Movie Night

Last night we watched " The Karate Kid". The new one. The one that I was so resistant to watch because well, it should have been called The Kung Fu Kid. Hum hum.

I have to say that I loved it. I think it was even better than the original. Yes, it was. I am sorry Pat Morita but our love of Jackie Chan has taken over everything.

The thing that surprised me the most? Well, that was how I reacted to seeing scenes of China. I sat there teary eyed with my chest hurting and longing to be back there. To feel the heat swarm over my body, to know that my feet were standing on the ground in the land of my children's birth.  I was emotional for all that China has given me and for all of China that my children have lost. I watched Ev's face as she commented on certain scenes and I realized, I think for the first time, how very good it was that we took her back. It amazed me that China continues to be such a part of my heart and my daily life. Mostly in quiet ways, but China is always there.

I sat there and I watched her face light up at seeing the park scene. How she KNEW that was right and that WAS China. She was able to catch a few words of Mandarin, she even heard some counting in a song and knew what it was.

My children are Chinese. And they are American. They are me and the mothers that came before me.
They are Leslie and the fathers that came before. They are Yichun and Hebei and Cleveland.

And that's why I cried. China gave me my children. China filled a place in me that was so dark and sad and lonely that it threatened to eat me alive. I sat there in full knowledge of the fact that I will ALWAYS love China. That hot, difficult, foreign place. Those exotic landscapes. The bustlings of those huge, crowded cities. That place is a part of me now.