A Clear Sign

Today was a mellow day. We didn't meet up with the other Jiangxi families until 10am and went out for only a couple hours. Our guides took us to see the countryside just outside the city. It wasn't a farming community, but a village of clustered houses. Mary explained that Beijing and Shanghai are the face of China to the rest of the world, but 70% of China's population lives in the country and is very poor. She said that it may seem like China is making a lot of economical progress, but that for most of the population that is not the case. People living in the country would not be able to pay the fine for having more than one child even if they wanted to (the fine is three years' pay!).
We got to walk through a village and go into a couple homes. Although the houses were not mud-huts, it felt like we were in a National Geographic type documentary. The land to live on is granted to each family, but each must build their own house and it is very expensive for them. There is no running water in the village, but they do have electricity that they use very scarcely. They do not have refrigerators, but do have TV's. I didn't see a bathroom, and I was afraid to ask where they would go for that. Mary did say we wouldn't stay long because it is very unsanitary. Many people and children came out to stare at us Americans. This is the type of conditions that Sinclair would have lived in had she stayed with her birth family. I kept thinking we should promote sponsorship of these children through Compassion or World Vision, but then I remembered that evangelism is against the law. Even though the conditions here are poor, we truly love the culture and people of China; they have been so friendly and hospitable and beautiful.



Next we went to the porcelain shop to view and purchase some of the famous Jingdezhen porcelain. We bought a beautiful plate to have something special just from Jiangxi.

Our afternoon was free once again. Madison was feeling much better, but still had a stuffy nose. Matt now had body aches and shakes, so he took a long nap when Sinclair did. The boys got to watch a whole bunch of TV (Discovery Channel, Mythbusters, Nascar...). They were quite content.

Tomorrow we will be leaving the Jiangxi province and all the memories we have made here. We got all of the notarized documents for Sinclair that certifies that she is definitely a orphaned child who is now adopted into our family. Tomorrow morning we will get her passport and be off to Guangzhou for the next steps in this adventure.