Opening your heart and your mind...

I've been thinking about our day today and reflecting on how the adoption journey and process opens both your heart and mind. In so many ways, travelling to a foreign country and living among a completely different culture also does this.

This morning, our guide took us to the Six Banyan Temple. It is the oldest temple in China standing 1450 years, and has a tower inside that is 14 stories high. As an educator and learned individual, I welcome the opportunity to stretch my own thoughts and beliefs and open my mind to others. So...in we walk to the oldest and possibly largest Buddhist temple in China. Local folk are burning insense and bringing gifts of fruit and juice to offer for wishes, and inside one of the buildings one is overwhelmed by the magnitude of three gold Buddhas and the people who were steadfastly shining them and preparing the area for worship. As my mom (yes the former Sister Mary Celeste of Jesus) stood by with the video camera, Christian and I along with both of the girls removed our shoes and knelt before the Buddhas to receive a blessing. I must say, although it is unknown to me what the Buddhist was singing as he quietly tapped a drum and praised the Buddha, it was quite peaceful. He then dipped a leaf into some water and dripped it onto each of our heads. I never imagined I would have been in a position to experience this, but I am grateful for the opportunity to recognize that each of us have our God that we praise, and ritual in which we do that- for me, this morning was a chance to have a blessing from the Chinese onto our children through a ritual that is centuries old and steep in tradition and culture, and their way of expressing and exercising their beliefs.


Right now, Christian is doing his best to get both girls down for a rest, which is just short of a miracle, but we have managed this a couple of times now, and look forward to returning home when we can begin to create "normalcy" and some sort of routine and schedule.

Madeleine is battling a cold and runny nose, so it was no small wonder when I woke up this morning I was feeling a bit under the weather myself. It's only a matter of time before the other 2 Druckers catch up, but I am armed with Zicam and loads of other over the counter meds, so we're ready. A few other parents in the group are also not feeling well, which for the second week into our trip and all of our travels, little sleep and busy schedules, it's about right. Hopefully it will make it's way through our systems before we begin the long travels home on saturday.


Audrey is climbing all over the place. Christian has devised a game which he likes to call "the buddha flop" and she just thinks this is terrific.



Tomorrow we will prepare and finalize our paperwork for the appointment with the US Consulate which is on thursday. I will be so thankful to have this done and to have Audrey's visa in our hands!

As always, thank you for your return comments and for following along our family's journey.

p.s. Don't be fooled...my husband spent hours creating that post last night-albeit from the heart and full of "awwhhh" potential, it's not like he sits around penning love notes on a daily basis. But I will say, as far as Daddies go, he sure is meant for little girls, they've got him wrapped right around their little fingers!