Friends and Moving Forward

 So our dear, dear friends the Stevensons were here in Shanghai with us last week.  I had looked forward to their visit, making plans for it both in my head and on paper.  I sketched out some meal ideas and listed some places in the city I wanted to take them.  Then they were with us and it was a wonderful time.  In our twenty plus years of friendship, we had never spent this many consecutive days together.  So good, so, so good to be with these people that we love and have them see a slice of our life in China.

Now they have gone home, and suddenly it seems that the time we have left in Shanghai has grown short.  Caleb tells me every few days how many days there are left until his graduation.  The number is somewhere around 70 right now.  I think of the weekends we have left until school ends, and the events that have already claimed many of those weekends.  It leaves me a little breathless.  I haven't done everything I was going to do in China...  you'd think five years would be enough, but it seems daily life has gotten in the way of all the things there are to see and exploring there is to do.

I feel myself looking ahead much of the time now.  We asked the family who is renting our home in Chicago if they would be willing to leave a little earlier than the end of the lease... they are willing, and so now we will be able to get into our home a week earlier than we thought we would.  Guess it's time to purchase the last flight back to the States.  I thought years ago about what it would feel like to be on that last flight moving back from Shanghai.   I'm not sure what I'll be thinking, but I remember pulling away from my childhood home with my dad ten years ago, on the day my parents moved out of that house into their current one.  My dad pulled out of the driveway, backed up into the street to and stopped in front of the house for a moment.  "This place gave us quite a ride" was his comment, and it encapsulated all the memories and all the years my family spent there.  I think that last flight home will feel a bit that moment in front of the house we all loved.  Quite a ride we've had here in Shanghai.

Now we're all about figuring out schooling for next year (this week Caleb sent in his housing deposit and dorm selection for Valpo, Seth had a phone interview for Aurora Christian School), getting two cats and a dog from China to Chicago, air and sea shipment packing dates, finding a painter for the interior of our Chicago home, etc.  Lots of little things and big things to take care of.  I'm excited about these things that move us forward towards leaving.  I guess I am feeling ready for that last flight, for the next step, the old house waiting for us, new school routines and even for a boy to graduate and leave home.  He's certainly ready, or at least thinks he is.  Ready for a new environment, meeting new people, growing up.  I think leaving Shanghai will be the easiest for him out of all our children, with graduation providing a built in transition for him.

Next weekend Scott and Gwen and I will do one of the things we felt we needed to do before we left China.  This thing is one we couldn't let slide, and thankfully have been able to squeeze into the weekends we have left here.  We'll be making an overnight trip to western China, the Sichuan province, where Gwenny was born and where she lived until God brought us to her.  We'll see her orphanage, the rooms where she slept and played.  She's looking forward to it...  I'm wondering how she and we will process this.   I'll let you know how it goes, and if you think of it, please pray for her as we take this journey back in time.

Going back in time next weekend- part of the process of  moving forward, moving away from Shanghai... it's good.  

Thanks, friends, for coming to share our Shanghai lives for a week.  We needed you to see it.  Now you know us a little bit better.  :-)