Friday

This will be a short one. We’re waking up to head to the Hong Kong airport in about five hours. Roughly twenty-five hours later, we should be home.

HOME.

Home sounds so good. We cannot WAIT to see our boys, greet our friends, and sleep in our bed.

And yet, leaving feels surprisingly emotional. I didn’t expect that I would come to like China this much. I didn’t plan to feel such a connection to her city. I didn’t think that I’d be so nervous to take her home.

My heart hurts for all that she will leave behind when we get on that plane. It hurts for all of the answers we were not able to find for her while we were here. And it hurts for some of the answers that we did find.

It just hurts.

We spent today doing nothing of importance along with friends of great importance. We shopped, and we napped. We sat in many taxis, somehow missed today’s earthquake, and got massages from blind people (yes, really). We talked, and we laughed.

And tonight, I cried. What a beautiful, wonderful journey it has been.

So, China, I bid you farewell. Tomorrow you will lose one INCREDIBLE little girl. Thank you - from the bottom of our hearts - for sharing her with us.