Tonight was our last night in Thailand before Rotchana and I leave to go to California. It’s been a long and stressful 3 weeks leading up to our departure, but in the end it’s all been worth it. We’re both excited for what lies ahead for us, but at the same time there’s sadness.

We spent the last couple of days in Bangkok visiting with friends and saying goodbyes. Rotchana has several very close friends that she’s going to miss quite a bit. Saying goodbye to her family the other day was difficult, but I think saying goodbye to her friends was more difficult. She didn’t say long goodbyes, or break down into tears, but I could see on her face that she was struggling with the reality that she won’t see them again for quite a while.

Having spent a lot of time with her friends over the last 20 months I know how important her friends are to her. Her face lights up when they are together and I can sense the joy she has in being with them. Sometimes I just sit back and smile watching how she interacts with them. It may be a couple of years before we can return, but my hope is that she’ll be able to reconnect with every one of them again when we do.

I feel very fortunate to have Rotchana in my life. Sometimes I feel I’m being selfish by asking her to come to America to be with me. She is giving up so much, more than I sometimes feel I deserve, but she does it without hesitation. When we leave tomorrow to go to the airport she’ll have one simple suitcase carrying everything she owns. I feel very lucky to have someone willing to do that for me.