Here I Sit

Waiting in the Chicago airport to head back to our other life.

I consider other trips where I've been waiting in this very same lounge to go back to Shanghai, probably with different feelings about whether going to China is leaving home or heading home. This time I feel like I am going home... and it feels good.

I consider my reaction to seeing the Chicago skyline in the hazy early morning light as we landed this morning... why did I tear up at the sight of it? We only lived there three years... but we may again, sometime in the future. I love Chicago. I love people that live here. The Chicago airport has special meaning for me, because it's always our entry point into the US when we return from China.

I think about the people we've left behind in Northeast Ohio. Our family. It was wonderful to have so much time with them this summer, time that wasn't rushed because we knew we were there for a while. Hang out time. So good. Really, really good.

I think about all we have ahead of us in Shanghai. With back-to-school orientation and events starting next week, and school the following week, we'll be jumping right back in. I'm excited to see our friends that will re-gather in Jinqiao from their scattered summer travels. We'll all settle back into our China life... for as long as it lasts, with every family's timetable a little different. There will be missing faces, gone from Shanghai permanently, who we will track down on Facebook, and new faces, joining the China life for the first time. New friends to meet. Who are they? I can't wait to find out.

I'm feeling how little sleep I had last night... only four hours, since I got up at 3:15 AM to get everyone out the door by 4 AM. My boys had the bright idea that staying up all night last night would help them get over jet lag more quickly than sleeping only half the night, so apparently that's what they did. The foolishness of youth, I say.

Now I will go have a muffin and wait a little longer. Then mid-morning we board the plane, and after meals and movies and napping and reading for several hours more than a dozen, we'll get off the plane, breathe deeply of the distinctive China smell, wait in line to go through immigration, wrestle our nine large pieces of luggage onto carts, go through customs to face a sea of Chinese faces... and on the other side Scott will be waiting! And Mr. Wu, or course.

Can't wait. :-)