Progress

We left the airport and headed for home. The mood in the car was quiet. Mum was very upset and sobbed quietly. Drew sent us texts from Sydney; he and Margie met up with their other travelling partner, Belinda, on the bus from the domestic to the international terminal. He jumped on facebook and added Megan and me :) Up to this point, he has resisted being friends with us. Adding your mother as a facebook friend is considered uncool to a Gen Yer!

We avoided travelling up the range; it's reduced to one lane of traffic and is a very slow trip. We went via Murphys Creek; it was a sobering drive.The after effects of the flooding are still very plain to see.

We arrived home around 10-30am. Gibbo and I went to work to catch up on some overdue emails. The three of us felt a bit deflated so went out for tea at Mary's. The events of the last few days had taken their toll.

Meg set up a facebook account for Gibbo so he can keep up with Drew. He has a wagyu as his profile picture.

I fell asleep on the couch, wondering how/where my boy was. I woke up at 1.30am and went to bed..............and then my mobile went off 15 minutes later. A text from Drew!!! From Vancouver!!!! They had just landed, 7.30 Thursday morning for him. He was using up the last of his credit. I was excited to hear from him and then couldn't sleep.

Gibbo left for Surat at 5.30am to fix some loose ends. Tough gig.

I was expecting a phone call some time this morning (Friday). I checked the flight status of the Vancouver-Ottawa plane and saw that it landed at 4.35pm local time (7.35am our time). I stayed close to the phone, waiting, waiting for a phone call. Finally, it came! Drew rang an hour after landing, from his new home. His host family met him; the kids had nearly missed the plane in Vancouver due to some confusion over where to go to get their study permits; finding their luggage in V and taking it to the transit area was easy; he had no-one next to him on the plane from Sydney to V; he only slept for about 3 hours; it's really cold; his host Mum is "really lovely, really nice"; he has an interview at his school next Wednesday and starts next Thursday. He's a bit nervous about that. He and Philip (the German exchange student) were heating up some spinach quiche and were going to "chill out". He jumped on facebook and said hello to everyone. He has free wi-fi which is a bonus.

Knowing he is now there makes me feel........I don't know. I'm sad and glad. So much time and effort and emotion has gone into getting him there, from back in June when we started filling out the application. I haven't cried much since yesterday because I'm really at peace with what he is doing. I think this is the absolute best option for him at this time in his life. Letting him go was hard but it feels right too. And Louise was right. The horrendous part was the anticipation leading up to the day....the day itself was ok. I had some really bad days but yesterday wasn't one of them; it was more a little celebration that he was on his way at last. He's off to make his way in the world. Without his momma :)

After the phone call I went to town to the dentist then had lunch with Meg. Came home and caught up on my blogging and 365. And here I am now. One child on the couch, one child asleep on the other side of the world and a husband, who's had a tough time, travelling back from Surat.
He will head back out there early next week; I'll get a lift to Roma Sale on Wednesday and he will pick me up and we'll head up to CQ for some station visits. Now I can start to spend some more time with him on the road and also start to think about what I want to do this year?????