Xi1 wang4

I'm taking Chinese lessons from a student at the local university. We have a reciprocal thing going where I help her with English and she helps me with Chinese. I have a book and CD program that we're following and she extends the lessons and helps me practice. I will never be fluent. I might not ever be proficient. But I will at least know how to be polite in Mandarin when we go to China!

One of the vocabulary words in today's lesson was, funny enough, HOPE. That is the strange looking word in the post title. Chinese is a tonal language. Each vowel has 5 tones. Chinese is also written in characters instead of letters, but can be written in pinyin, which is what is above. When you cannot type the proper tonal mark above a letter, you indicate the tone with a number after the letter. The first syllable is pronounced "she," keeping the "e" sound very neutral and holding it a little longer than you would in English. The second syllable is pronounced "wong." The 4th tone goes down, kind of like lowering your voice or fading out. I'm realize I'm not explaining this very well. It's much easier to understand when you hear it. But I hope I've explained enough that you can sort of hear the word in your head.

Driving home from my lesson, I of course thought about my little Chinese girl and the hope I have that we'll meet each other soon. And as it's Advent, my thoughts went to another, rather important, expectant mother. I am no way elevating myself to the status of Mary, but I do see some commonalities between us. Mary didn't truly understand what had brought her to the place she was in her life as she journeyed to Bethlehem. I still don't understand why I'm where I am right now. Mary didn't know what was going to happen after her child arrived. I have no idea how our lives will change when we finally get our baby. Mary went on a journey to give birth (well, not exactly for that purpose, but that's how it turned out.) I'll go on a journey to get my baby. And most importantly, Mary had hope that what God promised her would be fulfilled. I have xi1 wang4.