We took a field trip today to one of my favorite things that I have seen so far in China. We went to the Shao Lin Temple. It is the original home of Kung-Fu. The compound is massive. Originally built in 452AD. It goes up a mountain side and has building after building going all the way up. It was a monastery and the monks developed and taught Kung-Fu. Now, there is a school there where boys can be sent to live and learn. We got to watch the students practicing in the yard and whoa! We also got to see a show where very young boys were breaking boards and metal bars. One guy poked a pin through a sheet of glass and popped a ballon on the other side and only poked a tiny hole in the glass.
It was a long drive to get there. The babies got much needed naps as they do not sleep at night. The parents did not get much needed naps.
The entrance.
Original from 452 AD. Just amazing!
Tate in front of the second son of the Dragon. Not the first son, the second son.
My favorite thing here was the pagoda forest. It's a cemetery for famous monks. It was a whole forest of these beautiful pagodas. It's hard to describe the feeling there, and just how cool it was.
A very ornate one that had carvings of Kung-Fu all the way around it. I cannot even begin to wrap my head around the discipline of the Kung-Fu masters and monks that are buried here.
It was an awesome outing.
Over all, the babies are doing well. They like each other, and interact. Tate is happy with us. He is responding to his American name that we now use about half the time. He calls Gary baba, Chinese for daddy. He mostly calls me aiya, Chinese for auntie or nanny. He sometimes calls me mama. He likes to keep Em in line. If she does anything that he deems out of line we get a "Mama!! Emily! No! No! No!" If I don't react fast enough, he'll take matters into his own hands, and take away what she has, shove her over and sit on her. It's so funny. Em doesn't seem to mind most of the time. Neither of the babies sleep at night. We each take one, and either try to keep them calm in the room or wander the halls. It's getting old. They also don't nap. We are tired. We absolutely LOVE this kid. We are so happy to finally have him and we can't wait to get home and love on our girls with him!
He is so happy and so smily and funny and so cute you could eat him!! One week from tomorrow!!
I am glad he had a good (relative) experience in the orphanage. It's so sad that there are just so many of them it seems hard to manage, even when the nanny's are loving. Cute that he knows some Chinese. He must be pretty verbal. You guys are amazing. I will be praying that you can manage on no sleep. Sorry bout that, the worst part of new babies for sure is the no sleep! How lucky you get to experience it times 2. Seriously though, I joke about the sleep, but just the whole adoption experience really is amazing to me. Enjoy your last week. Hurry home!! :)
ReplyDeleteWay cool! I would love to see all that!
ReplyDeleteWhat cute kids! I loved how you talked about Tate and the way he keeps Em in line. ha ha ha Enjoy!