Of all the things I hoped to give my children on this trip was a sense of respect for our country and those who serve it. Of course my unexpected pregnancy waylaid all my great plans of reading books and pulling p videos and such. Then again some places have a way of inspiring that awe and respect naturally. Arlington cemetery is one of those places.
Brennan Zhao is named after a friend of Da who is buried there. As a child living in the poverty of chinatown washington DC, James Brennan helped Da and his family with food, laundry and even taking Da out to the sites of DC. unfortunately Da was unable to see him just before he passsed away. It was only a week or two lateer that Brennan was born so hence his namesake. Out of respect we took the opportunity to visit his gravesite and in the process witness two other funerals, complete with the 21 gun salutes and "Taps" being played.
Of course we stopped at the grave of the unknown solider and saw the changing of the guard. Isaac and keila are rarely ever quiet but they were respectfully silent through the whole event. The only sound was of Eli blowing bubbles from his mouth!
Throughout the trip I spoke often to Isaac of how the unknown soldiers and James Brennan were real people with real lives. We even took a rubbing of James Brennan's site and put it into Isaac's scrapbook for his classmates. I hope he will share the story of this man who never had family of his own and in so doing honor all those who sacrafice so much for us all.
After lunch we hit up the National Building Museum for some relaxed fun for the kidlets. Isaac had fun making a model of the Washington memorial, Eli just relished crawling around like crazy and keila let all her sillies out.
No comments:
Post a Comment