What's On My Mind?

Facebook routinely asks: "What's on your mind?"

On my mind is a daughter's graduation, another daughter's wedding, a son's homecoming, and more.

Daughter Gillian is leaving in a couple of weeks for Xining.  China.  Central China.  Where they speak Tibetan more than Mandarin.  (I think.)  If this is an accurate statement, then Gillian will be in good stead, having studied the Tibetan language for two years.  She is also, she tells me, toting along a Mandarin "travel book" which will help her in the other parts of China, where she knows no one and might need the visual aids.

Where she is headed, she knows people.  Thank goodness.  During her undergrad and grad school life, Gillian has worked in the ESL department at her school, working with international students coming to KU.  In this time she has met many Tibetans, and that is where her Chinese interest lies.  So off she goes in June, staying a youth hostel or two, and staying with families of the students she has worked with at KU.  Some of the families are nomads.  They herd yaks during the summer months.  That will be exciting!  Additionally, a Buddhist monastery near Xining has asked Gillian if she would teach there during her visit, teaching English to students ages 10-21.  She is assuming it will be a volunteer project, and one that she will be happy to do - to give back to that community.    

So!  That is on my mind.  I would like to go there myself!

Next on my mind, the wedding of the summer (in my mind).  Daughter Claire called just this evening, from Virginia, to ask protocol about a wedding invitation, blah blah blah.  And we talked for another half hour, blah blah blah.  I love daughters.  Love that they are headed down the aisle or to China.  Daughters are fun fun fun.

And then, the College Boy.  My son.  He is coming home this summer!  I cannot contain my excitement (though I am trying to, in case something better rears its head on the West Coast.)  He is at Western Washington (Bellingham), and what a terrific place to be.  To live.  To study.  He picked it right.

Interestingly, a few short weeks after his Spring Break, he called home and said he might like to come home for the summer.

He misses us.

He misses Kansas.

I love that boy more than words can express.

And those three kids are what are on my mind today.