OUR LAST WEEK IN AMERICA

January 1-6, 2016

Here we go again – packing up and saying good-bye.  Even though it happens often, it doesn’t become any easier.  Moves are stressful.  Good-byes are painful.  Emotions are real.  This mission life is a crazy journey - always in flex between two countries, always feeling a bit out of place, and always wrestling with emotions that most people just can’t fully understand. 

Our year and a half in the states has been good.  More specifically, our last 6 months in the states have been really good.  During those last few months, we were able to deepen friendships, establish routines, and be a part of ministries that we will very much miss when we return back to Paraguay.   

Here’s spent the last week:         

My family (Dad, Liz, my brother Jedidiah and his new bride Kathleen) came to visit January 1-3.  Jed and Kathleen headed back to Arkansas on the 3^rd.  On the 4^th we said a tearful good-bye to my parents.

 We hung out with friends.  Lots and lots of friends.  Lunch.  Dinner.  At the park.  At their house.  At our house.  At the soccer field.  

We’ve loved having this group of boys at our house.  They are fun, polite, always hungry, energetic, and laugh a lot.

Friends threw us a going away party.

 And we packed.

We did lots and lots of packing.  And sorting.  And organizing.  And weighing.  We boiled our possessions down to 21 Rubbermaid containers all under 50lbs.

 Our last day – January 5th – brought a steady stream of good-byes from phone calls, texts and friends stopping over.  The boys went to one last soccer practice.  One last chance to be with friends.  It was 9:30 when the trailer was loaded and the last of our friends left the house. We were exhausted emotionally and physically.

Once the kids were settled and everything became still and quiet.  And once I finally laid down, I cried.  I cried as I said good-bye to this chapter in my life.  I cried just as I cried one and a half years earlier lying in the same bed our first night back in the U.S as I said good-bye to Paraguay.
We mourn for what we leave behind but we press on to what God has in store for us.  We press on to His call for our family.  We press on to Paraguay.