December 9, 2007

Beijing Airport

We are at our gate waiting for boarding to begin so we can go to Guangzhou. The real highlight of today is that we get you tomorrow. In our hearts you are already a part of our family. Tomorrow you become a physical part of our family. The plane is starting to board. I will start back once on the plane...

Ok, we are all on the plane. I will write until I have to close my tray table.

As I was saying, tomorrow you become part of our physical family. It will be interesting to see if anyone sleeps tonight. All of us will be so excited and nervous. Our minds will be racing making it hard to sleep. I will lie awake asking many questions. Will you recognize me from the pictures we sent for you? Will you smile at us? Will you want to be held? Will you talk to us? Will I be able to say your name so that you recognize it? What will the remainder of that first day together look like? If our first meeting goes well, by that I mean you aren't scared or missing your foster family already, at what time will you start to miss them? When will our first big communication problem occur? What will that be about? Will you be hungry? thirsty? need to go to the bathroom? Will you be asking for your foster family? Regardless of what it is, whatever you are asking for, whatever you need, I pray that God will give me wisdom, patience, and the desire and ability to lead the family through it. As I lead, may God also give me the wisdom to listen to your mom. God has blessed her with gifts of motherhood. She will likely relate to and understand you better than I will. May God protect my heart if this occurs so that I am not hurt, frustrated, or jealous of this. I love you so much already and I want you to love me also. I know you will in time. God gives me faith for that. I desire that it happens sooner rather than later.

On our ride to he airport we had a more personal conversation with our guide, Lisa. We learned many things of Chinese culture, society, government policy, etc. As I recall various topics of your country's history, culture, policy, etc, I will mention them here for you so it is preserved for you. If I wait I will likely forget. You will be an American, you will have American citizenship, an American passport, etc. You will grow up in American culture, learn American social patterns, traditions, music, government, policies, etc. I do not know what the future holds for our ability or desire to teach and expose you to your Chinese culture and history. At times I think it would be good for you to know these things. At other times i think, "why?" You will most likely never return to China. There isn't now, and likely will not be, opportunity to discuss or share in any Chinese experiences. As I examine my motivations regarding this, I identify multiple reasons for thinking this way. Part is pride as an American (pride is a sin). Part is that I don't know how to do it. How to teach you these things about China, that is. I don't know it naturally of course. Where to get reliable resources for the information isn't clear to me There isn't much of a Chinese culture in or around Niceville that I know of. It seems as it would be very difficult to learn these things as it's so much different than I know (fear is a sin). Life will soon become very busy for me and my motivation and energies will be pulled in different directions (slothfulness is a sin). Time will tell. Since you are so young, within a very short time your memory of China, the people, the language, etc may disappear. As you get older you may have no interest in these things. I can't imagine that you would unless we developed that in you or until you were much older anyway. Speaking of you when you get much older, that opens up a whole new set of questions, and concerns (more fearful sinning). For example, will you feel like a real part of the family (which you most certainly are) or will you feel different somehow? Will you be interested in China and Chinese things? If so, how might those interests pull you , or me, or the whole family, in different directions? I'll stop there with these questions as that could easily consume me as your father and the leader of the family. I love you and will get fearful for our relationship. I am tasked to lead the family and can get anxious for our future. These behaviors are all part of my sinful nature. Like all of us, my nature separated me from God. God loved me, and all of us, so he sent Jesus to make a way for bridging the relationship. I am no longer separated from God because of these sins. My sins are forgiven; past, present, and future. With God, his Holy Spirit that is, I pray that God will continue to work in me so that I sin less, am sanctified more, and grow to be more like Christ. I pray that for you as well. God called me to himself. He used many people and events in my life to do this. Ultimately the Holy Spirit changed my heart. As your father, as God is our Father, I desire the same for you and all my children. I desire the same for every person. Numbers 6:24-26 & Romans 9:14-18.

