Saying Goodbye

It's one of the hardest parts of life. At least for me. I hate saying goodbye to friends and family, whether for a day, for a year, or until eternity. There's just nothing easy about it. As a child, I lived in the same home through almost my entire schooling experience, and I just couldn't understand why in the world people would want to move. It saddened me so much to see friends move away. I remember in high school when my friend Karyn moved to Virginia and Veronica moved to Colorado; I think I cried more tears than they did! Of course I've seen many more friends come and go, and I've even come and gone a few times since high school. I miss the mommy friends I had back in the "college town" and am saddened that I don't see them as much as I'd hoped. I dearly miss my friends who have become religious Sisters who I can't talk to very often at all. As for my own family, I have gotten used to saying goodbye to Steven each morning but still hate to say goodbye when he goes out of town...even for the day. Saying goodbye to the kids for any length of time is painful.

But saying goodbye to Mary Clare on Saturday before her MRI really tore me up inside. She was scared, I was scared. Steven carried her off to the car, and I had to let go and TRUST that he would protect her and God would have his hand over the whole experience. But I just wanted the whole thing to be over. And now it is. Sort of. I haven't updated here but the results were that she has a problem with the cartilage in her knee, which will likely require surgery. I'm so glad to have a diagnosis and so glad it's nothing serious. For months I've had a fear in the back of my mind from the "lesion" they thought they saw in one of the earlier x-rays. Praise God that it was not there! And I'm a little more comfortable with surgery now that she has been through the hospital/anesthesia experience. But if we do go that route, it will still be very scary and another short goodbye I won't want to say.

In the last week and a half, I've had 2 good friends move out of the country. My dear friend K from the homeschool group has moved down the street from Veronica in Qatar, and my other friend M has moved to Argentina with her husband and daughter. It's always hard to say goodbye to friends, and especially to see them leave for long periods of time. I wish them all the best in their new journeys and pray that we might again be in the same city as our children get older. One thing for sure, we are blessed to have these blogs, email, Facebook, and phones to keep in touch with those who are away. And even to find friends from days gone by.

I'm not sure what I'd do without this internet. Get a lot more sleep, I'm sure ;-)

And so, farewell to the R family! We miss you already and promise to visit your sweet mother whenever we can!