All finished!

Well the time to start packing up to head home has finally arrived! Yesterday I received my last stem cell treatment, and I'm feeling wonderful! Actually stood on my own today, unsupported even by a table, for about 10 seconds! I'm happy that I'm making improvements, even if they are small for now! The doctors here say that the next 3-6 months are crucial for the most gain. They've told my parents to get me into an intensive therapy program, and I should really take off! My mom is looking into Crawl, Walk, Jump for now, but is interested in any suggestions people back home may have for me! She's also looking into hyperbaric oxygen treatments, but the doctors here said that those should be after the first six months as too much oxygen like that could actually render the new stem cells useless. Mom is also considering purchasing an electro wave machine to use with me at home. They only cost about $400 here and are not readily available back home, but she's still not sure about that! So besides deciding about that, all we really have left to do is pack up and say goodbye.
Today we snuck out to Laoshan Mountain for a beautiful excursion to the home of Taoism (Ying/Yang philosophy) and some of the original Buddhist texts translated to Chinese from India. This area of the country really is the historical base for spirituality in China as Confucius did his thing not too far away from here as well. It was absolutely beautiful! We even took a chair lift up the side of the mountain and back down again! I rode with mom and Soraya, and dad rode with a friend who came along with us....it was breathtaking! We also visited the Buddhist and Taoist shrines and a tea house in a small village where we drank like 4 different kinds of mountain teas! It was a lot of fun! Nice to finally be outside in China breathing relatively clean air, instead of the usual contaminated sort! We went on this trip with a guy named Marcus from Tennessee who has been living here for 2 years and knows all about this area. I wasn't really supposed to leave the hospital the day after a treatment, but since I was doing so well and the weather was actually nice, my parents decided to break free for the day! We got back by 3, and so I only ended up missing one therapy session....it was all definitely worth it!
Tomorrow will be my last day with the therapists and doctors. Although hard to say goodbye, I am happy that I've had the chance to meet these people who have helped me so much! Actually, everyone here has been great...doctors, nurses, translators, camera crews, other families, etc. Saturday is my free day, and we will spend it doing last minutes things (dad will shop; mom will get a pedicure and massage, and Soraya and I will...well we'll have to tag along with them! Such is the life of a little kid!) Sunday we leave here for Shanghai, and then we leave for Detroit on Monday morning! We also get home Monday morning as well due to the time change. I can't believe my time here is drawing to an end! It really has gone faster than I thought it would, and I'm feeling much better than expected! So, even though it will be sad to say goodbye to all these great people, Qingdao, Beike Biotech and China in general, I must say that we are all very excited to get home...'cause just like Dorothy says in the Wizard of Oz..."there's no place like home!" See you all soon!