The Final Blog?

Well, we're home now. I'm not sure who is still checking this blog, but if you are, I hope you enjoyed it. I probably won't be updating it anymore - it was more of a "China thing".

We are so thankful for the friends we met in Shanghai. If not for the kind and helpful people that we met there, our year would have been filled with struggle. We will never forget the friendships that we formed with our SMIC family.

Thanks to everyone who wrote or called us over the past year. You will never know how exciting it was to receive mail or calls from the States. It was always helpful to know that we would be coming back to friends and family who care so much about us.

Bye for now...

One Final Trip

For our last weekend in China we decided to take one last trip before we had to come home. We chose Hainan - a little island south of the mainland, known as the Hawaii of China. It was gorgeous and just what we needed before the hectic voyage back to the States. It was a perfect weekend of lounging and swimming. The only drawback was the second and third degree burns that I suffered over 75% of my body. Sunscreen doesn't really work so well in tropical environments.

A Trip to the Orphanage

A few weeks before we left China, we accompanied a group from the company to a local orphanage. Our purpose was to play and sing with the kids because they don't get a lot of attention from people. Most of the kids were developmentally or physically handicapped in some way. We fell in love with these kids and had a tough time leaving them when it came time to go.