Week of Good-Byes

It's been a week of good-byes here in Hong Kong.  Good bye to school, to the bus mother, to after school activities and routines.  Bye to speech class and uniforms to packed lunches and repeat play dates.  But it's also been good bye to people.  Some for the summer, some for, well, ever.

Ex-pats generally don't stay in Hong Kong for the summer.  They go home, to the mother land, to the places they came from to begin with.  Husbands go too and sometimes they are lucky enough to stay the whole season, but more often then not, they fly back themselves after a few weeks and wives and kids follow later. School ended yesterday so today began the mass exodus.  Tomorrow it will continue and we will be among the families that follow. 

And when we return things will be different for us.  Just a few months ago I expected that we would return from summer home leave refreshed, proud and somewhat glad to have our first year behind us.  When this adventure began Eugene told me that it would be a year of figuring it out, a year of living, and a year of preparing to return home to the US.  But as we discussed last time, butterflies flapped their wings and BAM!, back in the US earlier than we anticipated.  So that year of just living was annihilated, and we've moved straight on to prep work.

When we come back in July, we will be (fingers crossed) home owners again.  When our feet hit Asian soil the countdown will begin.  Time will be limited. And though I am excited to have a home of my very own again, in a place where speaking English is the norm and Target just a short drive away, I am oh so very sad to see the clock tick away to final months, weeks, days, hours of our time here in Hong Kong. We were prepared for three years.  We were not prepared for 18 months.

I have a tendency to look way too far ahead in all situations, with all things, so I can't let myself do that now.  What matters now is that tomorrow morning my family will board a plane in Hong Kong and when our feet touch ground again, we will be on American soil, glorious, familiar American soil.  And we will see family that has been so far from us and we will eat cheap pizza and chicken wings, indulge on Denny's ice cream and run together at Presque Isle.  We will pick strawberries with the kids, swim in the pool and watch fireflies dance in the evening. Great times will be ours and wonderful memories will be created.

 And when we get back, we'll have six months to do it all right. To tick off all the items in that Hong Kong bucket list.  To enjoy it, really enjoy it.  The goal: no regrets.

To my family and friends and my BFF in Holly Springs, NC, can't wait to see you all!! And to my Southside family here on the island, safe travels, rest up.  We're gonna do it up right when we all get back.  No regrets.  Not a one.

The Butterfly Effect

As much as I love order and control, planning and organization, there is always one factor fluttering through my brain that I am consciously aware of -- the butterfly effect.  Are you familiar with it?  It's a theory that states that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world will result in a tornado in another part of the world.  Similar to the ripple effect or maybe the domino effect, it's just another one of those reasonings that every little action causes a big chain reaction.

 Like maybe that grocery receipt that unknowingly falls out of your pocket.  Maybe it becomes the scrap paper that a young woman writes her email address on to give to the man she met in line at the store.  Maybe they start dating, maybe they fall in love, they get married, they become parents to the kid that will eventually discover a cure for cancer. 

Or how about when you're cleaning your garage and discover a deflated old basketball stuffed in the corner.  You think about just tossing it, but instead put it into the pile for Goodwill.  That ball ends up in the hands of a youngster who now, with a basketball of his own, can practice his jump shot at the park whenever he wants.  And he practices so much he makes the high school team, and then gets recruited for college ball.  That old roughed up ball from your garage paves the way for a kid who once could only dream of becoming a doctor or a teacher or an engineer.

I've got one more.  A guy sitting on the sand in Myrtle Beach watches his young grandchildren playing in the surf and he's thinking, 'This is a good life. No meetings, no reports, no deadlines'.  So after some thought, he goes back into the office and announces he's retiring early.  This leads to lots of meeting, lots of brainstorming, lots of shifting of staff and talent.  The CFO calls one of her staff members, he's in India at the time, and talks with him about the recent turn of events, which leads to a text message to his wife.  "Spending more time in the US", her phone screen reads.  She is at British trivia night with friends, and doing terribly to boot.  "Oh hell!," she exclaims showing her friends the message. "More trips to the US for him."  They order another round and manage to come in dead last at trivia.  A few days later he arrives home from India, plops down on their bed, stretches and proclaims, "It's so good to be home."  She smiles at him, thrilled he's back safe, but leans against the bedroom door to brace herself for the updated travel schedule.  "So, what is this about you spending more time in the US?".   "I didn't say I was spending more time in the US," he says with emphasis. "We're spending more time in the US."  She cocks her head at him, wanting clarification.  "We're going home, Laura.  I've been promoted.  I'm the new Corporate Controller". 

The butterfly effect in full effect.

We've been detoured again.  But this path will take us back home.  To North Carolina.  In December.