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Published: August 22nd 2010
I just got back from the last meeting with my group. When we arrived here, we were delivered from the Beijing airport to the White Swan Hotel and then were given a ride to our hotel. Now riding back in a taxi from the White Swan to our hotel, it felt like it was all in reverse. Coming back in the taxi, it is just about dusk. I see things that I would see anywhere in the world. People leaving work, suddenly come to iife, chatting enthusiastically on cell phones. Children laughing and playing on the sidewalk. Children crying on the sidewalk. A man with a protective arm about a young girl's shoulders, who is in a frilly pink dress and Mary Jane shoes . Middle-aged women just leaving the market, carrying plastic bags with small amounts of fresh vegetables inside. It could be anywhere, Vienna or Baltimore or Amman or Sao Paolo. But it is here, it is China, the birthplace of our second born, our toddler boy, our Jin Ru. He comes from the very poorest and most populous part of China, Henan Province, where the GDP is just $3,100 a year but the history is very very rich, dating back most notably to both prehistoric times and the time of Mongol rule, starting in the year 1368. And he comes from the most populous people, the Han Chinese, representing 92 percent of all Chinese, which at 1.3 billion, represents the largest population in the world. It is true, to be said, that China is a country with many many problems and growing pains, staggering pollution and human rights abuses and lack of a rule of law to name a few. But it is also a country with an ancient culture, home to beautiful silk-weaving and dying, calligraphy, the abacus, and woodblock print. We are so proud to be parents to a boy from such a place. And Jin is, and will always be, our curious boy from Zhengzhou.
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Lynn
non-member comment
thank you
I am a Chinese girl and I used to spend a lot of time in the Shamian, where the White Swan Hotel locates. There are some foreigners there who adopt Chinese babies. I have to say that when I see the faces, so different but so harmoniously together, I think I have seen the most beautiful scenery in the world. I just want to thank you for all you have done to support a life, to make the world more combined. I am sure you will be good parents. I am happy for Jin and I wish you every possible happiness!