First of all MERRY CHRISTMAS to everybody! Since I've been home, things have been crazy and a little weird but I've been meaning to blog again about our adventure coming home and what it was like to leave China. Right now is still not that time :) But I did want to hurry and do just a few things about it.

When we said goodbye, it was a totally new feeling for me. I have told missionaries goodbye, bye to my family and friends for 4 months abroad, bye to high school friends when I go to Dixie and bye to Dixie friends when I go to Provo. With all of these, I have never had the feeling of "This is it! I will NEVER see you again...." but in China I did. It broke my heart and was definetly one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Be prepared for more blogs within the next few days but for now here's just a couple pictures and little stories!



I was so excited to do presents (after keeping everything a secret for 4 months!) that I couldn't wait any longer! Even after flying for 3 days, I was wide awake and wanted to talk and show my family everything I got. This was the jersey crew when we finished.
The airport ended up being a lot more surprising than I thought it would have been. I thought that just my parents would come, and with the exception of Taylor (who was at work), my whole family was there! It was so good to see everybody and get such big hugs. Mom of course cried :) I was coming down the escalator and was surprised to see a poster, balloons and krispy kreme waiting for me! It made it even nicer coming home! The third and finally surprise is the left hand side of this picture. My neice Keznee was born 15 days before I left and I was only in Provo for about 8 of those days so I hardly got to see her. Ashlee told me that they weren't coming to the airport because of all the germs and stuff and they didn't want her to get sick. Understandable..I was bummed but I understood. After talking with everybody else for a little while, I turned to grab a bag and there was the Brandt family! I was SO excited I screamed. (Sorry again about that Kez!)
Our last meal in China! :) If you look really close you can see a reddish/brown thing off to the side of the cabbage. That is our beloved duck blood :) However, the cooks did pull through for us and made us our FAVORITE meal to send us off: chicken, potatoes and of course mantow, mifan!
This was the last time I saw Colin :( He was so sad and really didn't want us to leave. This was Sunday RIGHT before we loaded up the bus. He went home that Friday night (knowing we were leaving) so when he got back Sunday and saw that we were still there, he was SOOO excited, until we explained to him that we were leaving within an hour. He started crying. "No teacha! No go! No go! No go!" When I took this picture, he kept refusing to smile and you can see how he's holding onto my neck and shoulder. He gave me a HUGE hug after and I walked out of the building SOBBING!
Kelly oh Kelly! This woman is amazing! She spoke english pretty fluently and she was our coordinator between us and the school officials. We would have DIED without her! She was a life saver and our best friend. I hope that everything goes great for her in life because she definetly deserves it! The hardest part of our first airport was saying bye to her with all of US crying and her sobbing.


It's GREAT to be home! I'm definetly missing it though. I think I have more culture shock coming home than what I did when I got there. I tend to cry a little bit at random times. I went and picked up pictures I had printed and totally LOST IT flipping through them! Just you wait...lots of China stories coming up! Or if anybody had 7 or 8 free hours and are bored...give me a call! ;)