We've been traveling around a lot the past few days and I have been enjoying the company of my fellow timber framers and China enthusiasts while the opportunity still presents itself.
Currently we are in Pingyao and staying in the coolest hotel ever. It is a restored courtyard family home whose lineage I've yet to ascertain. Regardless it is amazing.
I've also seen several really old buildings and had long hours on a bus looking out the window at the Shanxi countryside. It is sobering and uplifting to me at the same time. One moment I see the magnificent work done by Chinese craftsman a thousand years before the country that gives me a passport existed. At the same time I see people plowing fields using mules and plows that have not changed in that entire time. One moment I find myself marveling at the what the culture that gave me my daughters accomplished. I am filled with pride, entirely undeserved. Ten minutes later I find tears in my eyes as I consider that my daughters may very well have been relegated to living a life akin those I see out my window do, every day, with little hope for better and quite possibly worse had their birth parents made other choices. Yet again I find myself thanking those unknown persons who took the leap of faith and the chance to put our daughters on their paths to us.
I'm tired and need some rest. Goodnight from China.
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