The Prodigal Returns!

Our suitcase came home!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly believe it! I had pretty much given up hope, and was trying to resign myself to the loss by reminding myself of my realization in China with our tiny apartment and our limited belongings that we didn’t need things, and we were being possessed by our possessions at home. It was hard, though, since there were so many things of sentimental value in that one suitcase. And now it’s HERE!

And remember when I wrote that the bag status website seemed pretty silly because “it seems that the only two statuses are ‘we know nothing’ and ‘here’s your bag?’” Well, we got a call at 6:20 this morning from a woman who said she was in our driveway to deliver our bag! (She actually called my dad at 6 a.m., because his number was listed first on the form for some odd reason, because I certainly didn’t list it first.). And she had no idea where the bag has been; she works for a bag delivery service, not the airline.

The bag was in perfect shape, still stuffed to the gills, still with my original name tag, but it didn’t have its original baggage tag, just a slip of paper telling the bag delivery service to bring it to us. So who knows what adventures it’s seen!

It’s keeping it’s secrets for now. And I don’t think anyone looked through it – things were still in the same order in which I packed them. I took things out and spread them on my bed so I could see if it was all there, and it was!

Looks like a booth at a Chinese market in front of any of China’s tourist attractions, doesn’t it?! I’m so thrilled to have it all here – the Zhuang dresses, the dolls from Mother’s Love, the teas, including the special West Mountain tea Mr. Gan from Guiping SWI gave us, the orange and pink sweaters knitted by Maya’s foster mom, the wall hangings she gave each girl, the children’s books in Chinese, the little Mongolian felt boots, the purses from Guiping SWI, the red silk treasure boxes holding the little mini-M & M containers with dirt from the girls’ finding sites, and so much more! All my winter clothes came back, too, including the holy grail of jeans -- that pair that women spend years looking for, that pair that acutally fit perfectly and even made you look good in them!

You can see how excited the girls are by the return of the bag – I got it emptied out before they woke up, and they climbed into the bag in their nightgowns just grinning like crazy. They were also excited that our presents for Grandpa were recovered. We just had to go this morning to give him his gifts -- and to make up for that 6 a.m. wake-up call!

As you can see, Grandpa is a great actor – the presents weren’t really that impressive: a bug zapper flyswatter (we saw these all over China, a thing that looks like a little tennis racket that is like those hanging bug-zappers – you just swing it at the fly and fly-be-gone!) and a tshirt.

(That picture’s for Mimi, who is in Vermont, so you can see Grandpa’s present, too!)
So we’re all ecstatic to have our bag back. Now we just have to find a place for all that stuff!