Just came back from dumping my child off

Sympathies. It's hard, I know.

Dumped her off. Sounds kind of like you just kicked her out of the car, somewhere.

we do that so the kid doesnt see me cry

Well she deserves it for all the heartache and grief she has given me.

Since we traveled so far and flew there … she just packed her clothes and we did power shopping for her dorm stuff when we got there. As you can imagine this was a bit hectic so at one point she got a bit impatient with me. I told her she needed to be patient with me because I am an old lady … that did get a smile out of her… with the hiccups and stuff I said … and she agreed … not to sweat the small stuff this is supposed to ge fun. It worked and we did have some good fun bonding.

At the least I will not be sitting up at midnight waiting for her to come home.

Well, if it works for you, I'm happy for you.

Well I actually maybe has some tears at the time but surprisingly did not really cry. Probably due to all the work moving in and focusing on making sure she was settled and had everything she needed.

Well today was different. I texted her just asking how she was doing. She answered I am in class (what the heck was she doing on her phone in class) can I call you in 5 minutes?

What is something wrong? She calls ..no everything was good she was just wanting to tell me all about the stuff going on. Without going into details she loves all the hours she spends in basketball practice, her classes are going well, a little overwhelmed with trying to make new friends but she has a handful so nothing too bad.

She sounded VERY happy. She did say she misses home, but you could hear the excitement in her voice. After getting off the phone I cried. She seems very grounded ... very driven ... very determined. After several years of dealing with drama and anxiety she seems good.

And we planned a trip to see her and her team play the weekend before thanksgiving. To be honest not sure how much playing time if any she will get as a freshman but it will be good just to see her. Especially as she can't come home for Thanksgiving due to practices and it way too expensive for us to go see her at that time.

I was relatively lucky in that the Kid went to Southampton Uni.

However, they did have to spend a year in China on their own and that was a real break?

I soon learnt that if you want to send anything to China you’re better off using a company inside China, because anything posted from here won’t get there.

Three weeks after I sent a dvd. 18 months later, 6 months after returning from China the dvd came back address not found.

Wow not just the distance but cultural and other logistics to deal with. Fortunately even though she is a distance away she is near two heavily traveler airports so it is easy to get a quick direct flight and many to choose from...just Thanksgiving is a huge travel time so you need to book very early for it to be affordable.

It was a huge wrench, but it was only a year.