Buddhas and French Fries

Greetings from our happy and silly family!

Today we took our last official tour. We ventured over to the Six Banyon Temple with another family who adopted a 13 year old girl. Today was her birthday. She is very self-conscious, so we sang Happy Birthday extra loud and made an extra special fuss over her. The Temple dates back over 1000 years, but part of it was destroyed a while back and has been rebuilt. It was truly a magnificent site to see. The main temple stands what appears to be 9 stories tall, but is actually 17 stories tall. Apparently, the Chinese believe in things in groups of 3. When they worship Buddha, they hold incense in group of 3, 6, 9 or 12. The amount you chose to hold is in relation to the ancestors you are honoring and remembering. The Chinese honor three Buddhas--the Past, the Present and the Future. 40 Monks reside at the active Temple, but it is open to visitors. September 22 is the day the Chinese will celebrate Autumn Moon Festival this year, so the city and this Temple is busy decorating with lights in the trees and hanging lanterns. GZ is also hosting the Asian Games in October so this is another reason the city is currently decorating and making things beautiful. We are bringing home some Moon Cakes for everyone to try in honor of the Autumn Moon Festival. People are flocking to our hotel and are buying them in crates. OK, I have diverted. Anyhow, the Temple was beautiful and we are lucky to have had the opportunity to visit.

Is she feeding the fish at the Six Banyon Temple? Or is she just visiting?








This evening we had McDonalds delivered to the hotel. And believe it or not, the nuggets and french fries tasted the same greasy way they do in America--it was great! Jaxon enjoyed his first french fries, albeit in very small pieces and he clearly loved the saltiness.

Tomorrow we head 2 hours away to visit his orphanage. Pray that he has peace with this visit.

We're one day closer to coming home!
Kendra, Eric, Abigayle and Jaxon





PS....It isn't all peaches and cream. Here is what the little man looks like when he is mad at one of us b/c he isn't getting his way. Poor thing!