Between Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon we got to spend time with 6 sets of dear friends, plus briefer encounters with other friends at our old church; we attended our former Chinese fellowship; we saw the White House (by night), saw and toured the Capitol building, and watched money being printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; the kids and I rode the metro four times; and we stopped at four different stores to buy food items that we can't get here in our new home. Tim missed out on a few of the above activities since he was working during much of our visit. Daniel had periods of being loudly grouchy (traveling seems to really take a toll on him) and Esther had periods of bouncing-off-the-walls tiredness, but for the most part I was really, really pleased how well both of them handled the trip.
Some highlights:
Top of the list, of course, was conversations with dear friends. We had/have such a special community in the DC area, and we treasure any chances to catch up and renew those connections.
Grace Fellowship (our Chinese fellowship) is always meaningful for Daniel. He loves the Chinese food and the Chinese conversation, and being part of a group that is worshiping and studying the Bible in a language he can understand seems to be water to his soul. I do so wish we had a group like that here. But it was really neat to watch Daniel sitting up front, closely observing everything that was going on and participating as much as he was able. And I just loved how the fellowship absorbed him into it. There wasn't any feeling that people were making an effort to make him feel welcome, he just was. (Although there was one funny episode--Daniel helped the song leader set up the projection equipment, then proceeded to use the wifi on their laptop to check his QQ account. When I went over to ask him what he was doing and if he had asked permission, he hastily minimized it but failed to log out. So in the middle of the worship time we heard a buzzing sound--one of Daniel's QQ contacts was trying to initiate a chat with him. Oops!)
On Saturday morning, the kids and I went to see the Capitol building. It was a beautiful (if cold and windy) day and we got some great pictures out front. I had been under the impression that it was closed to tours (which it was the last time I wanted to take a tour there, but that was some years ago), so when I saw that tours were offered I was intrigued and went to find out more information. I was a little dubious about actually trying it with my two, but the information person said that we could leave the tour at any time if we felt the need, so I decided to give it a shot. First we watched an introductory film which managed to cram a lot of American history into a fairly short film. I couldn't translate all of it, but I leaved over every little bit and whispered to Daniel what the images were. ("This is when the United States became a country." "This is when the north part of the country and the south part of the country had a fight.") So he got a little outline of American history, which he had not known about before. Then we were grouped together with a tour guide who took us into several areas of the building. He obviously loved small children, and Esther and another little girl about her age attached themselves to him. When we walked into the rotunda, Esther looked around and exclaimed, "This is the place that I saw in the movie!" The rotunda was very beautiful. Daniel also talked to our guide a couple of times, mostly about the headsets we wore during the tour. :-) Both kids seemed to enjoy and be interested in the tour, somewhat to my surprise. The highlights for me were the beauty of the rotunda, getting to hear the acoustics in a different room (I have no idea what the room was called, but the guide gathered us around a particular spot, walked about twenty feet away from us, turned his back, and spoke softly--and we could hear him!), and learning that each state has two or three statues of its famous people in the Capitol building. Oh, and getting to do a cultural/educational activity with both kids where they were engaged and not running wild!!! I'm so excited now about doing more things with them in the future!
On Saturday afternoon while we talked with friends at their house, Daniel was acting so clearly tired that Tim said something about moving to another room and letting him fall asleep on the couch. Our dear friends promptly offered one of their childrens' beds, and Daniel slept for two hours. After that he was in a much better mood, was very polite about a dinner that he didn't much care for (I was so proud of him!), and willingly sang a song for our friends at Tim's suggestion. The husband of this family is very musical, with as good an ear as anyone I know, so he got out his guitar and started accompanying Daniel just from listening to the melody he was singing. Daniel was seriously impressed and wanted to know how he did it, and it was so neat to see them bonding over music.
On Saturday night we spent the night with other friends who have four kids and a dog. Esther of course was whisked away by their two girls (one of whom used to be her babysitter), but Daniel surprised me by also going off with the kids, and particularly getting on with their 13-year-old son. Both kids loved, loved, loved the dog--I had a hard time getting Daniel away from him to go to bed. It was all so normal and appropriate! And I must say, I loved getting in some adult conversation while knowing that our respective kids were also having fun socializing with each other.
We are just so blessed. Blessed by the friends we have, blessed by each person who is a part of this family, and blessed to be able to see our dear friends and our dear son beginning to form their own relationships.
No comments:
Post a Comment