On Tuesday afternoon, we joined a few other families in our group for a trip via Guangzhou's subway system to Shamian Island where we had stayed on our previous two visits to adopt Jeremy and Leah. We had two personal goals while on the island:
1. seek out one of the tourist shops to order a custom painting with Seraphina's name spelled with various natural imagery (e.g. plants and animals) including a mouse, the Chinese zodiac animal of her birth year, and her Chinese name in pinyin characters. We already had pictures for out other three children, and while some may think of the paintings as just another tourist gimmick, this was one we wanted to have for a complete set.2. Visit the old Catholic Church on the island which we had attended Mass in on previous visits to Guangzhou, but could not make it across town in time on this visit.
Our Lady of Lourdes has done VERY well since our last visit back in 2008. I can't help but wonder if they received several large donations from visiting adoptive families to put into repair. The last time we were here, the outside was in need of new paint while the inside had problems with cracks in the walls and just a general dirtiness throughout.Not this time. Now the walls look freshly painted and the outdoor area is cleaned up. They appear to have acquired the building next door to use as a family center and they built a Marian grotto in the one corner of the small front yard. While we were visiting, they began a Divine Mercy chaplet (MP4 link) which included English audio. We may not have had an opportunity to get to Mass while in China this time around, but it was nice to be around for a portion of the chaplet.
This is one of the things I love about our Catholic faith -- regardless of where we are in the world, there is always a familiarity when we walk into the Church.
The church looks beautiful! I loved stained glass.
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