The Village

The city of Nanchang, which is the primary city in the Jiangxi province, is a very metropolitan area. There are cars and buildings everywhere (see my previous posts). On the surface you might think that this is a thriving community and representative of the entire province. Today, however, we traveled only about twenty minutes into a little community that is typical of the village where Hannah and the other babies were found. Because of the economics here, many men travel to the city to find work, leaving the women and the elderly and children in their homes. They grow what cabbage and rice and vegetables they can. The boys are able to be educated, but the girls are not. They live a life of extreme poverty.

It was overwhelming to go to this village today. It was a cold day, but they have no windows or doors. They do have stone houses with tile roofs, but they are all in disrepair. People were sitting outside playing cards or doing laundry. There is trash everywhere. It reminded me a lot of the poorer areas of Honduras that I have been to. It is one thing to think about the difficulties that these people have, but to think that this sweet girl could have been growing up there but instead will be able to go to school and play and have plenty of food and have a future – that is too much to bear.

I am no hero, and there is nothing special about me. I can’t solve all of the problems of the world, but I can make the life of this one special child better. When people ask me why we are adopting a girl from China instead of one in the United States, I will show them a picture of this village. Thank God there are so many people wanting to adopt these precious sweet little girls that we had to wait an extra year. Thank God that He answered our prayers for a larger family this way.

**For some reason we are unable to post pictures here. I have put the pictures on our DropShots page, so you can click "China Pictures" on the right to go there.**