We have all been blessed…

Day 10

Today we ventured out in the van with the other families to a Buddhist Temple. This temple is known to have a very small piece of the original Buddha's remains which was a gift to the emperor of China many generations ago. This temple is about 1,475 years old, and is frequented by the locals of Guangzhou for daily prayer as well as being a tourist site. Our tour guide Aron taught us about the laughing buddha and how he was something like a saint, not the actual buddha himself. The miracle or talent this buddha is known for is taking everyones hardships and sorrows upon himself (into his large belly…he is not fat with overindulgence, but with all of the sorrows he has taken in from his followers).

Photos from day 10

(If you can't see the Flash slideshow above, click here.)

We also learned that the buddha statues are set in three, and the incense sticks lit for each person are done in threes, as these represent a person's past, present, and future. All of us lit our three incense prayer sticks and made our three wishes to the Buddha. Wil later was sad that one of his prayers could not come true, as he wished for the great buddha to come back to life if he was in fact such a great man. So sweet.

We were then led into the temple area with the largest three Buddha's. There a buddhist monk asked us to take off our shoes and enter the roped off area. We kneeled before him, and he proceeded in a beautiful chant and dripped water in a blessing upon our heads. The blessing is to bring good health and happiness.

From there it was off to a local park. We are all so impressed with the emphasis in this culture upon exercise and healthy living. Every park has exercise equipment and areas for walking which are in constant use by men, women, and children all together. This park had that along with a large area for badminton and ping pong Many children played with their parents in the park. Further on, there were some small rides. The boys enjoyed a short rollercoaster ride, and a bike ride on a monorail which resembled something like General Greivous rode in the movie. All of this surrounded a beautiful lake. There were more people playing the local version of hackysack, and we stopped to play with a local man that laughed as us americans. Anna Mei took her nap peacefully sleeping in the stroller as we walked.

We were on our own for the afternoon, and used the opportunity to do a few errands, have lunch at a new favorite chinese style restaurant, and back to the hotel room for quiet time. Anna Mei is beginning to practice standing more, and loves the stacking cups we brought along. Last night she kept Mommy up to 11 PM since her nap was so late, so our goal is an earlier bedtime tonight. Tomorrow is a big day.

We meet at 7:20 AM to board the van for the US Consulate in Guangzhou City. There, we will meet with the proper officials, and should all go well, Anna Mei will officially be a US citizen tomorrow. Nothing can ever be easy, so of course we have one obstacle to overcome. We are told our notary in BaoDing did a poor job. She left out one sentence telling that Anna was in the care of the police officer that found her in the two days time span between when she was found and when she was admitted to the orphanage. In the recent past, the US Consulate has been picky about this omission, but if pressed, will still approve the application. Worst case: we must remain longer in country while the notary does the correct forms. However, we are told they have made exceptions, especially if pushed a bit. Glad Chris is here! Stay tuned for the results :-)