One Long Day

I woke up this morning at 5:00, as I have tried to for most of this year (sometimes I am more successful than others).  As I savored the 45 seconds between the time one of my alarms went off and when the second one would, I thought to myself, "This is going to be one long day."

 

After morning prayer and exercises, showering and breakfast, I will be out of the house a little after 7:00.  I walk down to campus where I will meet with my friend for prayer.  Then I will go to my school building to put in about four hours on my internship.  From there, I will head home, eat lunch (and by "eat lunch," I mean "clean out whatever is left in our fridge that isn't condiments"), and finish my packing.  Later this afternoon, Amy's parents will take us to the airport, where me, Amy, and her mom will hope for favorable seats on what appears to be a very full flight, from Philly to LA.  We will leave Philly a little after 6, and arrive in LA around 9:30, having gained three hours because of time zones.

 

There, we will get our bags, meet up with my mom, check in, and wait until about 11, when we will board our plane for China.  We lose an entire day crossing the International Date Line, and arrive in Guangzhou around 9 in the morning the next day.  We have a short lay-over there before we take a one-hour flight to Nanchang, where we will arrive a little before noon.  Then we are shuttled to our hotel, where we will unpack, get our bearings, and prepare for the next day, when we will finally meet our daughter.  At some point that evening, we will go to bed, and waking up this morning at 5 will seem like a very long time ago and a very long ways away.

 

So this is what I was thinking during those 45 seconds of "in between alarms" bliss.  But I was also thinking that this will be the last morning for the next thirty or so years that I will wake up next to my wife in any otherwise empty house, where there are no others who we are responsible for, in terms of their health and wellbeing and college educations. 

 

Here we go.