I would like to explain my motivation for my Mulan collection. It all started in 2002 in Guangzhou China. This was only my second time out of the US. The first was a wrong turn and ending up in Mexico. That excursion took only about an hour. China was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was very eerie and unsettling not knowing what people were saying and not being able to read a word except for the lit 7-11 sign across from the hotel. We had flown into Hong Kong and took a bus the next day to the city that was known for years as Canton. I was exhausted after the 16 hour flight and was hoping to be able to adjust to the 12 hour time difference. It was not to be. Back into a van and off to a nondescript brick building in a nondescript part of a rainy, dull city on Halloween morning. After filling out a few more forms, my number (four) was called and I was handed this little girl, whom I had never met, but already deeply loved. This was a second chance for both of us. Fast forward to another Halloween three years later. I walked house to house with my now four year old daughter dressed in her Mulan costume and carrying my new little one year old "China baby".
Another year passes and we are at WDW where I bought my first Disney pin, a Mulan - Princess Premiere Birthstone. The rest is history. My self inflicted mission is to collect every single Mulan pin. Did I say single? I mean double. I am collecting for both Hannah and Madison. They are my two Mulans, each strong in their own way, and I am their father, like Fa Zhou, sometimes stumbling and falling, always worrying, and hoping for similar success as the screen credits roll by.
I too, wish the best for whoever gets this. I have a very short Mulan list. Thanks for giving me a chance to post.
(By the way, my kids think I'm more like the ancestor who lost his head.)
