The Fabulous Finale

I stepped outside my comfort zone on this trip in our accommodations  I booked us a "room" in an AirBnB - it was significantly less expensive than a full apartment to ourselves, and the location was absolutely perfect for us! By the grace of God and His divine appointments, our AirBnb hosts were Chinese. 

The first day, I was introduced to the wife, realized they were Chinese and shared our connection to China. The second day, she showed me a book her husband had written, and gave me a copy. The third day, I put the pieces together....and WOW! 

Dr. Yang Jianli is a true Chinese dissent. In 1989, he was studying in the US, and learned about the pro-democracy protests that were going to take place in June - and he left his studies and returned to Beijing, where he was a participant in the Tiananmen protests and a witness to the massacre. He escaped and returned to the US - but returned to China in 2002 to help train the dissent leaders. He was arrested and jailed for five years, many of those in solitary confinment with "only me and my God". 

Upon his release, he was expelled permanently from China, returned to the United States and formed an NGO to fight for democracy in China. 

Thursday morning - we ate breakfast and talk with Dr. Jianli - and it is a conversation that will not be forgotten. He radiates Christ in a way I rarely (never?) see in Western Christians - crying as he spoke about the state of the church here and the division and the hateful words being attributed to believers. Clearly - his heart breaks for the things that break God's heart and he lives that life out in sacrifice. He mourns for his fellow countrymen and misses his homeland and family there. He doesn't speak much of his imprisonment, but the scars on his face from the beatings are visible. His love and compassion for humanity is palpable. 

World changer. 

We had but a short time left - and there was one more thing we needed to do. 

We saw this as we drove into Washington on Monday morning (pardon the photo quality - taken from a moving car!). We weren't sure what it was, so we researched it. 

It's an art exhibit designed by Suzanne Firstenberg - and this is the goal - 

This art exhibition blankets the National Mall with over 660,000 white flags, showing the magnitude of our loss as a nation, while honoring each person who has died from COVID-19.

This was the "In America Remember" board with the total lives lost as of Monday at 10:30 am 

This was the total 72 hours later 

It is incredibly powerful and moving and sobering to see this many flags - one representing each live lost to Covid. One flag representing every person's families and friends and colleagues left behind. 

Do the math - 5100 hundred lives in 72 hours. Multiplied by tens and hundreds who miss them. 

We came here generally, but also specifically to leave a flag in honor of our friend Kirk Wilkerson. 

One of the really neat things about this art exhibit is that if you can't physically get to DC - on their website you can ask them to do a flag for your loved one. They are also geolocating all the flags, so that you can find them, The exhibit runs until October 3rd....

The most cool thing about this was that when we got there, they weren't quite open yet for people to write flags. When I explained to the woman there that we were catching a plane, she stopped what she was working on, walked us through the whole process. She listened to our story about Kirk and his family - and she grieved with me. Then introduced herself

Suzanne Firstenberg. The artist. 

A woman using her gifting for humanity - in her words - 

This art is created not only to honor each individual whom we have lost, but also to create a moment of pause, a moment of reflection for our nation.  

What an incredible blessing to meet yet a third world changer. 

We could have stayed longer. We will be back. But for now - it's time to go home! 

Thanks for coming along with us! 

DC - Day 3

The last full day in DC started with another tour. 

The girls have studied US History for their high school credit using a curriculum from Woke Homeschooling "Oh Freedom". It is the history of the US from 1619 through reconstruction told from the BIPOC (Black Indigenous Person of Color) perspective. We have seen much more of this perspective everywhere we visited than we did 4 years ago when Cami did this trip, but I wanted something that might "tie it together" so I booked an African American History Tour in DC. 

We started at the Capitol, where our guide expanded on the "slaves built the Capitol" and the black labor that this building (and country) were founded on. Listening to a black man talk abut this was far more powerful than any words on a page

We did a few other stops, but it was POURING rain, so much was seen from the warm and dry interior of the van :) 

However, the weather cooperated when we got the the MLK memorial. We walked from the van and stumbled across a veteran black Army Sargent giving a very emotional and spritied talk about the MLK memorial, and the signficiance of the movement. With him was an elderly man in a wheel chair also in uniform. Come to find out, the gentlman in the wheel char was Lt. Col James H Harvery III - the first African American Top Gun and a member of the Tuskegee Airman. 

