The Other Side of the World | Part 2
When we left you in the last post, we were finishing our flight to the other side of the world where our daughter awaited us!
Those first hugs were the absolute best! To hear her contagious laugh and squeeze her and see her and watch her delight in her Deklen - my mom heart felt like bursting! Can’t you just sense the joy and love in these photos?
The rest of our (too short of a) trip was filled with seeing Kinsley’s life - where she lives, has lived, meeting her community, and locals she knows. We tried the food, shopped the booths, listened to the language. We heard more than once on our trip how we needed to see this and that famous landmark or historical monument, but the main attraction for us was Kinsley! Nothing else would have even mattered! Would we have had a month, sure, that would have been fun. But our time was too short! Spending as much time with her as we could was our goal!
Getting around the cities required taxis or autos and they were always too small for all of us! Which meant we all just crammed in together, sitting on laps and feeling the closeness to a whole new level! Shaun was usually in the front with the driver so he missed out on some of the mashed up bonding! Depending on where we were and where we were headed, we also traveled by train and scooties! Riding a scooty really helps you feel a place as you drive the streets with the people! It was also the more frigid way to travel — pretty cold in the mountains we were in! But we took one morning to explore the area on them and let’s just say it was full of adventure! (What happens in the mountains, stays in the mountains!!) Also, scooties are Kinsley’s main transportation when she’s going around her village! I’m pretty sure she much prefers it with Deklen on board!
We very much enjoyed our adventures, reconnecting, seeing her life, and meeting the people. We could have done without the foreigner celebrity part! All that attention was too much! This trip was very much a once in a lifetime thing that filled our hearts! Even when family dynamics try to cause trouble, at the end of the day, we are family and I wouldn’t want to do life without them! They are beautiful, wonderful people - all of them! I’m glad we got to soak each other up on the other side of the world!
