Terra Cotta statues

Once we learned that Max was from the Shaanxi province (his initial paperwork was wrong) I was thrilled that we were going to be able to see the Terra Cotta statues!!!  If you don't know anything about them, I will give you a brief lesson, but you may want to look it up.  So amazing!

So, the Terra Cotta statues were actual built 2200 years ago while Emperor Xin (I think) was ruling.  Back in ancient times they buried things with them because they believed in the after life they would still need worldly things.  Well, this Emperor apparently felt like he needed his army.  So, 728,000 people worked for 38 years to build 8000 statues out of terra cotta to protect him in the afterlife.  Those numbers just amaze me.  What's even cooler is that these weren't found until 1974!  A farmer was digging a well (during one of the driest years) and he came upon some terra cotta pieces, apparently they were pretty significanty because it prompted his journalist nephew to do a report on them, and that is when they started digging and found the rest!

These statues were found crushed under the weight of the soil and since 1974 archeologists have been putting them together piece by piece, so far 2000 have been put back together and they plan to work until ALL have been restored.  When they are initially unearthed they are very colorful, but the material that the color is made of oxidizes in a matter of days.  So they have mounds of pieces still buried, they do not want to unearth them until they are ready to put them together, and for a few days people can admire the colorful pieces.  They are trying to create a preservative to put on the statues to keep their color.

I could go on, but I'll just tell you two more things.  There has been only ONE statue that was found intact, it is called the kneeling archer and it is a revered piece.  And, each statue represents a real person, which means all have different faces, hair and attire, there are non that are identical!!

OK, so there is your history lesson for the day!  Two things worth mentioning happened the day we saw the statues, both proud moments for this mama.  We were eating lunch after visiting the statues and the waitresses were fascinated by our family.  Apparently, they had never seen white people with Chinese children and wanted to know why we wanted Chinese kids.  Well, our real reason (faith based and centered in our belief in Christ) cannot be freely expressed so our guide explained that we loved giving children a home and family that would not normally have one.  Well, then they started talking to Max, I was a bit concerned about what they were saying, it's a bit unnerving not to understand what adults are saying to your young child.  However, after we left we asked our guide.  Although we might not know all that was said she shared that they asked him if he wanted to go back to Hanzhong (where he is from) and repeated he told them, "No, I want to go to America." :)  Roughly 48 hours after meeting us he wants to go home with us.  Only God.

The other very proud moment came from our guide.  She was just married last November and she said to me, "After spending time with your kids I want to have children as soon as possible."  I'm so proud of my kids and I'm so grateful that they were all given to me!!!

....and for some reason I am unable to add pictures, so I will have to leave them for facebook.