A Million Things

In the middle of July we went to SC and of course I meant to blog a little while I was there.  When am I going to learn?  It’s just too hard!

So I have a million things that I want to put down before I forget them.  Please bear with me as I sort pictures from several devices and get my thoughts down.  Also, to be honest, writing this post is going to hurt a little bit, but I have to do it to move on.

At the beginning of the summer we had the difficult task of saying goodbye to some of our closest friends here.  When you live far away from your family, your friends become family.  When you can’t ask your family for help, you have to reach out to others to fill that gap.

I’m not going to lie, I can’t think about living here without them without tearing up.  However I know that having good friends is a blessing and I have been blessed tremendously in my lifetime.

We had a lot of going away fun!

A couple of my friends in this picture have had a really tough time this year.  When I say tough time I mean incredibly tough.  For their privacy and security I won’t say what happened, but it is the kind of things that make you want to curl up in a corner and cry.  They didn’t though.  They showed strength and resilience.  It is still really hard for them right this minute, so I am hoping and praying that things improve and they can look back on this year with some happy thoughts along with the difficult ones.

The children have lost their friends too.  Learning to say goodbye is an important skill and I know they need to do that, but it doesn’t stop this mama’s heart from hurting for them.

We hope to see them one last time before they start a new chapter on a different continent and I try to remember that goodbye doesn’t mean forever, but that I’ll just miss them until I see them again.

This picture isn’t the greatest, but oh boy does it make me smile.  We had FUN!  Until we meet again!