In the early morning hours of December 31st, our family arrived safely at our home on the northeast corner of the Tibetan Plateau. Our flight path took us from Seattle to San Francisco to Beijing to Xining. After departing Seattle, we arrived home 26 hours later. When we arrived, the air temperature was a cold -7F / -22C. All of our luggage made it safely and we didn’t have to pay any additional luggage fees on our domestic flight from Beijing to Xining, which we were very happy about!
Our first week back was a busy one! All together, we brought back 8 bags, each weighing 50 pounds, plus we brought back 3 good sized carry-on bags. Our main goal during our first week back was to get our apartment cleaned up and to get everything put away. Battling jet-lag, it took us 4 days to get everything cleaned up and put away. Though we have always maintained an apartment here in the city, we haven’t lived here full-time since before the Yushu Earthquake in April 2010. After the earthquake, we spent several months traveling around different regions of Tibet visiting our friends before moving to Dartsedo in eastern Tibet in the fall of 2010. We lived there working at a guesthouse ministry for over a year before spending most of 2012 in the US. So being back in the city full-time for the first time in nearly 3 years has been an interesting adjustment. The city has changed and grown considerably over the past few years, so it will take us a bit of time to get reacquainted.
Josiah and Tyler have enjoyed being back and are excited to start school. They will start going to a school that is just a short walk down the mountain we live on. School is out for winter vacation and will begin again in late February. Tamara will begin teaching on January 14th. Now that we are settled, we will begin our routine of studying language and meeting with our local friends regularly.
Thank you all for keeping our family in your thoughts as we returned to our home. We had a great year in 2012 and are happy to be back among the people that God has placed on our hearts.
Blessings!