Goodbye, Nanchang

For the last seven days, Nanchang has been home. There are one-of-a-kind memories here: meeting Grace, getting to know her, and touring the capital city of her province. We've made room 915 of the JinFeng Hotel as close to home as we could, but as much as we have enjoyed getting to know "real" China, we are eager to get home to see Grant. So, today when we leave Nanchang for Guangzhou on a 2:15 flight on China Southern, we'll be beginning the final leg of our journey.

We've come to find that Nanchang has a beauty of its own: a working beauty. Carl Sandburg in his famous poem "Chicago" writes about early twentieth century Chicago as the city of "the big shoulders," and that's the image I have of Nanchang. It's gritty. It's dusty. It's crowded. It's in the second poorest province in China. But, the people are spectacular. They are kind and hard working and gracious. There are large burdens here, but this is a city that endures.

So, it's bittersweet to leave this morning. We hope to bring Grace back here at some point. But, even then, Nanchang is not the city she knows and misses. That little village, Tonguu, is nestled in the mountains several hours away from the bustle of Nanchang. Even though I've never been to Tonguu, I miss it already. It's where Grace grew up, where her foster parents live, and, most likely, where her birth parents live. In many ways, Nanchang means nothing to Grace, so really, I feel like we are saying goodbye to Tonguu, the village we never saw. They say around here that Tonguu girls are the prettiest, but we know that Tonguu gave Grace a great deal more than her beauty, and for all of those other wonderful things, we are grateful.

So, goodbye, Nanchang. But, really, goodbye, Tonguu.