
I too feel this way so often...
I fell in love with China and her people. My heart longs to return... to explore, to learn, to experience the splendor of China.
I am working on starting a blog where whoever wants to can send their favorite photos of China and a pic of their little one.
I think it will be wonderful to share China's beauty with each other and will give our children an opportunity to see and learn even more about their birth country.
God Bless you and I hope you will some day return to our beloved China.

Sophie's Mom said...

Beautiful photos, and wonderful memories. I miss China so much, too. I long to go back!

t~ said...

I love this post, amazing photos! I already feel so in love with China and can not wait to experience it. I could not be more proud that my girl will be Chinese. Thanks for the great reminder to take many pics!

Anonymous said...

Jo -

Such great pictures, thanks for sharing. They really do capture the beauty of M's province,and help to remind you of her early beginnings. I do hope you get to go back someday, and it's so nice that you have these memories to share with M. You can be proud to say that you brought her home to where she truly belongs.

Aunt Michie :)

Dawn said...

Beautiful photos...Wow! I cannot wait to experience it all. I love how you mentioned that Mia's birth mother has no idea where she is right now and what her life is like...I hope she feels a sense of peace about her decision and knows she made a very brave and selfless choice.

Global Girl said...

Lovely photos! I'll be in Guilin and Yangshuo in July :)