Farewells - again!

Sometimes missionary life is a bit like one of the songs from The Sound of Music - 'So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye'. Today was another farewell day as we took Daniel and Matthew to the airport to begin their journey back to India - three planes, five trains and a seven hour taxi ride up the mountain. The first leg took them as far as Tokyo and unfortunately they had to fly on the busiest day of the year on the busiest air route in the world. After negotiating the crowds at the airport, they were off and we all adjust again to life as four in Sapporo and two in India. Daniel and Matthew are very much third culture kids - Scottish boys living in Japan and at school in India. The last few days we have packed a lot in and there are always last-minute things to be bought, forms to be completed and the usual challenge of fitting everything in to the cases while keeping them within the weight limit. The boys should arrive at the school early on Tuesday morning, unpack, get things sorted in the dorm and be ready for the start of the new school year on the Wednesday. As it happens, the younger two boys go back then too so by the middle of this week we will all be back in routine again - until the next homecoming in December.