Two Things That I Have Never Seen Before...

I've sit down in this hotel lobby each night and  morning I have been here and I am being driven crazy by the Chinese version of "I Wanna Know What Love Is"....over....and over....and over.  It's like Chinese Water Torture!

Before I get to a couple of the strange occurrences of the day, I love how God gives us very simple things that we can enjoy.  Our hearts don't always need major events to get filled with joy.  One such small event involves Bo....duh!

When she is sitting up and playing, she looks straight down at her toys.  She bangs the cups together, grabs the colorful triangles or circles...the typical kinds of things.  And, for the most part, I sit behind her or in front of her while she plays.  Every once in awhile she'll stop, look up or behind her to make sure I am still there, reach out her hand towards my face until I kiss her hand, and then she goes right back to playing.  It is such a good sign for her to be comforted by our presence....or maybe she is becoming a Diva...either way, right now, I like it.  I miss my family back home a great deal (we do love and miss you boys and can't wait to get home to unite our entire family!), but I have a great peace and contentment.  God is so faithful in meeting and surpassing our every need....overflowing and abundant joy. It was another very happy day.  And though we are tired, nothing but happiness reigns over our days here....except for when we long to be back home with everyone.

The day started uneventfully and ended uneventfully.  Another fantastic breakfast with Bo (a favorite time for me with her), I got to listen to some of the Preds game, and then off for a visit to the Teng Wang Pavilion for a short show and looking around.  I did have another politically incorrect moment.  When we all shuffled into the bus/van and sat down the door to the van was still open, I looked and ask "Anyone up for a Chinese fire drill?"  Maybe not the best thing ever...which reminds me of a middle school story.  I once got run over by a van while attempting a Chinese fire drill.  I did not break anything, but it did run over my lower legs and I had perfect tire tread bruise marks on my legs...I was the coolest kid in school for the first and only time in my life.

Back to today.  I have attached a few pictures.  We went to a really neat pavilion that sits along the river.  Only really exciting thing happened on the way, get to that in a second.  But it was beautiful.  We got to see a Chinese show with one of those dancing girls that has the fan thing, a song that was half opera/half the old lady that everyone has at their church that sings just a little too loudly, and then a really beautiful song by a band playing a bunch of old, traditional Chinese instruments.  We toured the pavilion, made some fun purchases for Bo, and headed for a traditional Chinese lunch before heading back to the hotel.  I exercised and relaxed.  We got our laundry back and it was amazing.  They had tagged everything we had with our room number, folded it nicely and put it into bags, and placed it all together.  I was worried, but they did do a really good job.  We didn't really eat dinner tonight.  We mainly played with Bo, played with Bo, gave Bo a bath (which is getting a little better), and then she headed to bed and I headed down to write, read, and drink some funny, but good, tasting Chinese tea.

OK, to the two weird events of the day.

First, actually the second event but I will tell it first.  After I finished running I noticed a body guard looking guy standing in the doorway of the men's locker room. I wasn't sure, but I thought he was standing their to protect someone so I wasn't sure if I should go in.  I filled my water bottle up and headed into the locker room to put my workout towel up (which by the way for those of you who read yesterday's know that was a language barrier thing for me to this point but I went up and said the word to the guy...maotin (guess at spelling) and he went right to the girl who went into the female locker room and brought me a towel). So anyway, I am in this locker room, I go to wash my hands and there are two men in front of the sinks...no big deal, right?  Until I paid attention.  The tough looking body guard guy was drying and combing the hair of an older guy.  It caught me off guard, I stared, I froze and couldn't stop staring, then I was embarrassed when they both gave me a dirty look.  But it was weird to see a fully dressed body guard dry and comb the hair of a perfectly healthy man standing in his underwear.  Sorry if that offends.

Second, and the first thing that happened that was strange.  I saw split-bottom pants in action today.  For those of you who do not know, the Chinese work very hard at potty-training their kids at a young age. They use different tactics and one is the use of split-bottom pants.  These pants are exactly as they sound, there is no bottom in them.  There is a big gap so the kid can go to the bathroom.  No big deal, right.  EXCEPT THAT THEY GO WHEREVER AND WHENEVER THEY NEED TO!  They squat on the sidewalk, or wherever.  As we were driving to the pavilion we saw to older women take to little ones to some flowers, open up the split-bottoms, hold them over the flowers, and allow them to do their business.  Of course I videotaped it and it is solely up to a good friends as to whether he puts it on the blog tonight.  I don't want to violate some international law by showing little kids going t-t or making stinky.  If he puts it in, enjoy.  While Nicole and I were at Wal-Mart the other day we saw a young couple with a little boy and they were right in the aisle of the Wal-Mart training him to take a piece of plastic, squat down over the plastic, pretend to go, and then pretend to carry the soiled plastic away...they were so proud of him.  I just stared, and got embarrassed again.

Prayers...

God, I have spent some much time concerned about what is going on here.  I have very good friends half a world away who are going through some very tough times within their families.  God, you know who they are and what they need, please meet them where they are and carry them the rest of the way. You are faithful and you can provide a peace that passes understanding, we claim that promise for our friends who love you and suffer.

Anyone who reads this, please pause and pray for someone you know who is in need of God's love, peace, and/or wisdom.

Bless you all.  One more day in Nanchang than we are off for a week in Guangzhou where we take care of all the details of allowing Bo to travel to the US and be a citizen. Talk to you all soon.