Wrapping it up

Well, our last day in China has been relaxing so far. It's a beautiful day on Shamian Island, sunny and about 80 degrees. After breakfast, Xiu Dan took a brief nap, and then we hit the pool. The water was a bit cold for Kori, Xiu Dan and I, but Chien and Pak jumped right in. We dipped our toes at the kiddie pool, and spent about two hours chatting with other families who are also in China to adopt kids.

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant we'd visited earlier in the week. We worked a little bit with Xiu Dan on the hand sign for "more." Her usual manner of banging her hands and shrieking when we're not feeding her fast enough wasn't working out so well for us. The girl loves to eat, and has found very few things she won't happily gobble. After lunch, we hit a coffee shop for cappucinos and mango shakes.

After picking up a few more souvenirs, we returned to the hotel, exhausted from all of our hard work. Xiu Dan crashed pretty quickly, the boys watched some X-Games skateboarding competition on the tube, and Kori and I dozed briefly. It's 4:35 p.m., which means that we'll be getting up in 12 hours: very, very morning for the McCollum clan.

The end of our trip has left me with mixed emotions. I'm thrilled to be returning to friends and family; it's time for us to start our lives together in Columbus. But I feel a twinge of regret. We're taking Xiu Dan away from China. She's losing something of her identity, and no matter how hard we try, she'll never really have a good chance to learn Mandarin or feel completely 'Chinese.' I remember being misty-eyed when as our plane took off with Chien from Vietnam.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and eating at my own table after a month on the run. Living out of suitcases can be fun, but only for a while. Unfortunately, I'm going to be massively jet-lagged and absolutely beat for my monday morning presentation. Yeah, that's right. I have a major presentation on monday at 10am. I usually love presenting, and I genuinely like the client, but I'm afraid I might not be at the top of my game. Oh, well. We'll see.

Kori and I put together a list of China-related topics I should address. I don't know if I'll have time, but I promise I'll try to post my thoughts on everything from traffic to manners to urban planning shortly after I return. In short, I've loved this trip, and I love China. I love the way my boys -- and girls -- have travelled. Very few breakdowns and many, many wonderful moments. Thanks for all of your prayers. We'll see you all soon.

Speaking of seeing you soon, our plane arrives on NW 1691 from Detroit at 4:22pm Saturday. You're welcome to meet us there if you wish, and/or show up at our house for a few minutes afterward. I promise we'll be happy to see you, but I can't promise we'll be very engaging hosts; I doubt I'll feel like cooking, and I may fall asleep immediately upon arrival. You can open up a bottle and toast us if you can hear over the snoring. Otherwise, you can all see Xiu Dan at Central Vineyard (meeting at Calumet Christian School) on Sunday morning at 10am. We may sleep through the entire service, but we wouldn't miss it for the world!