Goodbye to China... by Doug

I just received this email from Doug... his "Goodbye to China" entry...

Good Bye China…I am sitting in the airport waiting on my flight from the Guangzhou Airport to Hong Kong….where tomorrow morning I will board a plane and head for the states. I can’t even begin to describe the impact that this trip has had on me. What a fabulous experience this has been and what a hard time it was to walk away and leave the crew to head home this afternoon. Grandpa, Kate, Caleb, and Nyah will not be able to leave until the rest of the paperwork is complete which is near the end of the week.

We arrived in Guangzhou last night. Thanks to Kate for asking to have our flight from Nanchang to Guangzhou bumped up a little earlier, we were able to arrive in the early evening and see a little of the city last night. Xi Xi, our guide in this city, is awesome. She is high energy with a great personality and lots of knowledge. She will be fun for the crew over the next few days. It is very westernized in this area, which is nice. Guess what…….We actually ate at an Italian restaurant last night and woke up to Starbucks this morning. Double Chocolate Chip frapochino---my favorite!!!!! Guangzhou is a very nice area with lots to do, unlike Nanchang where we spent the last five days. Kate, Ron, Caleb, and Nyah will be able to see some cool sites over the next few days, while mixing in all of the paperwork and appointments for Nyah.

Speaking of Nanchang….Don’t get me wrong, although Nanchang was not such a great place to be a tourist, I am so thankful that we spent several days in the “real China”. This is the Province where both of our girls were born and spent the first years of their lives. Just to have visited areas like Hong Kong and Guangzhou does not give us westerners the real picture of China. In Nanchang, we got it! Even Xi Xi called Nanchang “real China” compared to Guangzhou. What an important piece of the puzzle this is for us as we journey through the rest of our lives with Brynn and Nyah.

Nyah was doing so well when I left today, although she had become much more clingy to Kate and did not want to really have much to do with me. Her emotions have been running a little testy the past few days and mommy seems to be the answer. Maybe the hotel move has her a little on edge, not real sure. But under the circumstances, she is doing very, very well. Kate is a little under the weather with a pretty nasty cold, but Caleb and grandpa told me that they will take good care of mommy for me.

Thanks to everyone back home for everything. A special thanks to Nana, Papa, Grandma, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Darryl for watching after Evan, Price and Brynn. This experience would not have been possible without you. I can’t wait to get home to see them and give them big hugs and to get back to the hustle and bustle of the S family…I actually miss the chaos….well a little bit. Thanks to all of our friends, family, and co-workers that have sent us the kind and encouraging words before we left and while we were here. You do not know how inspiring those words are for us.

Well, off to catch my flight to Hong Kong, find my hotel without a guide, find my way back to the airport at 8am and fly 16 hours back to the US. If all that works out, I’ll be home Sunday night. I look forward to reading the blog with the rest of you over the next week to hear about all that is going on with the crew in China. Good night all and good bye China!

~Doug