Thursday in Changsha – Martyr’s Park and University Museum

It was the nicest day, the weather was fabulous, cool but not rainy. Each day Penelope comes out of her shell more and more. Vicky picked us up at 9 am and we all went to Martyr’s Park, which is a memorial park honoring the fallen soldiers from WWI. It was beautiful and peaceful and full of people enjoying life. Playing poker, dancing, stretching (a cross between yoga and tai chi), tai chi with swords, playing instruments, singing opera music, and one couple had aprons on backwards and were hitting their backs against the tree to apply pressure to specific acupuncture points. Violet enjoyed dancing along with the music and it was a lovely walk along ponds, over bridges, up rocky paths, and thru pagoda like structures. There were so many different musical groups that at one place it was just a cacophony of Chinese noise, then we passed out of range of one and it turned into beautiful music again. I can’t imagine practicing that close to another group. At the top of a hill, in front of a pagoda there was an older woman who was stretching in a tai chi manner. She raised her leg ever so slowly, curved it around to other side and ever so slowly lowered it again, we were all very impressed and asked Vicky her approximate age, her response was, ‘around 65 but the man doing the same thing next to her was probably 75 or 80.’

We walked by a group of senior women who all started giving us the thumbs up and repeatedly patting their hearts. Vicky translated that they thought it was wonderful we were adopting these girls, they were lucky to have surgery, what big hearts we have, this was a good thing, and they went on and on. It was very emotional and we let them know how lucky we were, it works both ways. They were beyond excited, crowding around pointing to both girls lips, touching both of them, so much so that Violet got a little panicked. For an only grandchild of both sides of the family for two and a half years she has been the princess for quite a while. Now go from that, to not having mom pick her up or hold her for three days straight, be in a foreign country, have everyone else give attention to the new baby and she has been a Champion! So a little panic and a little needy is not unexpected. She has been wonderful with Penelope: sharing, singing to her, hugging and kissing her, overall she has been an awesome big sister.

From there we went to University Museum – Confucianism dated back to 900 ad and was the first University in this area.

Later when I was sitting with the two Moms in front of the Confucius Temple waiting for Vicky, Todd and Dad, a Chinese man asked in broken English if I had just adopted and if she would have surgery in China or in a foreign country and after I explained she was our second daughter, both cleft, he asked why we would want two daughters and not a son to carry on our line. He explained that in China the son is the important one to care for the family, without much of a pause he said that Confucius said that women had no importance in society, I replied that yes he did say that but I didn’t believe it. He stopped to think for a moment than finished with the comment “but you will have two son-in-laws” like he guessed that would make the situation slightly redeemable. Later I laughed to myself, it’s probably best that I didn’t think to tell him my husband was the one to choose adopting girls rather than boys, he might have keeled over with shock. It certainly was a day of mixed commentary.

After returning back to the hotel we decided to walk up to the Starbucks a three mile walk it was interesting to see all the different sites along the way. We finished the day with dinner in the hotel at the “Food Street” Restaurant.

Penelope loves to be tickled and bats at you when you stop, wanting more, she is quick to smile and quick to laugh when is not hungry or tired. I am afraid that Todd ended up with three girls that need to be feed at regular intervals or they get a little cranky. Going to bed has been somewhat of a chore with much crying but we are blessed that she sleeps thru the night.