The Final Lap

So, what does it look like to move your family half way around the world? Well, for our family it looks at least a little like this...STOCK UP on the things you love! On Friday friends watched the girls for John and I and we headed out to Walmart and Sam's to do the "big shop". The packers come on Monday and it was one of the last things on the endless list of things to do. Needless to say, the basket at Walmart was full to the brim and our flatbed at Sams was full as well. Here are some of our essentials: pull-ups for Kate, Ranch dressing for Leah, tomato soup for Lauren, Honey Bunches of Oats for me, and for John...well, he'll eat almost anything so really at the end of the day, we weren't worried about him starving! :)


After spending close to four hours shopping, John encouraged me with, "Honey, this is the final lap - we are going to make it." And finally tonight, the end of Saturday, I can see a tiny little finish line WAY out in the distance, but at least I can see the finish line now. And I'm sure he is right - we are going to make it! As much as we hate to leave all of our friends and family here, I am certainly ready to be done with all this "stuff" and plop myself down at a nice big pool in Beijing and just enjoy the girls!

In fact, as I am typing this, Lauren came into me and said "I'm going out on the deck to chase fire flies" and I being the "responsible" mom said, "Honey, it's 9pm you need to go to bed." As the disappointment washed over her face I remembered - we only have 7 more nights to chase after fire flies before we are onto something new and really at the end of the day, it will probably be a blink of my eye and she won't even care about going out to chase fire flies anymore. So with that thought, I said, "put on your shoes, get out there and catch those bugs!" The delight on her face was really beautiful! And within one swift motion she was out the door running around our backyard in her nightgown enjoying every ounce of this moment. I think I'll go join her!

We are back in the house and I thought I would share some pictures of the girls out chasing fire flies.