Jonathan Wolff

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Recap

So after finally settling in I put the camera down and made my way back to Vermont. After three days, I was finally able to get over the jet lag...I hope...anyway, after a whirlwind three weeks we finally made it back to the US and introduce my niece to Seattle. I would like to welcome Anna Mei to the family with much love. It was an amazing trip that started with a flight to Beijing with Suzanne and ended with a long flight home with a new family member. There are many stories to tell, too many for this post, so I'll leave this post to say that I will be forever grateful to Jen and Dano for allowing me to take part in this trip and be part of this special moment. I got to spend close to three weeks with my sister and brother in law, as well as spend time with someone I now consider a friend (suzanne) as well as spend time with my niece Lian who is just an amazing girl who is growing up right before our eyes and of course meeting and spending invaluable time with Anna, the newest member to the family.

Over the course of the next few weeks I'll try and take more time to try and capture the moments in words and try and describe in retrospect the moments with more clarity. I've been asked more than once since returning...how was the trip, what did you think?...well, trying to surmise that in a five minute conversation doesn't do justice, so over the next few weeks I'll try and recap as best I could the different moments and special moments that occurred as I best recall. This trip started with a tour of beijing which included the great wall, forbidden city, summer palace, a tough negotiation for jade, and the tianennman square that was amazing, and proceeded to traveling all of china from north all the way to the southern city of guangzhou. In between we ended up visiting Lian's birthplace and orphanage, made friends from Nanjing who graciously drove us to and from Gaoyou; quickly stopped in Shanghia and spent a week in Nanchang and met old friend's of Jen and Dano the Carlsons who were there for the swearing in... and finally having the opportunity take part in a special moment when we met and adopted Anna into the family. Truly a special moment that I probably won't be able to explain in words.

Hopefully, the pictures helped capture the moments, all of them. Thanks for joining in the moment and coming along. I hope you'll stop in and check the blog over the next month as I try and recap the various moments in more detail. Till then, thanks and I hope you enjoyed the trip....And Jen stop crying...