A Post that is sure to tick someone off....

Your trip to China may not be all sunshine and butterflies....really. You are not obligated to looove the province your child comes from. Ben was born in Springfield Massachusetts, which has slowly become the armpit of western mass. Does that statement mean I don't love every inch of my son??? Certainly not and just because your son or daughter was born in China does not mean you have to gush a love song for their province/China. You of course want to share positive statements about your child's birth country as this is in part an extension of who they are. And yes, you may feel some gratitude towards China for allowing you to parent your precious child. But I am going to be honest here and tell you that my gratitude is not to China...but to Sophie's birth parents who chose LIFE for her! Should I thank China for allowing me to ease the burden of their social and political systems???

For those who will be traveling to China sooner or later these are the facts:

• You are not on vacation. This will be the most stress filled trip of your life and that is if everything goes as planned and your child transitions with little difficulty. You will be exhausted and anxious to get home, only to have your ass kicked by jet lag.
  
• China is crowded. People will push you and get closer to you than you would appreciate. You have heard this before.
• If you are tall, big, white, blonde, have red hair, blue eyes or a lot of body hair and happen to be carrying around a Chinese baby you will be like an exhibit at the zoo and Chinese people will stare at you and talk about you.
  
• You may not like your child's provincial capital. It is ok. Sophie's province capital is also the coal capital of China. Some people liked it, I couldn't wait to get moving.
  
• Chinese food is not the same as the "Peking House" in the burbs. It is actually better, or at least it was where we traveled. There is no sweet and sour chicken. If all else fails you ask for noodles with black bean sauce.
• People in China drive crazy. So do people in Rome and on snow days here in NC. The thing with China is that there is a whole lotta people on the roads at the same time, in cars, buses, vans, bikes and motorcycles.

These are my OPINIONS you surely may not share them. Your experience in China will likely be different than ours. I love Chinese culture, this was one of the reasons I was drawn to adopting from China....this does not change my opinion of how people drive in China, how much I loved the food, or how much I wanted to get the heck of Taiyuan and get home.