A Year Ago Today

Posted on February 17, 2013 by matt ballou under Art, Life

Last February 18th I posted about an amazing poem.

Today, exactly a year later, Madeleine CaiQun is ours.

Feels like a kind of divine symmetry. Seriously. Click the link above and read those words.

That line about how “even after all this time, the sun never says to the Earth, ‘you owe me'” encapsulates what I believe about Love. In just a few hours more, when we hold CaiQun and really become a family of four, she won’t owe us anything. Instead, we get the privilege to live out what we believe and value in becoming her family. It’s awesome (serious face rain here, Catherine!).

More later.

Two Observations From The Great Wall

Posted on February 17, 2013 by matt ballou under Life

I have been savoring a couple things from my experience on the Great Wall.

I’ll keep it short and sweet.

First: the reality of the timeliness of the past is so huge. Here, as we walked, we continued the erosion on these steps that many millions of feet have touched. All of those lives, those hopes and dreams and desires and mistakes and glories… we got to step into a past that no longer is yet “didn’t go anywhere” (to quote Utah Phillips).

Second: the awareness of the present is a calibrator of deep meaning. In spite of my awe at the Wall, at being in China, of adopting, and of doing many other incredible things, I think my most cherished thing from being on the Great Wall was carrying Miranda up it and back down it. We talked about it today. We will continue to. It’s something much bigger to me now than I could have realized. But I was on top of it as it happened, realizing the importance with each step. I expect it will be one of the greatest memories of my life, and I love that it came so close to CaiQun joining our family.

Doesn’t get much more epic than this.

The Great Wall

Posted on February 17, 2013 by matt ballou under Life

Food, for my father in law…

Posted on February 16, 2013 by matt ballou under Life

My father in law is passionate about Asian food. PASSIONATE. Yet here we are eating Chinese food in China without him. So here are some shots of different dishes I loved… Maybe he can post his identifications? :)

It’s hard traveling with a 2 year old

Posted on February 16, 2013 by matt ballou under Life

I was going to do a big reflection about our time up on the Great Wall today, but the day has been extremely long and we travel to CaiQun’s province early tomorrow… All that and Miranda has had a rough time of it. Fevers and jet lag and no appetite and not understanding what’s going on and going from high excitement to a breakdown in moments… In ways I feel like we’re torturing her. I do think she’s enjoying a lot of this – see the pics below – singing on the bus, such a trooper on the Great Wall, etc. but there has also been the complete exhaustion, both physically and emotionally for her, as you can see. It’s hard to see her sad. But we will make it through. My post on the Great Wall will wait for another day.

Incredible Day At Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City

Posted on February 15, 2013 by matt ballou under Life

Local Variations

Posted on February 14, 2013 by matt ballou under Life

It’s always good to try out the local variations…

Below: A big Beijing brewery’s main beer and a version of Lays potato chips I’ve never seen… “Italian Red Meat Flavor”

These came from my first foray out into the neighborhood around our hotel. More pictures later. I promise they’ll be more culturally significant.

Over The Top Of The World

Posted on February 14, 2013 by matt ballou under Life

One of my little nerd-joys of this trip to China was the fact that we took a polar route, taking us past Magnetic North and relatively close to true North. Here are some screen shots of our flight path.