Homeward Bound...Sniff

OK, none of us really wanted to leave. We were so sad the night we left that our visit to Beijing's most famous HotPot restaurant felt more like a wake. We visited the Temple of Heaven in the morning and nearly froze our butts off. Mae continues to insist that she dress for San Diego weather, and it's making us all a bit crazy. The girls both asked where the prayer wheels were and if they could pray to the Buddha...LOL we have two new religious converts and for those who know this you can see how funny this is. We warmed ourselves up quickly by visiting HongQiao Market, which is totally renovated since I was last there, and quite overwhelming in its size. We all got into the shopping frenzy, making darn sure that we brought home not one yuan with us. We came pretty darn close!

Trip home was uneventful, which is what you want on long, trans-Pacific flights. My major task now is to get photos linked in some kind of coherent fashion so that some of these blog posts make sense.

Maybe I am getting soft(er) in my old age, or maybe I am really tired, but I kept crying on the airplane, thinking of the highlights of the trip, counting my blessings we could swing a trip like this and mentally preparing our next one. I know it is a big world with lots to see and do, but China seems so the center of our universe, and with so much to explore, it is hard to tear ourselves away, even mentally.

I asked the girls to make a list of their favorite things they did on the trip. Mae's were funny :"Seeing ducks in the water but those weren't the ones we ate.." and "Praying". Zoe listed her new found culinary bravery, the visit to Zhaji, and seeing Joan and Hai Ying. Ian loved, as I did, Zhaji-a place that has totally stolen our hearts, our entire trip to NingDu, and returning to the Summer Palace. I personally was surprised how much I loved BeiHai Park in Beijing, but the highlights were connecting with Zoe's nanny, my hero, Li Kai Nian, finding the woman who found Mae quietly laying in a box early one morning in October 2003, and the images of Zoe running through the village streets of Zhaji, totally at home and her small voice bouncing off the 500 year old walls of this farming village; the man serenading Zoe with old Anhui songs on the little island off the shores of Chao Lake-an Anhui daughter returning home; the Peking Opera being staged in a dirt lot in NingDu, our eyes on the performers, all audience eyes on us and every kid wearing split pants and the feeling that I had been transported back in time about 40 years;Mae's firecracker entrance to NingDu's CWI and the banner above the door that read "Welcome Ning Fu Hua Back Home"....small moments that will be etched into my memory forever.

I can list the downsides of this trip in about 10 words:
Mae's bug bites on her arm.
Couldn't stay longer
(oops, that's nine words)

We were treated with kindness at every turn, every place we went. The Chinese know that travelling independently takes a bit of courage, and I really believe that families are rewarded handsomely when they stray a bit off the beaten track. And in several instances where our presence was met with incomprehension, our little Chinese cards stating that we were returning with our Anhui and Jiangxi born daughters and that we were visiting China, a country we loved, on holiday, we were met with thumbs up, Hen Haos and boatloads of smiles, all that made every bit of planning worthwhile.

I don't even think paying my visa bill this morning will dampen these fond memories.....

We are blessed, truly.