Staci and Martin's Guestbook

Welcome Home
If you ever get that glazed over look about China stories you know who to Skype or chat as I never get sick of them. Wow how life has changed in one year as Aug 2nd is quickly approaching.

After reading this entry, I cried...it was like the ending of the most wonderful novel that I've ever read! But I personally know the people involved...and was able to visit with them for a brief time during this wonderful journey they completed. While we parents worried so much about you before you left, we all have seen how much you have grown over the past 11 months. You are coming home to us, still as our children, but also as world travelers who have successfully done and seen more in your 11 months in China than most people will EVER experience in their lives! This blog definitely needs to be printed and bound...something that you will always have to share with your kids someday or so you two can pull it out once a year and relive your time in China! Glad that your last day in Mainland China was filled with your favorite things! I know that goodbyes are hard no matter when you say them...so maybe you should just say "farewell for now China" instead of goodbye! We will all be waiting here at home with open arms, open hearts, open minds, so thankful you had the chance to live in China and so thankful that we are all a bit smarter and wiser about our neighbors there! Thanks for opening up our worlds a lot more than ever! We love you both! Safe travels!!

welcome home
i'm so glad you're coming home, but it sounds like everything that china has given you is irreplacible! Travel safe friends! love ya!

dad's favorite poem came to mind as soon as I finished reading this...definitely the choice you and Martin made to be in China for the year is the best example ever of this poem...and now you are at another crossroads in your life...grab onto all that life offers you for sure...and live and love it! Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth. Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same. And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

10 USD is pretty darn good for toy story in 3D! well maybe not by SE Asia standards...but for US, you got a deal! We paid $14.50/each for it in 3D here Friday night, but I agree, sooooo worth it!! :) glad you're having such a good time love, now post pics! i'm not demanding at all...

I've read folks writing completely different views from yours. It all depends on how one views things - half full or half empty. :)

another successful day...I do see another time in your lives where SE Asia will tempt you to return!

I love that you guys adapted so well and have had such an amazing experience! All those kinds of trust are not easy to come by, and I'm sure we could all learn from your life lessons that you've expereinced! Teach me the patience portion!! :)

TRUST...one of the hardest things to give someone...and one of the hardest things to regain once it's lost...you two have handled it all amazingly well during your time in China...and because of it, you have grown so much in your relationship and in your knowledge of people and the world around you!

While we were afraid for you to start this adventure, we are now sad along with you that it is over...for now! What a wonderful year you have experienced and in your doing so, we have grown and experienced it along with you! Your students are so friendly and welcoming and you were indeed assigned to a wonderful school! Your contact teachers and friends you have made over the year have added much to your lives!

It's nearly the end?
I will miss your blogs. I have enjoyed following your life in China.

ding
You hit the nail on the head. There is no way to really explain it. It's not just quantitative things you'll miss, there are emotional things as well. And those can be impossible to put in to words, especially when talking to someone who's never been to China or has never lived abroad. What I found most amazing last summer was how much my lifestyle had changed without my realizing it. The period of adjustment back to life in the US just feels weird and surreal at the same time.

Lifelong Experience and memories made
Wise words DiL!!! I know it'll be hard to translate all you'ver experienced, but I will be eager to hear anything and try to "feel" some of your time there. I always knew it was longer than nine months but didn't want to sound whiney ha ha. After all I and so happy for the both of you to have made this journey together, to have grown closer together thru it all, to have made such likelong friends and to have had the opportunity to experience a culture so unlike our western ones. But can't wait to hug you both, xoxomamamc