Hi! I'm hoping I can stir up the energy to write this entry - I can honestly say that I'm spent, totally exhausted. Today was really fun, again. This morning we went to the Six Banyan Buddist Temple, which was very interesting. The temple was built originally 1400 years ago, and at the time there actually were 6 Banyan trees; however, the temple burned down and was rebuilt about 90 years ago, and now there are only 2 Banyan trees. The Banyan tree is chosen because of it's shape and because it lives so long. Buddists believe that they can spread kindness forever and that it can reach many many places, similar to the Banyan tree. A long time ago, they believed Buddaism was only to be shared in their temples, but one man told them that this was not the case - the goodness and kindess was to be shared at all times with everyone. I found it to be very similar to Christ's teaching - that we should not keep charity to ourselves and within the Church. Rather, we are to live charity at all times, and in doing so, we can spread the love of God to all people - the Banyan tree was a symbol of this to them.
30% of religious people here in China are Buddist, and few are Christian. But, Christianity is growing rapidly. Many of the young people are open to this as they are very open to Western ideas; the older people are used to the way they are raised and aren't as ready to embrace Christianity. We even saw Christmas decorations as we were riding the bus to the temple - I was rather surprised.
Anyhow, while we were at the temple, Tori climbed to the top of the Pagoda (pictured) which was 17 stories high. There were several different shrine type things - people would burn these incense sticks and then they would place them in a big sand pit type thing in front of the Budda
that they chose - they then would bow 3 times and offer thier prayer. I'm not sure what the different Buddas represented exactly, but there were several of them. The buddist monks are very happy that we are adopting and caring for Chinese children, so they wanted to bless all of the babies. We went into the temple and they did a blessing - it was very interesting, and while we were there Tori and I took the time to thank our God for the gift of this precious soul that has been entrusted to our care. We all prayed for the birth mothers especially, without whom we would not have these little babies to love.
Afterwards, Billy went and had a long massage - which he loved, and Tori and I had lunch with Lexie and ran in and out of a few stores. Tonight we took a dinner cruise and had Papa Johns pizza - Tori was in heaven!!! So, tonight, believe it or not, I will start packing. It is bitter sweet - we will leave the home of this precious little girl, the home where she was born and raised until now - the place that is full of her culture, her sounds, her smells, her people, her world. But, we will take her to our home, our community, our families and friends, a place which is full of people waiting to love her. We couldn't be happier and couldn't feel more blessed.
