Trip to China
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Wednesday, September 3, 2008 VISIT TO BUDDHIST TEMPLE AND TEA MUSEUM “We are shaped and fashioned by the things we love.” ~Goethe Today, our guide, Rebecca, arranged for us to visit the Lingyin Flying Peak Buddhist Temple . She told us that this Buddhist Temple is the largest in all of China . The grounds of the temple were beautiful and seemed to go on forever! It was amazingly green with enormous trees that were several hundred years old. There were ponds and streams running along near the walkways as well. Sophie and I saw even saw some small turtles in the stream. As we walked through the grounds, we saw over three hundred images of Buddha and other figures carved into the limestone hillside that are centuries old. It was pretty incredible. Eventually, we were able to see three large temples which each served a different purpose. The statues were absolutely enormous and were either carved from Camphor wood or made from bronze. The temples are still used for worship, and we saw some monks performing a ceremony, as well as, many people praying and burning incense. We learned that people pray to the laughing Buddha (the one with the large belly) because he can take all your worries away. Sophie loves her stroller and is very content to look around and eat crackers : ) We bought her a little necklace charm with her Chinese name on it, and she wore it around her neck tied with a red string. After our visit to the Buddhist Temple , Rebecca took us to the National Chinese Tea Museum . We learned about the different kinds of teas produced throughout China and how they harvest it and serve it. A young girl demonstrated the preparation and proper way to serve tea in China . We were able to sample some different types of herbal tea. It was very interesting! We were able to purchase a little Chinese tea set for Sophie to have when she is older. It is blue and white porcelain and very, very pretty. Our last stop for the day was a short drive to the Hangzhou Children’s Hospital. This is the hospital that Sophie was taken to when she had her heart surgery in July of 2007. We did not go inside but did take some pictures of the outside of the hospital. The hospital itself was very small and was located on a side street and nestled in among small shops selling fruit, children’s toys and other small trinkets. We will always be grateful to the surgeon that performed her lifesaving surgery in conjunction with Project Tomorrow Plan (an outreach program sponsored by the Chinese government). Sophie is still doing great! She is sleeping well and eating pretty much everything we give her…and a lot of it! I can tell she is starting to feel more and more comfortable around us as she is starting to protest and cry over certain things. She really dislikes taking off any of her clothing. Even something as simple as taking off her shoes in the hotel room makes her lip start to quiver and the tears begin to flow. She likes to have something in her hands at all times and has a hard time if we take it away from her without giving her something to replace it with. In all of her pictures today, you will notice that she is holding her yellow rubber duck from her morning bath. I believe she thinks if we take it, she won’t get it back. Rebecca told us that this is very common behavior for a child who has lived in an orphanage. I know it will just take time for her to trust us and understand that she will always have what she needs. She loves the finger puppets and picture cards we brought for her and spends a lot of time taking them out, sorting them in very particular ways and then putting them away again. Developmentally, her fine motor skills seem to be much better than her gross motor skills. She can walk pretty well and can stoop to pick things up off the ground but seems to lose her balance quite easily. She still hasn’t vocalized much at all for us, but her nanny told us yesterday that she is able to say simple words. She continues to be very affectionate towards us and flashes big cheesy grins our way when we are feeding her and when she is playing with her puppets and other favorite toys. She is just so sweet and we love her so much! “Some people care too much, I think it’s called love.” ~Winnie the Pooh (The internet has been a little slow the past couple of days, and we have had trouble uploading photos. We have now been able to send them and have posted a few more to each of the past two entries. Be sure to take a peek!)

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