What an Amazing Day!

Wow! We had a great day today! If you've ever watched Survivor, you know that the teams compete in a reward challenge. If their team wins, they get a special reward and sometimes that reward is a cultural experience in the country in which they are living. Today felt like we won the best reward challenge ever. Not only did we have our daughter, which is obviously the best gift, but we were able to experience two fascinating pieces of China as well.



We went to Huangguoshu Falls which is about a 2 hour drive from Guiyang and the largest waterfall in China. It was a gloomy day, but the falls were still amazing. During the peak season, the Falls has over 10,000 visitors each day, but yesterday, we were about the only visitors. We took about an hour and a half walk from the parking lot to the falls, up and down hundreds of stairs with 33 lbs of Emma on my front. We walked through a Bonsai garden with trees and rocks that were a hundred years old. The rock formations were gorgeous. We saw the falls only about 20 minutes into the walk, but then continued to get closer and closer to them until we could literally touch the water. The falls have a long and narrow cave behind them, so were able to go behind them and look out through them from many different places. I wish I were a better writer in these instances as my words just are not describing the beauty and awe that we felt throughout this experience. These adventures always lead me back to the feelings the we have an incredible and creative God!



We continued through the cave and walked back across the river on a long and swaying rope bridge to an escalator which brought us back to the top. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see an escalator. I almost sat on the steps, I was so tired!



Following the Falls adventure, we went to another amazing lunch in a Bouyei (Chinese minorty) restaurant with a plethora of delectible dishes. We managed to get out of there without eating dog, a Bouyei favorite, but did enjoy some Wild Rabbit.



From lunch, we drove another hour and a half to a traditional Han (majority group) village. This village is over 600 years old and has about 1400 Han Chinese people living in it. It is well known for its "Ground Opera" http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=ground+opera . They even put on a performance for just us, similar to this performance in the youtube video listed above. They carve those masks by hand in the village. We were able to buy one of the masks from "the best carving family" in the village. We also bought a hand carved basket, but that was from a second rate carver apparently! Still beautiful!



After this village, we drove for another 2 hours back to the hotel. Are you wondering yet how the girls are doing with all of this driving and without the Minivan DVD player? Emma does great in the car! She is very easy to entertain although we did have to have her sit on a garbage can to go to the bathroom once! Ah the experience. Someday, I'll be happy to share with you my experience in the gas station bathroom! It was a puke-worthy experience although I managed to hold it together.



Now, it's 6:30 AM on Saturday and we are getting ready to fly to Guangzhou. We are so ready to get home, but still enjoying learning more about Emma's heritage. Emma's new favorite game is having daddy draw a "meow" (Cat) or a "rrr-rrr"(dog) on her magna doodle, over and over, and over. She has a very playful spirit. We are having such fun getting to know her!



Thanks for your continued prayers and emails. They keep us going!