COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS . . .

It's hard to believe we'll be coming home in less than 10 weeks.  And while we're all very happy to be coming home, we're also all a little sad.  This year has been an AMAZING year for all of us.  We've seen sites that we NEVER would have seen.  We've made new friends that live all over the WORLD.  Not just Kentucky, and not just the US.  THE WORLD!  How great is that?

We've seen Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Xi'an.  We've LIVED in another country!  How many people get to say that?  (Actually, a lot more people than you'd think.  But among OUR friends, so far we are the only ones)!  

And while it was very hard to come here, I am SO glad we did.  It was definitely the right decision for our family.  I think it has brought us all closer together.  Because we are living in an apartment and not a house with 3 different floors, we spend a lot of time together.  We only have 1 TV with cable and 1 regular DVD player for all of us to watch movies on.  And because movies are so cheap here, we watch A LOT of movies together.  We also play a lot of Wii together.  Everything we do, we pretty much do together.  We don't have a car, so we walk to the grocery store and the movie store and the Wii store.  (At least we do now that it's warming up)!  Sunday we were out for almost 5 hours.  Just the 5 of us.  And we walked everywhere we went.  And we talked.  We "talk" to each other more. 

While we were walking on Sunday, I asked the boys what they would miss the most about China, and what they were looking forward to the most about going home.  They both said they would miss the Ayi and their friends.  They both are looking forward to going to the lake and seeing their friends back home. I thought it was funny that they both said Ayi, because they still have ME to take care of things at home.  I told them *I* would be the one to miss Ayi, because at home, *I'M* the Ayi!  I am most looking forward to seeing my family and friends.  They were surprised that I didn't say Diet Coke.  I told them as much as I love my Diet Coke, I actually DO love my family and friends more!  I think they were a little surprised by that.  MAN, how sad is that?  They actually think I want Diet Coke more than I want my family and friends.  There's definitely something wrong with that picture!

Anyway, I'm really glad we had this year.  After this year, I know there's nothing we can't handle.