Today (Monday) Adam and I and Beau drove to Raleigh and put our beloved older daughter on an airplane bound for Japan.
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| Look at those suitcases! 50 lbs. each! |
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| checking her bags |
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| goodbye kisses to Beau |
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| Beau enjoyed his first visit to an airport. Other doggies were ill-behaved. We take him almost everywhere with us now. |
We don't know when she will return. She's hired as a school teacher in the Japanese school system. She'll be an assistant ESL teacher. She has friends there who will meet her, and other folks she's met or corresponded with. She traveled to China to teach in the summer of 2014, but that was for 6 weeks. This is for at least a school year (which starts in early April for them). And if she likes it, she could be gone longer. I cried when we let her go at the security gate.
Anyway, she and I went on Saturday for a pedicure, a last mommy/daughter date.
Bad selfie :) I'm already working on my summer facial look: burnt nose and raccoon eyes from my sunglasses. Anna looks lovely and Mediterranean as ever!
Then yesterday evening, Adam wanted to eat at a Japanese restaurant in celebration of Anna's adventure. So we did, at Sanuki in New Bern. He, Anna, and Julia ate sushi. I did not because I truly loathe the taste and smell of seaweed. All of them have a thin wrap of seaweed in the middle. But the others said they were very good.
Anna also had some soup and some shrimp tempura. Julia ordered two spring rolls that were lovely.
Anna's happy, and Julia's deliberately giving a worried face.
My dish was delicious! It was chicken + something that started with a "y."
In the car I gave Anna a letter of mommy love and a little gift in a box. She left a box for me on my bed at home.
Isn't that pretty? She also left me a sweet, sweet daughter letter.
But ... what's inside that box, you ask?
Letters. Lots of lovely letters from her to me :) I think I'm supposed to read one each week. It will be quite hard to keep myself from reading them all, one after another. Plus lots of sea shells because we both adore the ocean. And -- because I made her promise to do it -- she left me a lock of her hair. Anna's hair. It's a running family joke that her hair is kind of like another family member, it has such a big presence in the house, haha! But I wanted a lock of it, and she left it for me. If that's too weird or mushy for you ... too bad :) !!
We'll be skyping and facebooking, and I'll keep you posted on how she's doing, I promise.
6 comments:
I know we cried when our boys headed all the way to Texas. Living 1,000 miles away, they may as well be on the other side of the world! I still burst into tears occasionally because I miss their presence. But God is with them (and your Anna) and they are having their own adventures. And they still love us no matter how far away they are. ;) We're always together in our hearts. Pretty box of letters!
How exciting for Anna. : ) Should be easy to keep up with her with all the latest technology. Will you be going to visit her?
Wow!...to cut off such a big chunk of hair is true love. Now she can concentrate on growing it back while she enjoys her Japanese life-changing adventure.
Blessings on Anna as she starts this new adventure. I love your good box from her. Really sweet and mushy, and wonderful.
FlowerLady
Seeing that sweet box of treasures made me cry. How thoughtful and tender. How wonderful to have a daughter like Anna! (That was my maternal grandma's name.) Y'all have done your job well with this lovely girl, M.K.
I remember when we said good bye to our Brad and his wife April as they flew away to teach English in South Korea. Oh, how I missed them. I'll be praying for you guys! Anna will have a lovely time and she will be a blessing to the people she meets. Yummy dinner! What a great bon voyage meal!
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