Monday, December 5, 2011

A Chinese Perspective on Large Families

 This Thanksgiving we were host to 6 Chinese college students from UNC.  None of these precious students had ever had a Thanksgiving meal, actually had never eaten a meal in an American home and certainly had never been in a home with 10 children!  They were absolutely a delight to be around. Our church has an International student ministry and we volunteered to host a few Chinese students. I had heard ahead of time that a few of them wanted to come to our house especially when they heard how large our family was.  I was a little leary about that and wondered if we would freak them out : ) But they were so interested in everything and loved all the children.  All of them had grown-up in one child households and said that they grew-up so very lonely.  They said they each had one cousin.  In talking to them, I was reminded of the new law in China that says if both the husband and the wife come from one child households, then they are allowed to have two children.  They were all so excited about this.  It was precious to see their faces light-up talking about possibly having 2 children, but was somewhat sad to me too. They loved playing with the children and taking a tour of the home.  Anyway, all of this got me thinking of some questions people ask me at times, like "How do you have time to spend with each child? Do you enjoy each one individually?"  Well, here is my blanket answer to these.....God gave me these precious ones and He knew that should be on this earth right now. He gives me time for each one and He multiplies my time. Actually,  it's really not about me "enjoying" each one (which I do) but about raising them to be godly, mature adults.  The practical ways we do this will come in the next post :)
Our precious Chinese visitors.  They loved taking pictures with us!

6 comments:

  1. That is so very cool. I'm so happy they got to have this experience. The day after Christmas one of our older daughters is having her "might be" fiance come join our family until New Years. He comes from a family of 2 children and I am very anxious about how he will view our family. But, in order for him to ask for the hand of our daughter he must at least meet the papa, right?! He is from another state so we thought as long as he is coming this far he might as well stay on for a bit and get to know us!!

    Our only married daughter so far has a husband whom didn't frighten us at all. He comes from a family of 16, and the eldest as well. We knew when he came to speak to dad that he would fit right in. And he did!

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  2. could you even imagine....only two children? :-0 How sad indeed.

    What a fun night you had with you lovely guests. I'm sure you both learned something new that night :-)

    ~Cinnamon
    p.s. looking forward to your next post

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  3. What an amazing experience that must have been - both for you and for your visitors! Your post made me think about what the reality of living in China with the one child policy must be like for them in everyday life - lonely indeed.

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  4. God Bless you for your loving hospitality, I'm sure Christ's love was evident to them!

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  5. What an eye opening post and such a beautiful answer to give.

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  6. I love your blog its such an inspiration!!!!
    ThankYou From MA

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Thanks so much for your comments! I love them and they keep me writing. I really do read each one.