Thursday, August 9, 2012

What Do You Do When Your Sister Moves To China For A Year?

Remember my sister Katy, the adventurous one? The one who introduced us to the concept of first world problems?

Katy will get on a plane this evening in Austin and fly to Dallas, then get on another plane and fly to California. Then at 1:00 am tonight, Pacific time, she'll get on a 15 hour flight to Taiwan, where she will take one more flight, only an hour this time, to Hong Kong. 

Then she'll be in Hong Kong for almost a year.  She will be teaching English at Lingnan University in one of only three faculty positions available to recent college graduates all over.

In our family, Katy being in other countries for long periods of time is nothing new. She went to Chile for nine months, Spain for a summer, the Dominican Republic for five months and Brazil for four.  But just because we are used to it doesn't make it easy...

This past Sunday afternoon as I was bustling around my parents' house trying to get my stuff gathered up and get out the door, I suddenly stopped in my tracks as I realized I wouldn't see Katy again before she left today. Tears instantly started rolling down my face as I realized...my sister is going to be on the other side of the world for almost a year. 

What do you do in a situation like that?

I hugged my adventurous, caring, talented sister for a long time. A real good hug, not the whimpy ones all my sisters say I give.

I told her through my tears that I'm so proud of her and that she's going to do great things.

I will pray for her safety as she travels to her new home today and into tomorrow. I will pray that she can settle into her tiny apartment and learn to use chopsticks.  I will smile when I think of how much taller and tanner she will be than the Chinese.  I will start to practice being mindful of the 11 hour time difference. I will be on call in case she has a debit card stop working and needs me to transfer her money online to my account then pull it all out in cash and go pretend to be her and deposit it in her account at her other bank. (not that that has happened before...)

She has already accomplished so much and is really only just beginning.  She is all set to make her mark on this world.  Love you Katy.  Go get 'em.


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