I get many questions about what Sundays are like living in China. It's a question that I have to answer carefully, because in China, there are only 5 religions that have been officially sanctioned by the Country, and if you are not of those faiths, although you may worship, you cannot actively, or passively proselyte. So I will briefly answer some Questions that have been posed to me:
Worship on Sunday is done in our own home with only the 4 of us physically attending.
Worship is 2 hours and is held with a congregation of expats living in China via audio call.
We are able to participate in our religious traditional activities in our home.
Sundays can be difficult. We try not to go out to eat or shop, so most Sundays we are in our home all day, which is tough for all of us. When we first arrived in China, Sundays felt very different than what we were used to, and we missed family, so we often felt very discouraged. As time has passed though, Sundays are becoming the refuge they once were. We pretty much lock ourselves in our living room, and play games and watch movies as a family, we even eat all 3 meals at the coffee table. We pull all the toys in to that room, and relax in there all day. It's become a fun weekly tradition, and we've made some good memories.
One Sunday, Oct 29, 2017 we will never forget! It was a typical Sunday for us, We had a yummy breakfast, made the kids a blanket fort, and lounged around the living room ALL DAY LONG.
When it was finally time to get ready for bed, we realized, at some point we had LITERALLY locked ourselves in the living room!
Above our doors are little windows, so the only thing we could think to do, was to have Drew lift me up, and have me climb through, to get the key that was hanging by the front door.
Somehow we managed to get me through the little window, but after retrieving the key, we discovered a locked door was not the problem. Somehow the door knob was jammed.
With the kid panicking ("ARE WE STUCK HERE FOREVER???? NOOO!!!")
Drew thought the best option would be to get them out of the room as quickly as possible, so he took his fist and smashed down on the knob! (Don't worry, he only bled a little)
We were able to get everyone out of the living room and call maintenance who quickly came up and installed a new door knob. We are learning things aren't always smooth sailing in life, especially IN CHINA, but we are also learning to enjoy the memories we are making, good, bad, difficult, or silly.
