Today I received an email from Cici's band director.  They will have summer band practice on Tuesday evening this week.

There was a time when Cici would have complained about such a practice.  Given a choice now, however, I believe she would jump at the chance to be there for this practice.  It would mean that she would be in her home, sleeping in her own bed.  It would mean that she would be with her Mama and Papa, and I know, from talking with her, that is where she would really like to be.

China held such an appeal over her for two years that it is hard to imagine that the appeal would turn out to be illusory, yet that is surely true.  As we have gotten deeper and deeper into the summer, her longing to be at home has increased in a palpable way.  There is nothing in China that pulls at her; nothing to justify her staying there.  Not even the prospect of her friends being free from school in July is enough to excite her at this point.

But the reverse is also true.  Ping and I miss Cici very much.  We would much rather that she just come home than for us to join her in China, even for a short time.

So Ping is sitting in Cici's bed with her laptop computer, calling me to help her with words now and then.  It seems to bring us closer to our missing daughter.