Nonie and I would like to introduce you to the latest addition to the Cornell Dynasty. Unlike the Qing Dynasty who faded into obscurity, we continue to beat the odds and make babies. Sweet! Her name is Isla (Eye-la)Jean and she entered the world in the early morning of June 23rd at a whopping 7 pounds and 7+ ounces. Granmma and Grampa are doing fine. Oh and mom is too. Dad is still wondering what happened to the dangly bit but I will explain it to him when we see him at the beginning of August. The perils of having the "TALK" so early in his childhood as he has forgotten the "girls are different from boys" segment of the "TALK". We didn't have access to PowerPoint presentations back then. Although he did manage to make a baby. Hmmm?
Having had only boys to raise and no nieces close by, we are a little lost as to what the protocols are for baby girls. No help here in China where the male child still remains supreme, especially with the " one family, one child" rule. As all good grandparents do, we will make decisions based on what feels good and to hell with the future consequences. "To raise a child is great but to spoil is divine."
In China, children are either spoiled or forgotten depending on the economic circumstances of the family. There is a huge divide between how a child is raised if you are a have or have not. Some of my students have not seen their fathers except for a few times a year when they return for short vacations from jobs that may be thousands of mile away from their home province. Moving your family to where you work is closely regulated and not easy to do. There are over 150,000,000 itinerant workers in China so you can imagine the number of children growing up in a one parent household. Sometimes both parents must move to where the work is but thankfully grandparents quite often fill the void of the missing parents.
For the most part, children are revered here and no sacrifice is too great for parents to make so that their children can live a better life than they did. Parental sacrifices are a recurring theme that we have heard from a few of our students. Hearing these stories, sometimes made me feel remorseful as I do not remember much sacrifice when we were raising our two boys but then sacrifice is in the eye of the beholder.
We are busy this week with goodbye dinners and a little adminstration work. We have already said goodbye to Brian with others following every couple of days. There have been a few tears shed and I suspect a few more to come.
