I have a twin sister named Sandy. No we are not identical–she got all the hair and brains, all I got was the height (it is surprising how many people ask if we are identical). My twinkie Sandy is a VERY courageous woman, as she proves DAILY, through one of the most selfless acts humanly possible–she adopted a baby from China 16 years ago.<\/p>\n
Annie Pei is my niece, and we love her very much. Unfortunately, Annie Pei was a major victim of the Communist Party of China’s “one-child policy” and because of her female gender, she was discarded by her family who was looking for a “desired” male heir to save their family name from hard-to-understand shame. Thankfully, by the grace of God, her life was somehow spared, and she ended up in an over-crowded orphanage mainly for unwanted baby girls. I am aware many Chinese girls did not get that same opportunity, which is so difficult to comprehend. If abortion is America’s scourge, then this policy was nothing short of a tool of God’s enemy. There is no way to sugar coat the unfathomable lies of Satan in this realm.<\/p>\n
The repercussions of being an innocent baby, who is not able to bond with a mom from day one, rarely held by human hands, neglected beyond comparison for needed family connections, is staggering! My sister and her husband had no idea of the gut-wrenching challenges they would face in loving Annie Pei as their own. I am all for adoption! However, I have learned it is unbelievably expensive, full of trials, and not for the faint hearted. One had better be called by God himself to adopt, or the malaise will crush your marriage and potentially decimate your faith.<\/p>\n
After a two year process, finally bringing their dream bundle home, it only took a matter of days to realize they were in for a long and protracted dream-shattering ride. To this day, I have to check my unrighteious anger at a Chinese society that would start a precious child out un-privileged<\/em> and massively neglected for no reason other than her gender didn’t supposedly match up. Perhaps Bill Hybels was right when he said Christians should have a “holy discontent” to such atrocities in the world! [1] It would be a massive understatement to say my niece was 70 yards behind at the start of her 100 yard race.<\/p>\n The irony in Annie Pei’s life is that she holds significant resentment towards herself for being raised in America. I am not a psychoanalyst, but even I can figure out her situation was not her responsibility or fault. But somehow, she longs for her homeland which treated her like trash, and she revolts against the sacrificial love of her forever family as if they were to blame for rescuing her. Unable to cope naturally, peace has been fleeting and inner healing has happened only in tiny increments, and then only by God’s power. Being a female Ishmael is difficult to ascertain for a child-like mind like Annie’s…<\/p>\n For these reasons alone I had a hard time stomaching our reading this week. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China<\/em> [2]\u00a0by Jung Chang,\u00a0is a riveting read. It is not the author’s responsibility or fault for my baggage. As a fact, this is the first time I have put down in words my disgust-able rage towards China’s policies. I hope it helps to let it out a little.<\/p>\n I wanted to read a review this week from a non-westerner. Fortunately, I was able to find a Chinese website that would translate to English.\u00a0\u4f59\u9e97\u73b2 is the name of the reviewer, and these symbols were the only thing that was not translated. He or she wrote a most compelling review, including,<\/p>\n “It is a very unusual masterpiece . Everything about it is extraordinary . It mores (sic; moves) \u00a0in part , like a ghastly oriental fairytale , but the authority and the reticent passion with which the author speaks her memories is unmistakable.”[2]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On the complete opposite end of the spectrum from my sister, my brother Ron has responded much differently to China than me. In fact, like G from our Cohort, my older sibling not only brushes all resentment behind, he then became a missionary to China! In fact, he did the completely opposite of what I was willing to do, he brought his young children to Beijing and brought them up in their communist regime. Talk about faith, forgiveness and a Christian attitude towards depravity, Ron has been a shining example of Jesus’ teachings on loving others. (side note: He had to take his pregnant wife to Hong Kong to birth their baby–one more connection to the place we will visit soon).<\/p>\n My Brother and his wife are told often of their sacrifice, but when I look at their faces, there seems to be no acknowledgement of such sacrifice. Perhaps only missionaries can understand their feelings that to obey God is not a sacrifice, it is a Divine privilege. Oh me of little faith.<\/p>\n I know, I know. This has not been very academic of a blogpost. I apologize. Simply wrote from the heart this time. Now I close with a poem that somewhat asks what I have in my mind. What amazes me is the date this was written!<\/p>\n “Book of Songs” (1000-700 B.C.)<\/strong><\/p>\n “When a son is born, <\/p>\n [1] Hybels, Bill.\u00a0Holy Discontent: Fueling the Fire That Ignites Personal Vision.<\/em> Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2007.<\/p>\n [2]\u00a0Chang, Jung. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China<\/i>. William Collins, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2016.<\/p>\n [3] \u4f59\u9e97\u73b2.\u00a0Recommendations of nice book: Wild Swans.<\/em> Flamingo Publishers, Hong Kong. Accessed June 11, 2018.\u00a0library.ats.edu.hk\/.<\/p>\n [4] Goodpal.\u00a0Dark side of one child policy of China.<\/em> soapbox.com. Updated June 7, 2018. \u00a0Accessed June 12, 2018. https:\/\/soapboxie.com\/world-politics\/the-dark-side-of-one-child-policy-of-china\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have a twin sister named Sandy. No we are not identical–she got all the hair and brains, all I got was the height (it is surprising how many people ask if we are identical). My twinkie Sandy is a VERY courageous woman, as she proves DAILY, through one of the most selfless acts humanly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1259],"class_list":["post-18087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chang","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18154,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087\/revisions\/18154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Traditional Chinese Thinking<\/h2>\n
\nLet him sleep on the bed,
\nClothe him with fine clothes,
\nAnd give him jade to play…
\nWhen a daughter is born,
\nLet her sleep on the ground,
\nWrap her in common wrappings,
\nAnd give broken tiles to play…” [4]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n