SMITHS IN SHANGHAI: Coming to America

It's been a long time. Actually, a long, long time! Sorry for the lack of posts. I do not have a good excuse. So I won't even try.

Michael, the boys and I arrived back in the States after only 19 hours of travel on May 8th. I say only 19 because of the new and wonderful direct flight from Shanghai to Atlanta. Then it was just a quick hop from Atlanta to Montgomery. It used to be that we would fly from Shanghai to Tokyo, Tokyo to Detroit, Detroit to Memphis, Memphis to Montgomery. And that route took no less than 24 hours. So 19 was A LOT better than 24! The flight was almost half empty and that was such a blessing. We had two whole rows to ourselves. Both of the boys slept very little of the long flight. Maddox for 4 hours and Gabe for only 2. Michael dozed off and on for about 2 and I slept none. But everyone, the boys especially, did great on the flight!

We arrived in Montgomery on Thursday and spent the next three days trying to get the boys sleep schedules adjusted to a new time zone. They did surprisingly well with that as well. A few bouts of sleepy crying for the first 2 nights was about the worst it got. Michael and I on the other hand did not adjust so well.

On the following Monday at 5 am, Michael and I left for Kalamazoo, MI. It is a 14 hour drive and we wanted to get there as early as possible. We made good time and arrived after a LONG day of driving just in time to have dinner with some of Michael's co-workers. Then it was off to some of our good friends Jason & Sarah Stiger's to crash for the night. It was so good to see them. We settled right in and watched the season finale of The Bachelor. About that...we decided that we are not missing much by being in China. That show is crazy! Proposing to someone and calling them Monkey!!!?? Anyway, back to the important stuff. On Tuesday Michael went into the Dana office (Working on vacation? Yup, Michael does) and spent some of the day there.

Basically, we spent the next 4 days packing, cleaning, sorting, and getting our house hold goods into storage. (We have put the house on the market "For Sale or Lease") Michael still had conference calls every morning at 7am that lasted a minimum of 2 hours. So that made getting some stuff done at the house challenging. But, thanks to the help of many amazing friends, we managed to get everything done (and done well I might add) on time.

Jason & Sarah Stiger were a huge help. Not just for letting us stay with them, though that was great. But they also helped pack boxes, paintings, and furniture. They brought lots of yummy food, ran errands for us, and made us laugh!

Another friend, Christy Bollier was amazing! She, and her 2 1/2 children came over and helped pack up the kitchen. (2 1/2 because she is expecting their 3rd.) Luke and Hailey, her kids, were so well behaved! I was impressed. They entertained themselves for hours while she helped us. And the only favor we could do for them was share with Luke some of the Fish and Onion chips from China. He really loved them!

My neighbors, Ted & Carrie Green have been an indescribable amount of help. Not only were they a huge help over this past year, they really helped us out again over the past few weeks. They held a garage sale and allowed me to dump my junk in their yard and then took care of donating the rest for me. Ted has taken over the maintenance of or yard. Carrie has taken out our trash, cleaned my floors, and so much more! I cannot even begin to list everything they have done for us!

And our friend Jen Gilbert, well, she is simply awesome. When I got to our house for the first time on Tuesday, I walked in to see brownies, our favorite good ole' American potato chips, the coolest water bottles, Coke, Dr. Pepper, and a special beverage that we thought we could only get in China. She did some good researching to find some for us! She came over each day after she got off work to help us box, clean and pack stuff up. She is awesome!!! I also owe a big thank you to Jen's parents who let us crash at their beautiful home on Saturday night.

So, on Friday we finished packing and getting everything into storage. Late Friday night we went over to stay with some more of our friends Michael and Mandy Fernihough. It was so good to get to spend time with them! ***I also want to mention that one of Michael's younger sisters was killed in a car accident last week. Katie was only 22 years old. Please keep Michael, Mandy and his entire family in your prayers. It is such an awful thing.***

On Saturday, we returned to the house to do some final organizing and cleaning. We left the house for the final time at noon. It had been a LONG 4 1/2 days, but we had gotten everything done that we needed to. Again, we could not have done it without the help of all our amazing friends! Thank you all SO VERY MUCH!!!! Hopefully we will get the chance to repay you all sometime in the future.

Here I want to thank my parents. They willingly kept the boys with them in Alabama for the entire week we were gone. There is no way we could have been productive with the boys running around under our feet. We owe them big time!!! Thanks!

On Saturday afternoon, we headed over to our friends John & Melanie DeKruyter's house. We spent a great afternoon and evening with them. They have spent the last 1 1/2 years or so in Israel. It's always nice to share stories with people who know what it's like to live in a foreign country. To talk about all of the oddities it involves.

Sunday morning we went to church. It was strange, yet good to be there. I didn't realize how much I missed the feeling of family and fellowship! After a quick lunch we hit the road and made it to Louisville. We spent the night there and on Monday morning I took Michael to the airport. He was on his way back to Shanghai. :-( We both knew it was coming and we were dreading it... his going back to China. Even though Michael works crazy hours and travels some in China, we see each other much more than we did for the year prior to moving there. We have gotten used to being together more. And now, he will not be back in the States until the end of June.

While the boys and I are sad to be apart from Michael, they are having a great time in Alabama. Getting spoiled by their Poppie and Nonnie. Poppie takes them on tractor and 4 wheeler rides almost daily. Nonnie has an endless supply of ice cream, pudding, cookies and other treats Mom and Dad don't usually let them have. They are loving it! All of it!

Overall, it has been great Coming to America. I speak for Michael and I when I say we were surprised when driving into Kalamazoo we looked at each other and said, "This does not feel like home anymore." We did not expect to feel that way. We had no sense of loss or sadness driving away from our house in MI on Saturday. But the loss we didn't feel about the house went to leaving our friends. We have been blessed beyond words by our friendships in Michigan. It was SOOO hard leaving those friends this time. Even though I want to be in China, I want my friends too. I remind myself that while I may not see my friends, our friendships will remain! All of you MI friends take note....We will be back! At least to the States. And we are looking forward to spending time with you all once again!

I should go for now. It has been an eventful few days here. Maddox and Gabe have been "trading" sickness all week. Madd-Dog vomited all over me and Mimi's (Emily) recliner yesterday. That made for an exciting 10 minutes! Haha. Gabe has been running a fever all day today. No recliner vomiting so far from Gabe thank goodness! It's hard when the kiddos are sick. I feel so helpless as a mother. Hopefully everyone will recover soon.

Have a good rest of the week family and friends!

Maddox and Poppie riding the tractor/mower.