After being miserable for the first few months, Woo began to let himself have fun. He still missed home, and mentioned it every day, but the fun was winning. He went on like this for a few months, and then we went back to Canada for a visit. I was worried that he would not want to come back, and sure enough, he made that very claim many times in the last few days before we left. Then, while we were in Canada, he got excited to return to India. He missed our house, our friends, and the life we have built here. The last few months have been the best of our time abroad. We are all really settled, especially the lils. I haven’t heard Woo ask to go home in a long time.

We are now entering our last month, and it seems a little bit of him wants to stay. He hasn’t come out and said these words, but his reactions and actions tell me that he is definitely torn. He is starting to realize that we will be missing things that we enjoyed over the last year and talks longingly of return trips to places that we all know we won’t have time to return to. He has recently started making statements that start “when we move back to India”; plans for adventures that we have not yet taken.

It was never clearer than one morning last week, when one of the staff at the school asked me about our departure date. They had been discussing the school’s winter performance, and had a part in mind for Lucas. They thought he would be a good fit to narrate the performance, because he is doing so well in his reading. He was with me as I explained that we will be in Ottawa then and would not be able to participate. As we walked up the stairs together he looked up at me and said, “Can we come back, mom??”

No, we can’t. In some ways, we all feel a little bit like this. It’s hard on all of us, thinking of leaving the life that we have created here. We are just now all in a really good place at the same time, and really enjoying all we have here. It figures that it takes the thought of going home to make us all fully appreciate.