Farewell

My parents had their farewell (well, you know what I mean), the end of February. It was such a great day! Dave and Mare blessed Rachel that same day so it made it extra special. At this point, it still hadn't hit me that they were actually leaving. Any time I thought about them being gone, I just quickly thought about something else.

Dinner at Olive Garden with all the adults. Sean was in Texas but I love Hayesies little head in this picture. (Yes, I did steal some pictures from my sibling's blogs)

They were set apart on the 7th of March. We had a great family gathering and shared memories. Many tears shed but it still didn't seem like they were really going to leave.

I had just picked up Sean at the airport so he borrowed a white, short-sleeved shirt from my dad and a tie. Notice all the jeans and Denny even has sweat pants on. That's ok though, the spirit was so strong, sweat pants, jeans and all. President Godwin set them apart as full time missionaries (Still didn't seam real)

First hug as missionaries.

My parents went in the MTC on March 8th. They could come home every night since they lived so close. They were there for just one week. (still didn't seam real) Fast forward to March 14th, Sunday, the last dinner before they flew out bright and early on Monday morning. With the exception of all of Dave and Mare's furniture taking the place of my parent's, everything seemed the same and normal. We were in the kitchen cleaning up and just standing around talking and it just hit me that they would be gone the very next day. I started crying and then my mom started crying. She said that she wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks, "What am I doing? This is crazy!" We had a little cry and then composed ourselves.

Then the time came to really say goodbye. OH MY! So not prepared for that. I always like to pride myself on being very independent and strong but I was anything but. Here's a picture before the tears started.

And after... I can't remember the last time I had cried so hard. I was so sad for them and so sad for me. I only had to say goodbye to two people, I can't imagine saying goodbye to EVERYONE dear to you. But the hardest thing, and what nothing could have prepared me for, was watching my kids (especially the twins) saying goodbye. Oh, it ripped my heart out! We hugged and cried and hugged and cried some more in the living room and then moved out on the front porch and hugged and cried some more. The saddest part was when Cy just plowed into my mom with the biggest hug and sobbing said, "I don't want you to go. Why do you have to go?" OH! So sad. Notice the dish towel on my mom's shoulder. She needed it for all the tears and she kept hiding her face in it. Friends and neighbors started coming so we got in the car and just said "I love you" in sign language and watched them on the front porch for as long as we could.

My mom called the next day from their layover in New York and we cried a little more. I burned my hand on the stove last week and it made me want my mom, even though I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it if she was in Highland. Just knowing that she's not right there was really hard for me. They get home in September, 2011. Hayes will be 2, Ava almost 7 and the twins almost 12. I absolutely know that they are in the right place and doing the right thing. We've witnessed a major miracle since they left (more on that later) that testifies to that but I still miss them like crazy. Godspeed to my wonderful parents!