Last day in Xi'an

Yesterday was a good day.  Declan ate a great breakfast.  He is picky about what bite of food he wants next, but he is filling his tummy now. He is wandering around the room and playing with his toys.  On his own, he is a quiet boy who likes to play with construction type toys.  With his brothers, he is more rowdy and a huge tease.

We had visiting the Ancient City Wall on the agenda. This wall was built to surround the city of Xi'an by the same emperor that had the Terracotta Warriors created.  It is a tall wall about 30 feet wide and 9 miles around.  It has a moat and 4 main entrances with drawbridges.  Of course, it doesn't surround the city anymore.  Xi'an now has a population of over 10 million, but it is interesting to see the size the city used to be.

Our hotel happens to be across the street from one of the gates.  So we risked our lives crossing the 9 lane street (you just start walking, buses don't stop but the cars will tell you whether they intend to wait, swerve around or stop for you), and climbed the stairs to the top of the wall.  The guys chose to rent bikes and ride around the whole wall.  Delanita and I chose the trolley car which only goes to the first corner and back.  It is not exactly a beautiful city, but it was a neat experience and fun to see from up there.  I would have loved to walk around the whole thing, but the bumpy ride on the bicycles didn't look too fun.  The guys loved it, however, and Cameron wished he had time to do it again.

From there, we walked to the Muslim Quarter, which is an area of shopping vendors.  There is a large population of Muslims here, so the area is aptly named.  It turned out to be one too many activities for Declan.  He had ridden in the pack on my back for the walk over, but was done with it by the time we started negotiations at our second vendor.  To be fair, he was probably tired and hungry by then.  We had done more in two days than he has done in his entire life.  We headed back to the hotel after grabbing a quick lunch.  For the most part, it looked like the Quarter just had the typical touristy stuff that we can get in Guangzhou if we so feel the need. It would have been interesting to look around a little more, but no big loss.

People stare quite a bit at us here,  never more so than when Declan is unhappy.  We ended up putting him back in the pack on Billy, because he was fighting me trying to get down and walk.  He wailed LOUDLY the entire time.  I followed behind a few people back and watched as others laughed and pointed at the angry Asian kid on the big white man's back.  Billy could care less, but it nearly gives me a nervous breakdown to be so noticed.  I haven't seen many crying kids here.  Including ours, I've seen exactly one.  We got him back out as soon as we had gotten to a less crowded area where I could handle him better. 

Declan was much happier back in the room.  He wandered about playing with his little toys and dragging Billy into the bathroom (he was having, umm, trouble going).  I was happy he chose Daddy for that little bonding experience. I was busy looking in old messages on my Kunming list serve to see if and where I can get a stroller once we get there.

Overall, things are going very well.  Declan is doing great.  He sleeps through the night and is pretty well-behaved except for when it comes to that pack. God is answering our prayers for him and we are seeing the happy little guy that he truly is.  I am thankful we have had these days to get to know him before getting Reagan.

We are headed to Kunming in a few hours.  Hopefully, we will have another great internet connection.  We should be getting Reagan tomorrow, but I won't know the details until I talk to our guide tonight.

Thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.  It helps more than you know.