Goodbye Nanning---Our Last Blog From China!

Hello Friends and Family,

Well, this is it. Our last blog from Nanning, China. We really can't believe how fast it has come upon us for us to head to Thailand and then back to the states. These last few weeks have been quite the blur, testing students, buying last minute souvenirs, visiting all of our favorite spots and, most importantly, and most difficult, saying goodbye to all of our students and dear friends here in Nanning. We have tried to make the most of each day, hanging out with friends, going to our favorite restaurants, etc. but time seems to be running out. Tomorrow is our last final at the college and then the afternoon and evening will be spent with some of our dearest friends here that we have made in such a short time. Friday morning we head to the airport for a noon flight from Nanning to Shenzhen, a ten hour layover in Shenzhen, then a 11:30 PM flight from Shenzhen to Bangkok, Thailand. We are going to stay in a hotel near the Bangkok airport on Friday night because Saturday morning a car is picking us up and driving us the remaining leg of our trip, a 3 hour drive south to Hua Hin and the Dolphin Bay Resort. If you want to see where we'll be staying in Thailand for six days, you can check out; www.dolphinbayresort.com.

We're pretty confused emotionally. We are wrapping up here and leaving a place that we can definitely call another home. It is very hard to leave friends that we have known for such a short time, yet feel so close to. At the same time, we are very excited for a brief rest in Thailand before getting to come home and have a wonderful reunion with all of you, our family and friends. We are busily packing up and cleaning up our apartment as we speak, trying to fit all of our stuff, as well as souvenir and gifts, into our suitcases. Please pray earnestly that we will not be charged too much for overweight baggage, we are a little nervous about that!

We arrive back in Portland, Oregon on the morning of January 25th. After a week in Sandy with the family, we are going to be heading back to Salem for at least a month. Ryan is going to work as the sergeant-at-arms again at the state capital for their month long legislative session and Kealy is hoping to jump right into substitute teaching. After that the road is a bit unclear. Please pray that God would give us guidance on where He wants us to serve Him next.

So this is it, signing off from China. A day we thought would never come has come faster than we wanted to. God has been so faithful to us through our adventure here and we will be honored to share more about our time here and more pictures with you when we return back to America. Please know that our adventures together and this blog does not leave with our exodus from China. We have had such a good response from people enjoying the blog that we will continue to keep you updated on the adventures God is blessing us with. We will also find a way to get a blog posted while we are in Thailand and let you know how our 'second honeymoon' is going! Thank you for listening, praying and being so active in our experience here in China. Knowing you have been praying and thinking of us has been so very important to us during those tougher times. We can't wait to see each of you and give you a great hug. Talk to you soon.

With all of our love and strength,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson