Thursday, August 4, 2011

Kota Kinabalu/Singapore - Leaving for Home

After ten days of traveling we will have a total of nine flights on four different airlines, no lost luggage, and five changes of  hotels. I am happy to report that all of the flights went off with out a hitch and no issue going in to any of the countries. Jeff did misplace his little card that told what destination you were going to next. Which was no real big deal they just had him fill out another one. It was funny though because Nathan and Landon were ahead of us and Nathan didn't wait for us.When we finally met up with them after; his comment was...I wasn't going to get stuck. He was worried because he had so many chops in passport that he was not going to be let back in to Malaysia. But everything has gone extremely smooth until we went to go see Sister Fiona the last morning in Kota Kinabalu. We drove out of the parking structure of the Hotel and we heard that awful thud, thud of a flat tire. The rental car company came and changed the tire and then we had to have it fixed which didn't cost too much. Nathan and Landon went in a taxi to see Sister Fiona so everything worked out just fine.
Sister Fiona, her mother and Baby with Nathan. She does beautiful bead work. She made one for Nathan that he is wearing.
Baby is holding another bead necklace that you can see a little better

Sister Jemimi, Leslie, and Relphie took us to the airport. They were Nathan's Malaysian family while he served in Kota Kinabalu and he became very close to this family. This is the part that is so hard...watching your son say goodbye to people that they have become so attached too. He has grown to love the people, their languages and the country and it is hard to take him away for this amazing experience that he has been blessed with. I hope that some day he will be able to return and visit.
Leslie, Relphie,and Jemimi with Nathan at the airport
We spent our last night in Singapore it was a short night getting up at 2:30 a.m. to catch our 6:00 a.m. on August 4th. We arrived in Tokyo, Japan at 4:15 p.m. their time and then on to Salt Lake International arriving at 11:35 a.m. August 4th. We gained 15 hours. It was 2:30 a.m. in Singapore, August 5th...a very long 24 hour day on planes.

This has been an amazing trip and two year journey with Nathan. It is sad to see it all come to an end...but I am very happy to bring our son home. I am so grateful to have been able to share this incredible part of his life.
Welcome Home Elder Watkins

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