Your mom asked Lisa if there were churches in China. Lisa advised there were many churches in China as China is "open" to this. She did not make mention of how free the churches are. It would be interesting to hear her explain why there is an underground church (Christian) in China since China is "open" to religion. She did explain that if you are a member of the Communist Party, you are not allowed to believe in any religion. If you did and the party found out, you would be punished. This began a conversation about what the word "party" means, or how it is used. It seems different in China than the U.S. when referring to government. I explained Republican party and Democrat party and they would each vote to send their choice for office and that in the general election anyone can vote for either candidate. Lisa's response was revealing. She said, "that is because they are equal and have equal rights." She explained that only the Communist party has any rights in China. Other parties have no rights and no power to do anything. Lisa also explained to be a member of the Communist party is to be viewed as a "good person." Party members are "good people." Once a year the local people will vote to determine who will become members of the party. If you are not viewed as a good person you will not be chosen. Only a few people are chosen each year. The process is something that a person applies for. If a person wanted to join the party, they would apply and be interviewed. A complete check of your background, etc would be done to determine if you are eligible. Lisa explained that the Communist party is very small. This of course is relative. Lisa says there are "only" 60 million members of the party. Of course this is an enormous number of people but compared to the population, over 1.5 billion, this is small. One other thing Lisa said that caught my attention, in mentioning the background check that would be done on anyone applying to become a member of the party, was that if a person had ever been on house arrest, they would never be allowed to join the party. I would like to have heard her talk about house arrest. What gets someone placed on house arrest?

We talked to Lisa about school and the labor force some. She mentioned that after the Spring festival in the rural countryside, much of the population comes to the cities looking for work. There is no money to be made in the countryside. The people live on just a few thousand Juan per year. At this time $1 = 7.35 Juan. So 2-3 thousand Juan per year is only $300-$500 per year. When the farmers come to the city they have no skills except to be used as laborers. They mostly do construction. This would explain some of her comments during tours and such. She had pointed out very poor quality buildings that looked like abandoned 1950's motels on highways that were replaced when the interstate went in the next county. These Lisa said were the living places provided for the laborers by their employers. The buildings were built for them and would be torn down when not needed. She also made mention that clothing would be provided by the employer as well. I told Lisa that similar systems exist in America such as the use of Mexican and Central American labor to harvest fruit and vegetables. In the American and Chinese examples, people with little or no skills were used as inexpensive labor to do work that other people did not, or would not, do. Lisa had already commented that the people living in the city see the construction laborers doing very hard work and making very low wages and they would not do the work.

Lisa is obviously one of the educated Chinese, as many are. Also many are not.... It was interesting to hear her say that because China has very inexpensive labor, in this case in its factories, many companies have moved their factories and plants to China. A few days earlier, Phebe (our guide from the airport when we arrived) had said that in China they copy everything. I see this as 2 different individuals, both educated, both revealing that it is common knowledge among he Chinese (of the city anyway) that much of what their economy is built on is making inexpensive copies of other peoples' creations. I sensed no pride or embarrassment in their statement, just statements of fact. Although if I had to choose, I would certainly not say pride. Embarrassment would be too strong a term to explain their thoughts. They would smile, and I think Phebe even chuckled when saying it, which if interpreted correctly, revealed a sense of humor about it.

A revealing statement from Lisa this morning was that to really see China (or perhaps, to see the "real" China) you must go to the countryside. The cities are really not a representation of what the country itself is like. The country is so large and the cities make up a small portion. This statement lead to conversation about education and the "one couple - one child" policy.

As for education, I was piecing together statements Lisa had made at different times and trying to make sense of them in order to get an understanding of the big picture. For example, "people from the countryside had few skills to use in the city." "Mandarin, math, and English are compulsory in primary school." "School is available to everyone." "School is expensive" (in the city). Etc, etc, etc... More or less it came together like this...

Day to day, especially in the city (I haven't seen rural areas yet but hope to), it's very much like the U.S. Except for this big thing, the government (the Party), which can do whatever it wants in the name of the people, you could not tell China from America. There are clearly the "haves" and the "have nots," rich and poor, entitled and disenfranchised, etc. Except for the government, China cities are very, very, capitalistic. It's about who has money and who doesn't. This translates to education. Although school is available to everyone, in the city, it isn't free so in reality it's only available to those who can afford it. In the countryside, it is frequently too poor and even the local governments cannot afford to build and staff schools. Evidently there is a federal program to raise money to build some of these country (rural) schools. The city people are asked to donate money. This money is used to build rural schools but although some schools are built, I was not convinced, nor did Lisa seem convinced, that this program was going to educate the rural people anytime soon. In true national pride though, Lisa was clearly proud that her country and people were doing this because it was a "good thing." Appearance is so important here. The appearance of doing a good thing like this is something to be proud of whether it is truly successful or not.