We got to meet him, and told him that Cami was getting her pilot's license. He gave her some words of encouragement - so powerful to hear that from someone who was a ground breaker. Literally, living history and world changer. 

The tour ended at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. We could have spent two days here - it is comprehensive and thought provoking and disturbing and celebratory and literally - ALL the feels. 

WIthout a doubt - this is a place that everyone should visit. 

We returned to the AirBnb and discovered that the owner's wife had - in Chinese "mother" tradition and obligation - cooked for us! (As an asdie - those dumplings were Wednesday dinner, Thursday breakfast and lunch and snack and a few made it home for breakfast Friday morning!) 

Thursday Finale tomorrow - and it's a DOOZIE! 

DC- Day 2

Out this morning and over to Arlington Cementery - which is always a sobering experience. We opted for the tram tour (apparently I have planter fascia - and the new shoes I bought to support this ridiculous foot pain gave me horrid blisters....so walking the hills was not an option). 

The tram tour was actually super interesting - we did the loop twice! 

Changing of the guard - now that we have a military girl, she was really interested in all of it and even more impressed. 

We were scheduled to go to Mount Vernon after Alrington - but we waved the white flag, went and got take out and headed back to the AirBnb for the afternoon (our AirBNB is a separate post that will deserve it's own accolades.) 

After a much needed break - we moved onto the National Archives. NO pictures allowed - but it's awe inspiring to see the actual founding documents. A huge added bonus was an exhibit about how the women got the vote - it's sobering to think that there are still a few women alive who were not born with that right. 

the one place you were allowed to take a photo was a selfie in a voting booth,,,,,

After dinner.....at Carmines....

We hopped on another tour (because the first one was such a hit!) and saw the monuments at night! 

Awe inspiring and beautiful 

Day 2 - in the books....

DC - Day 1

We made it to DC Monday morning - and head right over to our first museum - the Museum of the Bible. It is by far one of the best museums - relevant and current and engaging and thoughtful. It was made even better because our dear friends met us there! 

We spent almost 4 hours there - and didn't see everything! Then, it was over to the Freer Gallery of Asian Art 

Autumn Festival starts Tuesday, and we were meeting a friend of Cami's from the orphanage, so we decided it was only fitting to meet them in Chinatown. It was a sweet reunion - 

The novelty of traveling has long since worn off for all of us - while we are having fun and seeing and doing some amazing things, we are running out of steam......

Into the interior....the heartland?

please note - the girls are OVER having their picture taken...as evident by the expressions on their faces in some of the photos and the actual lack of photos in some of the places! 

Finishing in Philly on Saturday ate afternoon - it was time to head into the heartland for dinner! 

Cami can alwasy find something she likes - Becky ordered the "4 sides" plate brown buttered noodles (she hated them), green beans (they were mushy), a side salad (just ok) and applesauce (how can you possibly screw that up!). Cami had a not open faced roast beef with gravy and mashed potatoes - that worked for her because she's a gravy kind of girl! 

Up the next morning and onto Gettysburg Battlesfield. We satrted at the visitor center, and opted to do the auto tour. We downloaded a great app - 

We did the first couple of stops on the auto tour at the battlefield, then it was off for the  lunch time reservation! 

We didn't randomly pick Hershey for lunch; the ultimate destination in that neck of the woods was the National Civil War Museum - 

It is situated in a beautiful park in Harrisburg - that overlooks the site of one of the battles in the region 

After the museum - it was back to Gettysburg to catch the last two hours of daylight and finish the auto tour - we missed a couple of stops, but got most of it in. If you were a civil war buff, you could easliy spend several days in this national park. 

Sunset at the Gettysburg Cemetery - the place where the Gettysburg address was delivered. It is hallowed ground without a doubt! 

Tomorrow - we head to DC, our final stop!