Never go on trips with anyone you do not love...Ernest Hemingway

This might be the last blog entry if I have any issues with internet challenges while we're in China. Hope you've enjoyed reading about us getting ready. :) So... twelve hours from now we'll be heading to the airport. We're all a bit unnerved and have different ways of working this out. Yesterday Reuben was trying to convince me to cancel his trip. He said he never really wanted to go and that he really only wanted to see Boaz. Since Bo's coming home anyway, why are we actually going to China?

Our last family picture taken the day Bo was leaving for China in August 2013. 

Sheesh, think of how much fabric I could've purchased with the money we'd saved if he stayed home. Tom has packed his biggest suitcase with 23 pairs of socks and probably just as many underwear so that he doesn't have to do any laundry...He's also taking some kinds of costumes to attract a lot of attention while we're in China. I'm kind of paralyzed...so much to do and I'm laying here on the couch not doing it. Bo is probably the most excited of all four of us. He's got train tickets and hotels booked for us already. It's going to be fun having the four of us together though and I do love those guys.

A lasting week of "lasts"...

It's our last Sunday here for a while. Had a lot of well wishing after church this morning; thanks folks. Each day this week will be our last...for a short while at least.
As we do most Saturday nights, we skyped with Bo for the last time, last night. He was saying good-bye to a lot of the friends he'd made during his ten months in Nanjing. His room-mate, the buddies he hung out with, his teachers... He said it was bittersweet because although it was sad saying good-bye to the people he'd grown close to, he was looking forward to seeing us in less than a week. That was touching. 

Bo in China this year with three of his best buddies. Represented are UK, New Zealand, Australia and of course, Canada. 

It's good that Bo's anticipation of our visit assuages some of his sadness. He'll see us (hopefully) for a lasting time, some of his last year's friends, probably not so much. What constitutes or creates a lasting friendship? The proximity, the time spent with one another, the shared lasting interests... mostly the commitment on both parts to making it last. (I just googled "what makes a lasting friendship" and Goodlife Zen cites 35 ways, Tiny Buddha offers 21 ways, and Canadian Living simply gives 5 very poignant and trustworthy methods.) Mainly it's commitment. 

Get set....

This was taken in Sept. 2008. Have we changed? Well, admittedly, some of us have. More pictures will follow. 

We're not there yet, but in less than two weeks, our whole family will be together again, in China. Boaz has been going to university in Nanjing for the past ten months and we'll join him to spend about a week there, head off to Wuhan to visit friends that still live there and then we're going to be brave and maybe crazy and do whatever Bo has planned for us. It'll probably be somewhat different from our previous time in China, this time with a Mandarin fluent family member to do all the translating, negotiating, and explaining of the great Chinglish for us. It might be a totally different exerience this time 'round. Some things we're  really looking forward to: all four of us being together, visiting with friends we thought we might never see again, experiencing things that are so different from our life here and especially..... the food. So that's it... family, friends, fun and food. Check in here if you're interested in our travels from June 29-July 22.