So ya wanna be a rock star??

You might want to start at Window of the World in Changsha. People have been staring at us ever since we got here but this is the first place that they run up and ask if they can take our pictures and if they can be in a picture with us.

Crowding around taking photos of Shawn and Abby

Class of 13 yr. olds whose teacher came up and asked if they could take a photo with us - our guide told them she is our manager and they would have to pay 2 yuan each. They looked a little surprised and then she laughed and told them she was joking.

still more - probably high school age.

This woman came up to us and asked if she could take a picture of us with her son. We said sure and then she had him take one of her with us. She stayed around for a minute and asked a few questions - how old is the baby, where are you from, etc. and then the little boy told the guide he wanted to ask us a question. He wanted to ask us "Who is Jesus?" We told him, through the translator, "He is the son of God" then he wanted to know if we knew about Adam and Eve. I was so surprised that he would even know anything about Christianity. The Mom said that he learned it in school - he's only 7 so I'm not sure if it was a world religions class, or perhaps western civilization, really unusual and surprising for a 7 yr. old in China. He also asked why do we celebrate Christmas? We told him that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birthday. Christmas is somewhat fashionable here - not Christmas as we know it but there are Santa Claus pictures in really random places and banners that say Merry Christmas. We saw 2 at the place today - one on a Western Fast Food shack - big Santa head stuck on the sign, and then on another building above a doorway - Merry Christmas with a Santa head. We've seen those in many places since we've been here - even available for sale in little markets. So today I said a heartfelt prayer that someday that little boy will get to know who Jesus really is.

We told them about our family and he bent over and said "FIVE"? He couldn't believe we have 5 kids - we showed them the pictures and then he told his Mom he wants to have 3 brothers. He said - it would give her more chances, one of them would make her happy. We visited with them a bit more - oh, and he wanted to tell us a joke. Our guide translated for us - There was some chicken poop and his friends at school put their hands in it. Ha ha ha - he thought he was pretty funny. I guess little boys are little boys wherever they live and whatever language they speak.