The story continues

Running into oncoming traffic. That was definitely one of my biggest fears for my children while living in Beijing. Well, that and licking their street-dirty fingers. One potentially just as deadly as the other. But those were things we learned to live with in a city as big and crazy as Beijing. Neither one of my kids had lived in a city larger than about 100,000 people, so the jump to Beijing's 20 million was something of a change - especially within a culture we knew nothing about beyond the American Chinese restaurant place mats. I'm born in the year of the dog. Our adventure was not without its fair share of tough roads and gritty living. But embrace it we did, conquer it we must. And my kids were the biggest heroes in this story with no end, just as they usually are.